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New digital signature service launches
Wednesday, March 13 2002
by Matthew Clark


Irish company Ezitrust has unveiled its new service that will let small
businesses and consumers encrypt e-mail using PKI and digital certificates. 

The company announced on Wednesday that users can now apply for an Ezitrust
In-Person Digital Certificate, a code that will let users encrypt and digitally
certify their e-mail.  To apply for a certificate users must register at HREF="http://www.ezitrust.com">http://www.Ezitrust.com, complete a series
of documents, and then meet an Ezitrust agent in person who will inspect and
verify their paper-based identity documents, such as their passport or driving
licence. 





Once verified, users can then begin to encrypt and digitally sign their e-mail,
using common e-mail programs such as Microsoft Outlook. Programs like Outlook
support digital signatures and encryption when users obtain an X.509 Certificate,
through companies like Ezitrust, which links a person's identity to a public
encryption key.  



Furthermore, with the technology, Ezitrust In-Person Certificate holders can also
receive encrypted messages.  The company says it is marketing the product to
professionals who routinely deal with sensitive matters in electronic mail, such
as journalists, lawyers and accountants. 



"I think the product will be appealing to anyone who deals with sensitive
information in their e-mails," Dr. Donal O'Mahony, the company's founder, told
ElectricNews.Net. "Other companies that have been working in this space have
gone after the big Fortune 500 kinds of businesses, but we are looking to smaller
companies and even individuals," he said.



Dr. O'Mahony is a Senior Lecturer at Trinity College where he leads the Networks
& Telecommunications Research Group. He is also a fellow of Trinity College and
was Fulbright Fellow at Stanford University, California. O'Mahony was the chief
executive officer of LetterPost.Com, an Internet start-up in the US that was
acquired by the Escher Group. 





"There are three main reasons why Digital Signatures have not yet taken off,"
said O'Mahony. "First, users had to install special-purpose software. Second,
the digital signatures were not recognised in law, and third, certification
authorities were either not interested in serving the Irish market or were too
expensive." 



But O'Mahony says that the first issue has been resolved by software makers, and
the government has resolved the second issue with the implementation of the EU
Digital Signatures directive and the Irish E-commerce Act. "Ezitrust is
eliminating the third and final barrier," he says.  "What will drive take up
of digital signatures will be ease of use; until now it has not been easy for
most people to do it." 



While Ezitrust's initial focus will be on issuing personal certificates to
individuals and small businesses, it expects that in the near future it will
branch out into new areas such as the issuing of secure server certificates for
e-commerce applications and the building of secure virtual private networks.



An Post, through its Post.Trust subsidiary, is also developing a method whereby
members of the general public will be eligible for their own digital certificates
for e-mail encryption. SafeMail is the name of the Post.Trust product.





For more information visit HREF="http://www.ezitrust.com">http://www.ezitrust.com.