Digital signatures get Post Office stamp of approval

In a deal with applications company UK Smart, the Post Office will issue CD-ROMs containing the PKI (public key infrastructure) encryption technology later this year.

Speaking to silicon.com, Simon Cook, CEO of UK Smart, said the deal is "the biggest mass consumer push in the world" and one of the strongest endorsements of PKI technology ever.

The system will allow consumers to create a 'smart wallet' containing encrypted personal and financial details held on UK Smart's servers. The details can only be accessed with a digital signature individually created for each user.

The pin number for the signature will be registered locally by the user and according to Cook, not even UK Smart will be able to access the details. "Security is our absolutely number one priority," he said.

"This PKI digital encryption technology has been used by banks for many years to secure their systems. This is the first time we're giving away banking strength technology to the consumer for free."

According to Ian Walker, technical director at Entrust, the PKI provider behind the deal, the complicated underlying technology should be hidden from the user.

"It's important to get people used to the idea that using digital signatures and PKI can actually be very simple," he said.

The company is guaranteeing both consumers and retailers against all types of credit card fraud.

UK Smart's first services will include secure email, online shopping and online legal and insurance documents. The company is in the process of signing up "household name" etailers to the scheme.

Peter Taylor, managing director of Royal Mail Viacode, said the service will initially only work between UK Smart users, but announced the company was in the process of developing commercial agreements with other services, such as the Hong Kong Post.

In July the government made digital signatures legally admissible in court as part of its Electronic Communications Bill.