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FWIW, I have a bug bear about companies (ie banks, insurance companies
and the like) requiring me to use their webmail if I want to receive
information, download statements or even communicate with them. I
suppose my biggest bugbear is that if I want to keep a copy of the
correspondence I have to print it out.
I accept that companies have significant costs dispatching information
securely to consumers, and also that companies (councils) cannot afford
to educate consumers about digital signatures, encryption and the like.
I was therefore really happy when I discovered that The Financial
Ombudsman Service appears to use a product called "PGP Universal Gateway
Email" that overcomes these problems
http://www.pgp.com/products/universal_gateway_email/index.html
This works as follows:
- The FOS sends an email
- The recipient gets an email stating "we have sent you an email that is
encrypted as it contains confidential information. To access the
contents please log on to the webmail service at http:// ....
- When you log on there is the normal headache about entering a
username, confirm that the email address confirms to you and setting a
password. At that point a screen appears that states
"Do you want to use your own openPGP or smime key, if so please
upload it here. If not then then we will communicate with you in the
normal way via this web based email system"
- If you upload your key to their server then all future emails are sent
directly to you normal email account, appropriately encrypted and
signed. No webmail.
If you don't upload the key or the key does not match the email
address etc then all emails are sent via the webmail interface.
Couple of final points:
- Pricing appears to be $76/user/year
http://www.scmagazineus.com/PGP-Universal-Gateway-Email-28/Review/2401/
- Lawyers also appear to be using it
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/browne-jacobson-selects-pgp-universaltm-gateway-email-to-protect-sensitive-client-communications-67188482.html
--
Henry
Photocopies or faxes of my signature are not binding.
This email has been signed with an electronic signature in accordance with
subsection 7(3) of the Electronic Communications Act 2000.
Digital Key Signature: GPG RSA 0xFB447AA1
Sun Nov 8 09:06:51 GMT 2009
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature
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