'E-postmark' gives stamp of approval

[R. A. Hettinga]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=134580416&zsection_id=268448455&slug=comdex21&date=20021121

Thursday, November 21, 2002, 12:00 a.m. Pacific


Fall Comdex 2002: 'E-postmark' gives stamp of approval

By Brier Dudley
Seattle Times technology reporter

LAS VEGAS - Big screens, small gadgets and fast wireless connections have
received much attention at the Comdex technology trade show this week, but
a mundane product quietly unveiled at Microsoft's booth may have more of an
impact on the average computer user.

On display was an electronic stamp the U.S. Postal Service plans to sell to
certify authenticity and delivery time of e-mail.

The technology, called "electronic postmarks," will not necessarily end the
era of free e-mail. But it does create a "first class" version with a small
delivery charge.

The postmarks are likely to be used to transmit sensitive documents, for
instance, to authenticate the sender and give the recipient more
reassurance.

The plan is to have e-mail-postage software available in the next 30 to 45
days At first, it would be an add-on to Microsoft's popular Outlook
e-mail-management software.

Later, it would be bundled into the new version of Microsoft's Office
suite, due around summer. When loaded, it would appear as several buttons
on the Outlook control panel.

Users would pay the Postal Service anywhere from a penny to $2, depending
on the volume of use, to add an official stamp of authenticity. The stamp
would be applied with a click, not a lick.

Actually, it would take 10 clicks - unless you send a lot of certified
e-mails, in which case you could tailor the system to only require two,
said Michael Wolf, who developed the product for AuthentiDate of New York.

After two years of working with the Postal Service, AuthentiDate won a
contract in July to run the service and use its network to issue, verify
and store the certificates of authenticity. Terms were not available, but
corporate filings indicate the Postal Service paid AuthentiDate $250,000
and established provisions to share revenue.

Because AuthentiDate would run the service, said Chief Executive Rob Van
Naarden, "We get most of the revenue."

Microsoft, which helped tailor the product for Outlook and provided
software-development tools to AuthentiDate, would get a share of postmark
sales that it generates, Van Naarden said.

Having a feature certified as secure by a federal agency contributes to the
sense of trustworthiness Microsoft is trying to impart after numerous
high-profile security lapses.

AuthentiDate is interested in bundling the technology with products from
other software vendors, but for now it's focusing on Microsoft, said Wolf,
the company's chief technical evangelist. "Microsoft is not prohibiting us
from approaching any other vendors," he said.

Certifying e-mail is a crowded business full of companies providing
encryption and other technologies to secure transmission of information.
Federal privacy measures require such precautions for medical records and
other sensitive documents.

Several attempts by companies to charge per e-mail for authentication
services have failed, noted analysts at IDC, a research company in
Framingham, Mass.

"It's a great idea, but unfortunately nobody's paid for it in the past, and
there's no indication they will in the future," said IDC's Chris
Christiansen.

A key reason is people still don't trust the technology enough, IDC's
research shows.

Van Naarden said electronic postmarks will succeed because they have
federal authority. He said the stamps would provide legal force to
electronic documents, and the Postal Service can prosecute people who
circumvent the system.

Van Naarden would not say how many electronic stamps he expects will be
sold, but that business volume should be in the hundreds of millions of
dollars in a few years. Likely markets include government, financial
services and health care.

Microsoft has worked for years on adding electronic postage to Office. It
has a partnership with Stamps.com that enables Word users to buy postage
online and print envelopes stamped with a bar code accepted by the Postal
Service. The feature will be updated in the new Office suite next year.

Microsoft has had other business relationships with the Postal Service,
which has become increasingly entrepreneurial since it was reorganized in
1971 as a government-owned corporation.


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at wasabisystems.com