The list Cyberia posted an article yesterday on the US Postal Service's plan to use a public key system for email. If anyone wants the full posting, email me; it's about 25K. Below are excerpts: Quote: Quebec City, Canada, August 3, 1994--The U.S. Postal Service has dramatically increased its commitment to the security of communications on the NII, with the announcement of Postal Electronic Commerce Services ("Postal ECS"), which will offer a nationwide public key certification service for the authentication of digital signatures used in paperless electronic commerce. Richard Rothwell, Senior Director of Technology Integration for the USPS, officially released the news today in Quebec City, in a paper delivered to an international working group of the Information Security Committee of the American Bar Association's Section of Science and Technology, which has been developing guidelines for public key certification authorities. [Speech is all in uppercase] * * * AS MANY EXPERTS HAVE NOTED, INCLUDING MANY OF YOU IN THIS ROOM, DIGITAL FILES AS A RULE ARE NEITHER AS SECURE NOR AS ELECTRONIC COMMERCE CONVEYS. BUT WITHOUT SOME METHOD OF SEALING A DIGITAL FILE TO ESTABLISH ITS CONTENTS, AUTHOR, AND TIME OF TRANSMITTAL, THE BENEFITS OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE WILL INEVITABLY BE LIMITED TO HIGHLY STRUCTURED TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN PARTIES THAT KNOW AND TRUST ONE ANOTHER. * * * THE POSTAL SERVICE IS USING PUBLIC KEY ENCRYPTION TECHNOLOGY, AND RELATED TECHNOLOGIES, TO DEVELOP A PUBLIC KEY CERTIFICATION AUTHORITY AND A SET OF ASSOCIATED TRUSTED THIRD PARTY SERVICES WHICH WE CALL POSTAL ELECTRONIC COMMERCE SERVICES (POSTAL ECS). WHEN INITIALLY DEPLOYED, POSTAL ECS WILL PROVIDE A BASIS FOR ELECTRONIC ASSURANCES WITHIN AND AMONG GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, AND BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND THEIR CONSTITUENTS. IN PARTICULAR, THE POSTAL SERVICE HAS DEVELOPED THE ABILITY TO: ISSUE PUBLIC KEY CERTIFICATES AND STORE THEM IN A PUBLIC DIRECTORY; PROVIDE FOR THE "SEALING" OF SELECTED DOCUMENTS OR OTHER ELECTRONIC OBJECTS AND ASSOCIATING THEM WITH A DIGITAL SIGNATURE AND A TRUSTED TIME AND DATE STAMP; PROVIDE SERVICES FOR PUBLIC KEY CERTIFICATE PUBLICATION AND REVOCATION; AND, PROVIDE THE ABILITY TO ENCRYPT CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION MOVING BETWEEN THE USER ENVIRONMENT AND THE POSTAL ECS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. FINALLY, PROVIDE NEAR REAL-TIME ACCESS TO CERTIFICATES AND THEIR STATUS. THE CERTIFICATION AUTHORITY WILL ISSUE AND MANAGE X.509 PUBLIC KEY CERTIFICATES CONTAINING A PERSON'S X.500 DISTINGUISHED NAME, PUBLIC KEY, AND OTHER IDENTIFYING INFORMATION. USERS CAN THEN RETRIEVE A CERTIFICATE FROM THE POSTAL SERVICE, AND USE ITS PUBLIC KEY TO AUTHENTICATE A DIGITAL SIGNATURE GENERATED BY THE COMPLEMENTARY PRIVATE KEY. * * * THESE USER AGENTS CONTAIN STANDARD PROGRAMMING INTERFACES THAT LINK USER APPLICATIONS, CRYPTOGRAPHIC ROUTINES, AND ECS SERVICES TOGETHER. OUR INITIAL IMPLEMENTATION IS BASED ON THE DIGITAL SIGNATURE STANDARD (DSS) ALGORITHM SET; BUT OUR PLAN IS TO SUPPORT OTHER CRYPTOGRAPHIC OPTIONS SUCH AS RSA IN THE NEAR FUTURE. * * * IN KEEPING WITH THE PHILOSOPHY I HAVE ARTICULATED, LET ME SAY THAT THE POSTAL SERVICE, IN ANY DEVELOPMENT OF THESE PRODUCTS, INTENDS TO SUPPORT MULTIPLE CRYPTOGRAPHIC PRODUCTS IN THE MARKET PLACE. IN ADDITION, WE WILL NOT COMPETE WITH NETWORK SERVICE PROVIDERS, NOR WILL WE BECOME A NETWORK OR CARRIER. * * * End Quote.