Royal Mail has brought a huge new level of trust and confidence to the Internet with the launch of ViaCode, the UK's first secure e-commerce service for businesses providing, for the first time, rigorous proof of identity.

With ViaCode, Royal Mail's proven reputation for trust is now available to businesses using the Internet. Royal Mail is underlining its record for integrity and security with a guarantee of the reliability of the ViaCode service up to a value of £100,000.

Launching ViaCode at a news conference in London, Royal Mail Managing Director Richard Dykes said: "Internet use is expanding rapidly. Now businesses can have the best of both worlds by combining Royal Mail's 350-year-old reputation for trust in delivering mail with the Internet's global capability for handling messages, complex documents and commercial transactions."

UNIQUE SECURITY ASSURANCES
In contrast to existing encryption services, businesses using ViaCode will have to provide Royal Mail with strong physical proof of the identity of users. Royal Mail's "certification" process is unique in the UK and provides a high level of assurance and authentication to UK firms and businesses not previously available. Mr Dykes said, "Anyone serious about electronic commerce will have to adopt security practices and techniques of this kind to safeguard their business."

WORLD-CLASS SERVICE
Jim Pang, Royal Mail Director of Electronic Services, said, "Moving information electronically has long been an option, but not with the same trust and integrity that paper systems can provide. Royal Mail has used the best encryption security technology available to create a world-class service. With ViaCode, computer-users anywhere can be absolutely confident about who they are communicating with. They can be certain that the information they send cannot be read by anyone other than the intended recipient." said Mr Pang.

Based on Entrust, the world's most mature, most secure and most respected PKI, ViaCode offers an unmatched level of trust, security and ease of use. The new service will be provided in tailored solutions for individual customers so the price will vary. But for a typical business, ViaCode could cost less than £1 a week for each employee at the company "certificated" to use the service. Mr Dykes said: "ViaCode will be highly competitive and very affordable."

Additional new features for ViaCode are already being developed. These include providing proof of delivery and proof of submission via a trusted time stamp, with Royal Mail vouching that messages have been delivered and opened by the recipient. This service will offer a truly trusted and secure Internet-based alternative to the international, overnight document courier market.

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