U.S Postal Service taps digital authentication

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by Margret Johnston

(IDG) -- The U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday announced a new service that will issue digital signatures on smart cards through post offices across the country using "in-person proofing" as part of the process.

The new service will expand on the Postal Service's existing NetPost.Certified program, which was created for government agencies to secure and authenticate electronic correspondence using smart cards and smart card readers, Postal Service officials said.

The new service will be initially available only to government employees at 46 post offices on the East Coast. But the Postal Service plans to eventually make it available commercially beginning in the 1,400 post offices around the country where U.S. citizens can apply for passports before rolling it out in the more than 38,000 post offices country wide.

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Stephen Kearney, senior vice president of corporate business development for the Postal Service, detailed the new service in a speech at the Global Internet Summit 2001 here.

"This will help bring the use of e-mail to a higher level," Kearney said. "We're not inventing any new technology, but we think we are unique in being able to tie the pieces together."

The in-person proofing procedure will be part of the infrastructure that will create trust in e-mail transfers and will ensure that the data sent is from the person who sent it, it was not tampered with, and it includes a time stamp. Kearney said the service will be the first in the United States to issue digital certificates after a face-to-face authentication, which the Postal Service sees as a role it can plan better than its competitors given its presence across the country and its staff of employees who are trained to serve the public and handle various transactions.

The customer begins the process of applying for a digital signature by registering online. The Postal Service mails back a form to the customer's home address, and the customer must then go to the post office with a photo ID and one other document, such as a utility bill, for the in-person proofing. The customer then will receive an e-mail notification on how to download the digital certificate, which can reside on the smart card or on the hard drive of his or her computer, Postal Service officials said.

There is no charge for the digital certificate, but the Postal Service currently charges 50 cents per transaction for government agencies using the NetPost.Certified service, said Bob Krause, vice president of e-commerce for the Postal Service.

Krause said the Postal Service currently collects $17 billion annually from the traditional mailing of paper bills and payments, a revenue source that is declining. The service is looking for ways to replace that, and it believes that about 10 percent of the estimated 62 billion transactions that take place annually with the federal government could benefit from the new digital signature service.

A company that receives payments from the federal government, a health care clinic that bills the U.S. Health Care Finance Agency, is an example of the type of organization that can benefit from the use of the new digital certificate service, Krause said. The paper-based process these organizations must go through to receive their payments currently is complex and delays are inherent in it.

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E-mail marketers announce anti-spam standards
September 26, 2000
E-Signature Act may drive demand for authentication technology
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U.S. Postal Service

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