Secure messaging is a matter of trust

Microsoft's Outlook 98 ships free with Secure MIME (S/MIME) included. Lotus Notes 5.0 will have S/MIME sometime in the second half of the year. This means secure messaging is just around the corner, right? Wrong.

Secure messaging is a lot more than just a protocol. It also involves a number of policies and procedures to determine whom you're going to trust. These trust factors begin with a thing called a certificate, also known as a digital ID.

Microsoft Outlook/Exchange and Lotus Notes/Domino will come with embedded systems called certificate authorities (CA) that issue digital IDs for their users. The trouble is, to get all the functionality of these systems, you need to use their CAs. But what if you're part of a bank, and all the banks decided they're going to use a common CA called Digital Rights. Now you potentially need to have two certificates - one to use inside your enterprise mail system, another to use with external partners.

There's more. Banks are not the only vertical industry looking to deploy vertical CAs. If your company communicates with hundreds of trading partners with different vertical CAs, you may have no common point of trust and may need to cross-certify with each trading partner individually.

S/MIME is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to multivendor secure messaging. Plan on looking for add-on products to help with these trust issues. Also, expect to take a careful look at your trading partner and vertical industry environment before getting in too deep.

Rapport Communication has recently merged with The Burton Group. The Burton Group is a leading information technology advisory and consulting firm. It provides in-depth analysis of emerging network computing technologies such as directory services, next generation messaging, secure messaging, NOS migration, public key infrastructure, and networking infrastructure. As part of its Network Strategy Service for network planners, The Burton Group offers the Catalyst Conference once a year in late July.

S/MIME FAQ's, news, products and resources
From RSA.

Microsoft Outlook, other new e-mail clients could open door to viruses
But Microsoft officials say users would have to lower security settings to fall victim. Network World, 3/30/98.

Certified communications: Review of four digital certification productsNetwork World, 9/1/97.

Sorting Through the Secure Messaging Maze
From the March/April issue of Messaging Magazine. U.S. encryption policy costing billions of dollars in lost sales, report claims
Network World, 4/6/98.

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