Europe Defies U.S. With Secure E-mail Service. Finland,
Ray Van Eng (02/05/97)
With the introduction of the Nordic Post Security Service (NPSS), citizens of Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark will be able go to the post offices in their hometowns and register for the service. Ironically, the system relies on technologies originated from two leading U.S. companies which specialize in computer security: PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) and RSA Data Security. A high-grade (reads almost impossible to break into) 1,024-bit encryption key is embedded into a smart card to facilitate secure e-mail communication. To use the system, a smart card reader is required. A spokesperson for the Finnish Hewlett Packard (HP) company indicated that by the end of 1997, smart card readers would be standard items on computers in Scandinavia. Along with Microsoft and others, HP is a founding member of the SC/PC group whose interest is in setting up standards for smart cards to work with personal computers. Finland was the first to use the system and people there found the system to be very easy to use. And according to a Finnish government official associated with the program, "The American discussion on this matter (data encryption policy) has been funny to watch, but I hope nobody in Europe or Finland starts to question the very basics of democracy." Currently, the Clinton administration would only allow the export of 56-bit key encryption software provided that vendors would have keys in escrow ready for government agents to retrieve whenever the situation calls for it. However, a growing number of U.S. Senators from both sides of the house opposed the plan. For example, Republican Senator Conrad Burns declared that "Key escrow won't work...If bad people want to do bad things to good people, they certainly won't file a key with the government." His statement has sparked a round of applause from the cryptography industry. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Finns are certainly one of the most wired people in the world. While having a population of only five million, there is one cellular phone for every three person (babies, old people included). Electronic banking and online shopping services are in widespread use. Finland and the rest of the Scandinavian nations have the most Internet-connected computers per capita. The Finnish government and the private sector are spending heavily to hook up all 5,000 schools throughout the country to the Internet by the year 2000. They are also moving rapidly to adopt new media services such as Telecom Finland's MediaNet, an Internet-based system for music, videos, and multimedia content distribution. |
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