Companies offering services certified as secure under the government-backed TScheme say that the system is already generating business benefits. This development could encourage more organisations to sign up to the programme, and came as the DTI said it will use TScheme-approved systems for trading with the oil and gas industry.
TScheme, which marked its fourth anniversary earlier this month, is a not-for-profit organisation established by the IT industry to set criteria for public key infrastructure (PKI) encrypted communication systems. It oversees compliance with the Electronic Communications Act of 2000.
Participating organisations are certified for conducting secure transactions with online trading partners.
Only five firms have met the criteria for approved services so far - Royal Bank of Scotland, BT, Trustis, SecureMark and Betrusted - but they have already said it gives them a competitive advantage, a development that could push other firms to sign up.
The SecureMark service is a certification system run by credit reference agency Equifax. It is approved under TScheme to issue certificates remotely without the need for face-to-face meetings.
"TScheme gives us a solid business advantage," said Ian McKinnon, managing director of information services for Equifax. "We can deliver certification in real time... which gives us a unique selling position."
Andy Ross, chairman of TScheme and e-commence director at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said the scheme is becoming a valuable standard. "I would like to see TScheme become a mandatory requirement [for doing business online]. With that, TScheme would come of age," he added.
By the end of May, the DTI hopes to use the scheme to approve firms in the oil and gas industry and their subcontractors to communicate securely via an online portal. The system could be used to support processes such as those for updating drilling licences and publishing new contract opportunities.
Stewart Robinson, director of IT and data services for the DTI Oil and Gas project, said, "After a bit of time we found out about TScheme. Now it's going to be a mandatory first part of using the portal."
The government is keen for more firms to use the scheme. Stephen Timms, minister for e-commerce, launched a campaign last month to publicise the TScheme process as a means of protecting online communications and trading. "The pressing government need behind TScheme is [that of] secure identification," he said.
