DTI chief endorses digital signatures

Stephen Byers, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, has this week become the first UK Cabinet Minister to sign a document electronically.

In front of an audience of business executives in central London yesterday, Byers signed an online declaration on ecommerce using smartcard technology from BT TrustWise and VeriSign.

"This is a significant development," Byers claimed. "It brings together the traditional way of authenticating a person with a signature, and the needs and changes of the modern world."

Geoff Morris, chairman of business campaign group, InterForum, said the signature was more than just a symbolic gesture. "There's no reason why the adoption of digital signatures shouldn't proceed from this day forward. We have the mechanisms in place - we should get on with it.

"We need to take steps like today - seeing the minister sign this will make a real difference. The government has been pushing British businesses to modernise. It's a big commitment from them, showing the way forward."

At the ceremony, InterForum, whose members include Barclays, BT, Cisco, Compaq and Nortel, released a white paper on digital signatures designed to educate and encourage companies to begin using the technology.

In a foreword to the white paper, e-minister Patricia Hewitt, said: "The importance of electronic signatures cannot be underestimated. If used correctly they can underpin the trust and confidence which is so important to the success of the information revolution."

Byers added that one of the great challenges for government is to harness current knowledge and technology, and to do that, "we need to establish the legal framework to guarantee Britain will be the best place in the world to trade electronically".

InterForum's white paper, 'Electronic Signatures - Signing up to the Digital Economy', can be found at http://www.interforum.org .