The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
(NSPCC) has rejected public key infrastructure (PKI) encryption
technology in favour of using a secure Web site to protect the
confidentiality of children's case records.
The charity plans to roll-out software that will allow social
workers, police and local authorities to download confidential case
notes from a secure Web site, rather than risk sending files over
the Internet.
The NSPCC chose the Web site method after an evaluation of
alternative public key encryption systems showed they were
complicated to administer and difficult to use, particularly for
one-off communications.
Brendan Major, the NSPCC's head of information services, said,
"Although a system with public and private keys over the Internet
would have been secure, the problem is that it does not work when
you have large numbers of casual workers. We might work with a
particular policeman or social worker once a year. A PKI system
would be difficult to set up and manage."
The Secure Mail package, donated by US supplier Tumbleweed, will
automatically divert sensitive e-mails to the charity's secure Web
site. Rather than receiving the confidential file directly, social
workers or police officers will receive a URL link to the document
via e-mail. They will be asked to type in a pre-agreed user name
and password to access the information.
Although it is possible to add further protection in the form of
digital signature verification, the password and user name
represented a good compromise between high security and making the
system too difficult to use.
"You have to balance the security of the system with ease of use.
If you make it too difficult to use, people will communicate in
other ways which are less secure," said Dave Brunswick, Tubleweed's
director of European technical services.
The NSPCC said the system will also protect against workers
accidentally sending files to the wrong address. "The damage to the
reputation of the NSPCC would be colossal if information about a
child was sent to the wrong person," said Major.
The NSPCC is running Secure Mail, which uses 128-bit RSA encryption
to protect the content of messages, on a central HP Netserver. User
and access details are stored on a separate Oracle database.
The charity's 35-strong IT team will maintain the system in-house
as part of its commitment to protecting the confidentiality of the
children it helps. "It is a question of confidence. We would like
to say to children that all information is held on our own
servers," said Major.