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Advanced TruePass technology improves ease-of-use

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By Chris Whitside

While providing a secure network for online transactions is the hallmark of FundSERV, there's a growing need for secure communications in other areas as well. Canada's new privacy laws, created to protect consumers from the growing threat of identity theft, make companies handling personal information criminally liable if that information is stolen because of negligence. FundSERV, with its suite of IDentity security tools, offers solutions to protect information stored on computers — solutions that are less expensive than customers creating and managing the same tools in-house. Plus, IDentity security tools, which are built around public key infrastructure (PKI), are easier for customers to use and deploy.

"With the new laws, companies need to beef up their security policies and practices," says June Leung, manager of FundSERV's PKI department. "In some organizations, that means busy people must go through the tedious, time-consuming process of manually inspecting the security certificates of people with whom they want to share files and e-mail. And we all know that people will take shortcuts and there will be lapses if a process is too painful. FundSERV has gone the extra step of adopting a suite of security tools that manage the whole certificate checking process automatically, making compliance with security guidelines simple and transparent."

FundSERV offers software that secures e-mail seamlessly using Microsoft Outlook solutions. Encrypting an e-mail message, for another certificate holder, is as simple as clicking the "Encryption" icon in the message creation toolbar. The option of including a digital signature is also available by clicking the "Signing" icon in the message creation toolbar. The e-mail plug-in automatically checks certificates by matching them against corresponding names in your recipient address list, so sending secure e-mail to a group is as easy as sending it to an individual.

There is a nominal service charge for companies wishing to incorporate the e-mail plug-in. The price schedule is designed to offer substantial cost savings to FundSERV customers over competitive products. The file encryption software is included free as part of membership in FundSERV.

The file encryption solution allows users to protect files on personal computers. It's as simple as right clicking on the file and selecting "Encrypt" or "Decrypt" from the pop-up menu. If the user has the proper PKI certificate authorizing them to work with the file, it opens instantly. This solution also allows users to delete files with absolute confidence that they can never be recovered.

That's a lot of flexibility and security in one package. FundSERV is able to provide that strength because it is the central Certificate Authority (CA) for Canada's investment fund industry. The CA was designed from the ground up to provide the most secure environment possible for conducting business online.

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