Courier Companies Opt For Digital Signatures

Do not get surprised, if next time you are asked by a courier company to sign on a digital scanner. Courier companies are now opting for digital signatures to deliver important consignments like credit cards or a passport. The customer needs to sign on a digtal scanner which is carried by the delivery personnel. Once the receiver of the consignment signs on the scanner using the stylus, the data is automatically updated on the company's central server. A photograph may also be taken by the persoannel for added security to know to whom the consignment was actually delivered.

Nice to see the move which is in sync with the latest technology. Banks like HDFC, ABN Amro, Citibank... are already using digital signatures for sending account and other statements through e-mails. This not only saves paper and cost but, helps them to deliver the documents to the right person.

If you look at the statements that come from these banks, at the bottom right corner of the document will be a signature with a thumb impression. That’s a digital signature which adds authenticity to e-document received for the customer to establish trust with the sender. If anybody changes the signature or successfully tampers with it, the signature will change indicating wrong doings. “For messages sent through an insecure channel, a properly implemented digital signature gives the receiver reason to believe the message was sent by the claimed sender. Digital signatures are equivalent to traditional handwritten signatures in many respects; properly implemented digital signatures are more difficult to forge than the handwritten type,’’ said B Robert Raja, CMD, Odyssey Technologies, which focuses on information security software.

But, can anything be done to avoid phishing? I guess we need to be careful to identify such emails and report the same.

Source: Times Of India

Couples Tie The Wedding Knot On The Web

According to the news article in The Asian Age, one of the Reliance World store was used for formalizing a Nikaah (wedding) through video conferencing. The bride and the groom where in two different geographies – Canada and India and the rituals were carried over through the video conference.

Modern digital technology has come as rescue for not only corporate companies who are using it to cut costs and save time, but to common consumers as well. They are using it to communicate with their family members and relatives rather than spending time and money on travelling.

Reliance has 12% growth in video conferencing in FY 08-09 and expects much more this fiscal year. Cisco reports 31% increase in usage of web collaborative solutions, especially video conferencing in March 2009 compared to March 2008.

While the market for video conferencing is still small in India with manufacturers generating product and services sales of around $35 million in 2008, industry players agree that the demand for such solutions in the future can only go one way — upwards.

So, can we expect virtual honeymoons now?