With security becoming a prime concern in organizations, ways
and means for securing documents for local storage and also during transmission
across the Internet are being sought after. Digital signatures and encryption
technologies are tools that are being used for the purpose. E-Lock Assured
Office is an application that lets you do just that, using PKI (Public Key
Infrastructure)-based digital signature technology.
E-Lock Assured Office |
Security software. Price: Rs 6,854 per license for Internet Explorer; Rs 8,234 per license with Netscape support; Rs 11,454 for Assured Office Entrust; price slabs for additional licenses. Features: Digital signatures and encryption, based on the PKI model. Pros: One click signing, encryption and transmission of documents. Cons: None. Source: E-Lock Technologies 209/1/A, Range Hills Road Bhamburda, Pune 411020. Tel: 20-5537602/8640 Fax: 5538526 E-mail: anish@elock.com |
To use this product, you need to have your own digital
certificate. A 90-day trial certificate can be downloaded from the E-Lock
Technologies Website–www. elock.com. Once you get your certificate through
e-mail, you need to install it by contacting the Website again. Security starts
right here. An installed certificate is resident in one particular machine
itself and can’t be transferred to any other PC. You can now install the
software.
The installation adds its options to the right-click menu on
the desktop, and in Windows Explorer. You can choose to digitally sign
documents, encrypt them, or do both from either of these locations.
You can also opt to create policies and profiles. Policies
allow you to use multiple certificates while signing. You can also enforce
conditions on signing so that all documents are signed using a particular
certificate only. Using profiles, multiple users on the same workstation can
create separate profiles based on the CSP (Cryptographic Service Provider), Hash
algorithm used, and the certificate used. This helps in ensuring authenticity of
the document. However, if you use a policy in your profile, any manual settings
that you’ve made in the profile are overridden. You can also change your
encryption preferences to use different CSP and encryption algorithms.
All in all, it takes a bit of time to understand the process
at first. But it’s quite easy to use after that. Also, knowledge of encryption
schemes and algorithms will help you get more out of E-Lock.
Ashish Sharma at PCQ Labs