E-guidance

It is good to see attention focused on the potential and the pitfalls of electronic communications in your letters column, by Rob Pomeroy (see [2000] Gazette, 31 August, 18) and Peter Ryder (see [2000] Gazette, 27 July, 20).

Solicitors' comments on the need to check authenticity and maintain confidentiality, in particular, provide an interesting reaction to the e-mail guidelines which were prepared earlier this year by the Law Society's e-commerce working party (see [2000] Gazette, 31 May, 49).

On issues of authenticity, the guidelines point out: it is difficult to decide from the face of an e-mail message whether it was really sent by its purported sender, although its context may often put the matter beyond doubt in practice.

In time, digital signatures or biometrics will provide much better evidence of the authenticity of e-mail, and the widespread adoption of encryption will bring with it the additional benefit of improved authentication.

In the meantime, firms given a professional undertaking by e-mail are recommended to check that the context provides reasonable assurance of its authenticity, and/or to check by telephone or fax that it came from its purported sender.

This observation applies to all correspondence, but in professional undertakings it is likely to be of special importance.

Mr Pomeroy refers to PGP, and this provides a useful example of software capable of providing both digital signatures for authentication and assurance of message integrity, and also encryption for message confidentiality.

Versions licensed for non-commercial use are available free of charge.

Nicholas Bohm, solicitor, member of the Law Society's e-commerce working party