Lawseal concludes
21 Sep 04
Society decides to terminate its public key infrastructure project Lawseal
The November Council meeting saw a wide-ranging debate on the future of the Law Society of Scotland’s PKI encryption technology project, Lawseal. The pilot, which involved 100 participants from firms around Scotland, proved that the technology worked. Council reviewed the pilot’s results and post-pilot evaluation, considering the options for Lawseal, the potential costs and the commercial risks involved. Reluctantly, Council determined that there was unlikely to be sufficient demand to launch the product and decided to conclude the project.
Vice President, Duncan Murray, said: “The Society’s goal was to provide a PKI solution to the profession at a reasonable cost which would be interoperable with government agencies and other stakeholders. Although the technology was proven in the pilot, Council were not persuaded that the profession, and consequently, clients’ interests would be served by adding this financial commitment at this stage.
“During the Lawseal pre-pilot stage all indications were that Scotland was rapidly heading down the encryption technology route. This was reflected in legislation and policy with the European Directive on Electronic Signatures, the Electronic Communications Act 2000, the Electronic Signature Regulations 2002 and the Modernising Government agenda.”
Society Chief Executive, Douglas Mill, said: “The Society believed that practitioners were likely to need access to digital signatures and correctly assessed that it was uniquely placed to provide verification of identity – crucial to the integrity of any PKI. That market need has simply not materialised as yet.
“Until the demand for encryption technology increases and the opportunity arises to use PKI with government agencies and other stakeholders, it is not appropriate for the Society to place a financial burden on its members by promoting PKI when there is no compelling business case to do so.”