FRENCH VENTURE LAUNCHES INNOVATIVE PROCEDURE FOR ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES.

An innovative procedure for electronic signatures on the Internet, using mobile phones for authentication, was unveiled on 18 January by a new French company, Magicaxess. Highlighting the uncertainties that currently cloud electronic signature technology - a Court in Besancon recently ruled that a secure computer terminal is not sufficient to guarantee the authenticity of a message - Magicaxess Chairman Gilles Kremer indicated that the technique developed by his company represents a democratic solution that can be easily applied by both consumers and SMEs. The novelty of the electronic authentication technique proposed by Magicaxess is that it does not require any prior investment by users, unlike solutions such as Cybercomm, which require the purchase of a smart card.Magicaxess' founders believe the success of electronic commerce among the general public will depend upon the availability of technologies not requiring any prior investment: their technique consists of using mobile phones and notably the SMS system (some 7 billion...