insight 

I must admit to being intrigued to be invited to talk at the inauguration of the new ‘Global Cyber Security Center’ (or GC-SEC for short) initiative. This new body has been set up by the Poste Italiane postal company with a host of supporting parties, such as the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and United States Dept. of Homeland Security. At first glance they seem very odd bedfellows and the slightly stilted opening procedures did little to change that perception.

But as the event moved forward and one by one, each presenter took to the stage, the whole thing started to make a little more sense. With the application for the ‘.post’ top level domain recently having been granted to the UPU, they had realised that in order to bring their already high reputation for trust with them from the physical world of postal delivery, to the electronic world of ecommerce they had better take a front-row seat at the security table. They had taken a look at the security challenges of operating a trusted business across a wide portfolio of e-services and seen that making sure that their underlying technical platform – the DNS, was as secure as possible. They had chosen to focus on DNSSEC as their opening initiative and had invited a wide range of speakers, with a vast array of experience to address both governmental and business representatives from across Europe.

Looking back, it seems much clearer to me now why Poste Italiane want to sponsor and support a not-for-profit security Center. It keeps them firmly in the loop, and hopefully in future, the driving seat of the latest security issues and challenges. More importantly however, they bring some welcome experience into the realm of the DNS. They bring over 100 years of trusted delivery services, a federated model that ensures that a single stamp can reach any destination in the world and identity management services ranging from the simple to the highly sophisticated. Many of these services have a direct parallel in the electronic world and new experience will be very welcome as we look at interoperability, future certification options and prevention of interception and fraud.

More cynical voices have said that this is simply a land-grab for an organisation that is facing a decline in physical deliveries as electronic communication prospers. Whilst I don’t doubt that they are looking at other opportunities for their businesses, this is no reason in itself to prevent them from sponsoring and supporting security initiatives. I welcome new thinking and a fresh approach to some old problems. It will be interesting to watch and see the effects of their involvement.

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