EU Draft Digital Signature Directive

[David Parkinson]

At 14:07 26/08/98 +0100, Ian Brown wrote:
>I would intrigued to know what (if any) cryptographic procedures
>Barclay's home-banking software uses...

As a user of it so would I!  (For those not familiar with it's
basic operation it's more of an "off-line" than "on-line" system.
You hold your records locally,  set up bill payments etc locally,
then go on-line for ~60 seconds to a Barclays specific phone
number where the system logs onto to the Bank's computers,
your instructions are uploaded and validated, and any new
transactions on your account are downloaded.  As a user
you hit the "go on-line" button and then enter a 5 digit PIN (in
my case) before the automated procedure kicks off.  In the beta
trial I had free choice of a long passphrase - with version 2
I got given a 5-digit PIN).

>Since it can make transfers out of your
>account, they must need *some* security. No doubt you have to sign
>a contract assuming all liability when you start using it.

I must admit I can't remember the fine details of what I signed
up to.  But you can only make transfers to those institutions/
companies registered on the system (Utilities/Credit Card Companies/
High Street Stores/etc).  If I want to transfer some money to my
daughters' Bank Accounts (impecunious students) I have to do
it by hand-written Cheque outside the system!

David