MEDIA RELEASE

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IO'98 to Focus Debate Over E-Commerce Security

Sunday 25 October 1998 - Corporate and government representatives, privacy advocates and security experts look set to engage in a heated debate over e-commerce security when the IO'98 Conference takes place in Canberra next month.

The 1998 Information Industry Outlook Conference (IO'98), to be held at the Australian National University on 7 November 1998, will concentrate on electronic commerce and security issues. Hosted by the Canberra Branch of the Australian Computer Society in cooperation with the Department of Industry, Science and Tourism (DIST), the conference will operate under the banner, "IO'98 - Net Benefit for Australia?".

The release of selected conference papers on the Internet this week has already sparked discussion, with Stephen Wilson, Senior Manager, KPMG Certification Authority, using his exposition to dismiss privacy concerns and criticise Government policy.

Wilson's paper, "Current Issues in the rollout of a National Authentication Framework", criticises the 'policy vacuum' affecting public key authentication and derides moves by Government to enshrine 100 point identification checks for issuing of digital identity certificates.

"For business-to-business electronic commerce, this is unnecessary and invasive," said Wilson. "Even in retail e-commerce, it's hard to justify. It's very rare for anyone to need that degree of identification in the paper world, but we've all been sucked into an 'electronic passport' sort of mentality," he said.

Wilson has also criticised the Federal Government for failing to move on e-commerce legislation.

"The Attorney General's Electronic Commerce Expert Group wrote a lengthy report that demonstrated the Australian legal system was already able to cope with most e-commerce issues, but Government has failed to promote this position. It comes across as a do-nothing policy - it's been a disaster," he said.

Wilson also censored the Government on its failure to show leadership in the area of public key authentication, saying the industry has called unanimously for a peak licensing body but the Government is refusing to act. Meanwhile, he said, the debate over privacy had blown out of all proportion.

"The privacy lobby has got into a spin over public key issues, with some people confusing public key frameworks with central control. At times I think it gets wrapped up in utopian arguments that 'business is bad for the Internet'. In fact, an authentication framework promotes decentralisation of personal data, which makes it very good for privacy," he said.

With leading government and industry figures in attendance, the IO'98 debate promises to be lively. Roger Clarke, Visiting Fellow, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the Australian National University and a leading privacy advocate will chair the conference round table while Tom Worthington, the Defence Department's Internet policy adviser and a member of the Federal Government's "FedLink" secure intranet working party is acting as Conference Chair.

Conference papers, speaker biographies and registration details are on the IO'98 Web site or from the ACS Canberra Branch office on Email: mmorgan@acslink.net.au or Tel: (02) 6247 4830.

This media release is located on the ACS Web site at www.acs.org.au/news/io98b.htm

ENDS

Media Enquiries:

Stephen Wilson, Tel: 02 9335 8944 or (0414) 488 851, Email: swg@kpmg.com.au

Roger Clarke, Tel: (02) 6288 1472, Email: Roger.Clarke@anu.edu.au

Tom Worthington, Tel: (0419) 496 150, Email: tomw@acslink.net.au

Caroline New, Tel: (02) 9980 8060 or (0411) 889 456, Email: cnew@acslink.net.au