Knowing how easy it is to twiddle bits around, it's a wonder CEOs ever get any sleep. Solutions to the trust problem abound, but many are difficult to implement, rendering them impractical. Among the most popular security schemes are those that propose ways to digitally sign files so that any alteration is detectable. You package your document with its hash value, encode it with a key that only you know, and give the world a public key that matches your private key and others can verify that you signed it. Ensuring that information is valid is one thing, but keeping it secret is another.
Possible solutions are rampant, but practical solutions are hard to find.
For instance, using our hypothetical public key, I would be able to encrypt a document so that only you could read it using your private key. First, the security solution has to work fast or many people won't bother implementing it. Northern Telecom's Entrust is a file-signing and encryption package with a client interface so intuitive, users will have little excuse for not using it. With Entrust, no one needs to know anything about keys, and users should have no objection to the interface or the time it takes to use it. To sign a file, you simply drag, drop, sign and save.