Then we returned to our browser to retrieve and install the certificate. We installed ours on an HP Vectra 500 running Windows 95. In addition to remote communications, PrivateWire can safeguard internal access, such as protecting the human resources server from prying employees. This will mean extra work for setting up and maintaining a large network, as an administrator must periodically create user update files. Administrators can require various means of authentication for different degrees of security.
Users can have a local key file on their hard drives, a key disk or a smart card.
This device connected between the client PC and its keyboard, and we successfully used a smart card to authenticate access along with our regular password. If needed, PrivateWire can accommodate digital signatures for Web transactions. A digital signature both authenticates the sender and assures that there is no tampering with the transaction. To test this capability, we tried out a demo banking program. First, the Web server downloaded to our client PC a funds-transfer form that had hidden fields for requesting a signature.