system for the local computing public, is now taking steps to provide products that will remove the security issue that has been raised by Internet critics.

The company is awaiting the arrival of equipment to establish the central switching mechanism at BSL offices that could have users securely into the Internet system within the next three months, joining the one million new users monthly that are logging on to Internet.

Even companies that are currently using Internet by dialling through to New York will find the local service less expensive and, more importantly for business users, more secure.

BSL's service manager, Mr. Tony Harriott, said that encryption software, which scrambles the message during transmission for unauthorised eyes is sometimes a feature of E-mail. Lotus Notes has built-in encryption. He said that his company can provide encryption packages for any system.

He explained:"The sending computer examines each piece of data and determines whether to encrypt the data based on the way that system has been designed by the user.

"The receiving computer reverses the process. This way traffic between sites travels the commercial Internet in a form that cannot be interpreted by others.

"The entire encryption operation is totally transparent to users and easy for network administrators to manage.

"For users wishing to connect their whole corporate network to the Internet, BSL plans to offer a newly developed product called LanGuardian, which assures the appropriate level of security when sending sensitive corporate data outside the company facilities. With LanGuardian, company-proprietary data sent to remote offices is not accessible to unauthorised locations.

"This allows companies to exchange sensitive financial data or business plans with their remote offices via the Internet or any other network, without fear that the data may be compromised.'' Mr. Harriott pointed out that IBM tests of their Internet system turned up one bug last year and so far this year 145 attempts have failed to crack the system.

He said, "The National Institute of Standards and Technology reports that re-use of passwords pose the weakest security link in the Internet. The moral of this story is that security starts at home, or in this case, the office.

After all, if you left your home with the door unlocked and you returned to find it burglarised, would you blame your real estate agent for selling you the house, or yourself for failing to lock the door?''