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By Sally Watson, 11 April 2000 00:30

NEWS Global parcel carrier, TNT, is set to make its mark on the digital world this week with the launch of a secure electronic document service. The company, better known for its express package delivery than its online presence, is offering to encrypt and handle documents from a central Web site. After registering on the TNT Web site, customers pay per megabyte of information they want delivered. Recipients are notified of a waiting document and log onto the site to pick it up. The service, called securEdoc, is provided in partnership with document specialists, NetEx, and based on security software from Entrust Technologies. William Stijns, customer interface technology manager at TNT, said the company couldn't afford to miss out on an expanding market. "We believe there's going to be a move in the market anyway - we must be there and we must be there as soon as possible. "So we're launching this product to do two things - to learn about the market as it's developing, and to make sure that as an innovative company we are there with modern products that are supportive of our brand in Europe and the world," he said. The product launches in the UK this week prior to an international rollout in May. It has already been trialled by financial services and law firms. "The securEdoc service has security based on 128bit encryption technology," Stijns added, "which ensures that as documents are transferred from the sender to the central server, everything is secure - and also that when it passes to the recipient it remains secure." "We are making use of personal digital certificates to make it even more reliable and more secure than just encryption alone," he said. The launch coincides with the publishing of a Department of Trade and Industry preliminary report today into computer security, which claims that 60 per cent of UK companies have suffered a security breach within the past two years.