HISTORY AND ROLE OF INFORMATION SECURITY IN POSTAGE EVIDENCING AND PAYMENT
Robert Cordery, Leon A. Pintsov · Cryptologia · 2005
Step-by-step, information security technology has enabled the transition of postage evidencing and payment security from reliance on people, manual processes and paper records to reliance on automated procedures, trusted remote data systems and cryptographic protocols. This evolution improved both the security and the convenience of postage evidencing and payment through postage metering and thus enabled effective access to postal products. Reset, the process of adding postage to the meter, changed from a visit to a post office and manual record keeping to communication with a data center to receive an authentication code with a subsequent automatic completion of the transaction. Verification of the authenticity of printed indicia changed from a forensic analysis to automatic cryptographic authentication. Finally, with the introduction of NIST standard FIPS 140–1 level 4 physical security requirements, manual inspection of meters that are compliant with this standard by postal officials is being replaced by online verification of their physical integrity and procedural accuracy. These improvements in their totality enabled a remarkable transition of one of the most traditional office devices from the analog to the digital age.