French banking group BNP Paribas is using encryption technology from California-based PGP Corporation to secure e-mail communications to customers, business partners and regulators.
The bank has standardised on PGP's Encryption Platform and deployed the vendor's Universal Gateway Email product to secure e-mail with customers and business partners, including financial services firms and regulatory institutions such as central banks.
PGP says its Universal Gateway Email product is based on configurable encryption rules to secure e-mails as they enter and leave the enterprise network. The system also supports the two globally accepted e-mail encryption standards - OpenPGP and S/MIME.
In addition, the vendor's Universal Server will provide BNP Paribas with centralised policy administration and key management through a single Web-based console.
PGP says its technology also integrates with Lotus Notes for flagging specific e-mails for encryption and can be used to set encryption policy based on content, sender and recipient.
The vendor says BNP Paribas is installing its technology after the bank was asked by partners in 2005 to adopt an e-mail encryption system to ensure the secure exchange of information.
Explaining the decision to choose PGP, Stephane Detruiseux, risk and security expertise group, says: "We discovered that our partners use solutions based on either the OpenPGP or S/MIME encryption standard and if we used a compatible solution, we wouldn't have to send, receive, or install any public keys because the exchanges were automatic."
PGP's French partner, Hermitage Solutions, assisted BNP Paribas with the deployment.