EDI and X.400 security

MOD recognises the business and system advantages offered by Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). However, the commercial benefits cannot be fully realised without adopting common IT standards operating across an MOD-wide communications infrastructure. A CCITT EDI and X.400 working group is developing a new Message Handling User Agent which is unique in that it is designed to support machine-to-machine data interchange without human intervention. Full use is therefore made of the 1988 CCITT Message Transfer Services which include a wide range of security features. The author describes the MOD Data Transfer requirements, the importance of the CCITT Recommendations and the preparations needed to implement a secure common data interchange standard. The author summarises Electronic Data Interchange requirements; discusses the EDI standards development; introduces the CCITT X.435 recommendations; and briefly describes a proposed MOD EDI demonstrator