Key Service

Our investigation of the present state of key service for PGP users has turned up several serious deficiencies, and good grounds for expecting that these can be remedied relatively easily. It is apparent that the present keyservers are adequate, barely, for the use being made of them. It is equally obvious that they will become swamped by the demand placed on them by the PGP-using community before the end of 1996. These characteristics are just as obvious to the present suppliers of the services and they are being addressed. We can reasonably expect that some sort of keyservice will come into being, just in time, irrespective of whether UKERNA contributes to the process. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend that UKERNA does so contribute.

We make this recommendation for the following reasons:

• If UKERNA does nothing, the service will be designed primarily to the requirements of the non-JANET population. If we are fortunate, we may be able to live with the results.
• If, on the other hand, UKERNA is an active and productive participant in the design and implementation of a robust key service capable of supporting millions of individuals and thousands of institutions throughout the world, it is extremely likely that a system will arise which is appropriate to JANET's needs, and to the needs of the rest of the world.
• Regardless of who designs and implements a next-generation key service. JANET will have to provide the resources, such as computation, disk storage and network connections, required for widespread use of secure email. This will have resource implications in the future.

Accordingly, we recommend that UKERNA fund a one-year pilot project to prototype a key service which is both appropriate to JANET's requirements and consistent with developments elsewhere in the world.