e-enablement, e-governmemt and e-nonsense

There is a planning document issued by the land registry aimed at solicitors preparing for e-conveyancing. Section 3 goes like this


Our preparatory research has identified that there are five possible stages in the development of IT systems in organisations.

1. You have PCs on desks which are not yet linked to each other
2. The PCs on your desks are networked to each other
3. Your business processes have been redesigned to benefit from
   networked PCs
4. Your system plugs into a network external to your organisation
5. You have redesigned your business to reflect the interaction of networks

The "Realisation of potential benefits" is identified as going from low to high as you progress from 1 to 5.

This is not the first time I have seen nonsense like this coming out of government. It is misleading on so many levels. The belief that increasing use of technology automatically brings business benefits didn't survive the first attempts at information technology in the 60's.  I can't believe that this came from anything oue could call 'research'.

Primarily however I question the assumption that connecting your internal systems to an external network (i.e. the Internet) is a 'good thing'. Actually it is something to be done only if there are business benefits that over-ride the huge risks - which are not mentioned anywhere in this document. As this is aimed at conveyancers whose systems control millions of pounds of their customer's money this becomes a far from trivial issue.

The document comes from a web site where for example we see this phrase

The central service will provide for automatic exchange of contracts relating to all transactions in a property chain. For this and other purposes, conveyancers will need to have electronic signatures.

As we all know an electronic signature is something attached to a document and is unique to that document. What conveyancers will need is a certificate which allows them to create electronic signatures. In security terms this is a schoolboy howler that has been repeated in various documents since 2002. It indicates to me that the people over there have only the slimmest grasp of security theory. A truly frightening prospect when it seems that they are controlling the most valuable asset that any of us owns.

Bob
Textor