Users can register for the service atAuthentica's Web site (http://www.authentica.com). Once registered, they can encrypt their documents and assign a protection policy. Policies can be changed at any time, even after recipients have accessed a protected document. This provides users with complete control over their information no matter where it's distributed—on the Internet, recipients' desktops, servers, or backup media.

Once the information is encrypted and protected, the sender specifies a list of recipients from his or her personal address book and the document is automatically sent. Authentica stores the sender's document policy and key for decrypting the content on its Recall Policy Server but doesn't store the document itself. An e-mail notification is automatically sent to recipients letting them know they have a protected document waiting for them to download. To access the document, first-time recipients must download a free, small plug-in.

According to the company,Authentica's offering goes beyond the protection offered by traditional secure-delivery technologies because it prevents information from being forwarded or misused once it's in recipients' hands. In addition, it allows the sender to expire all copies of a sensitive document no matter where it's located on the Internet.

The service provides an intuitive user interface for controlling and managing protected documents. Authentica's tracking capabilities allow the user to see exactly who has accessed documents, when they're accessed, and what recipients have done with them throughout their life cycle. Authentica's free service is an extension of the company's Recall suite of enterprise-ready information protection software solutions, which includes PageRecall for documents, MailRecall for e-mail, and NetRecall for Web content.

Source: Authentica, Inc., Waltham, MA, 781/487-2600; http://www.authentica.com.