One of the most important requirements for any electronic document exchange platform is to be able to deliver documents in their entirety and without the possibility of being read or modified en route by those with malicious intent. F4F recognises that many business documents contain commercially sensitive information and uses stringent security methods to ensure that they are fully protected in transit across the Internet.

The key components of the F4F security system are listed below:

• Ensuring faithful delivery of the data sent: A hashing routine, executed a the point of entry into the F4F B2B Platform, which produces a check digit, which is included within the data sent. The same routine is executed on arrival at the destination, and any difference in the two values causes an automatic alert to be generated.
• Prevention of document reading: Documents can be encrypted between sender and recipient using 128-bit encryption. Public and private key pairs are used to achieve this. The sender encrypts the document with the (freely available) public key of the intended recipient: it can only be decrypted by the holder of the matching private key (which, as its name suggests, is known only by the recipient’s system).
• Ensuring authenticity of sender and non-repudiation (preventing denial of receipt): The private-public key pair is used in reverse to achieve these objectives. The sender locks the document with his private key (known only by his system); the recipient can unlock the document only with the matching public key of the sender, thereby ensuring that the recipient is sure that he knows – and acknowledges - who the sender was.

F4F issues security certificates containing private and public key pairs to partners who wish to avail themselves of this service and thereby acts, in the eyes of the Law, as the Trusted Third Party for all members of the trading community which uses its B2B Platform.