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Following the agreement reached between IC-ENC and PRIMAR-Stavanger last year (click here for more details), we can confirm that the new digital signature service is now operational.
The ENC services of our appointed re-sellers are all protected using the international data protection scheme (IHO publication S-63). An important part of this scheme is data authentication - which gives the mariner confidence that he has received an exact copy of the original ENC product from an official source recognised by the scheme administrator (the IHO). A digital signature is added to the dataset which is provided to the mariner. The ECDIS systems use this digital signature to confirm that the ENC is authentic.
Unfortunately some ECDIS systems currently have difficulty handling digital signatures which are not produced by PRIMAR-Stavanger. The manufacturers of such systems are correcting this problem, but in the meantime IC-ENC has funded the development of an online signing service which will allow all of our re-sellers to offer problem-free ENC services.
This signing service is hosted and managed by the IHO who permit all companies providing ENC services, and who are registered within the S-63 scheme, free access to the service. Providing this service should help to speed progress towards the delivery of integrated, user-friendly navigation services for the mariner |
