Interested in buying or selling on the Internet, but worried about the security of your purchase or sale?

Two Regina-based companies, Credit Union Electronic Transaction Services (CUETS) and SaskTel, have come up with a solution they claim combines the speed and convenience of the Internet with the security of a normal credit card transaction.

At its official launch Tuesday, CUETS and SaskTel officials said securelynx is the first commercially available electronic commerce system of its kind in Canada. What's more, it was developed right here in Saskatchewan.

"The solution we've developed is a homegrown solution," said Doug Scott, vice president of business development for CUETS.

"Our challenge was to bring together an off-the-shelf suite of (computer software) products and existing delivery mechanisms. We were able to customize our solution to work in our environment."

Securelynx uses secure electronic transaction (SET) technology, which was developed by the major credit card companies to allow safe, secure transactions over open networks, like the Internet.

Combined with IBM-developed payments systems, securelynx utilizes "digital wallet" technology to further ensure the security of the transaction.

Consumers with a Credit Union MasterCard can apply for a "digital wallet" through the joint venture's Web site at securelynx.com. Once obtained, the digital wallet uses SET encryption technology and "digital signatures" to confirm the identity of the cardholder.

While ensuring the cardholder is legitimate, SET also prevents the merchant from seeing the customer's credit card number and other confidential information.

(Consumers without digital wallets can still make purchases on the Internet, but they won't be processed by SET technology and are less secure, CUETS officials said.) In order to become "E-merchants," stores must be authorized by CUETS to process MasterCard transactions. Once they're authorized, e-merchants can develop "electronic store fronts" through a SaskTel E-commerce software package.

These "on-line stores" can then sell their merchandise on SaskTel's virtual mall Web site, malltitude.com.

One on-line store is Dot.com, a SaskTel Mobility dealer that sells high-speed Internet access and other Web based products.

"Definitely, E-commerce is a growing area," said Chris Krywulak, president of Dot.com.

"Demand is going to be even greater as time goes on."

Dot.com took part in a test run of securelynx about a year and half ago and has signed on for the commercial rollout of the new service. "We haven't done a secure transaction on-line yet," Krywulak said. "It's a long-term payoff."

But he said small companies, in particular, should benefit from having their products posted on malltitude.com and sold using securelynx. "It gives small companies a gateway to E-commerce, without major cost."

One small business that intends to do business on the Internet is Rugged Country, a Birch Hills-based manufacturer of specialty nylon bags for travel and promotional purposes.

"We're going to be selling products on the (SaskTel) mall," said Gwen Ens, office manager for Rugged Country. "So far, we've had no concerns (about security)."

Scott said the CUETS-SaskTel joint venture is the first commercial E-commerce system using SET technology in Canada. Last week, CIBC launched its Small Business Internet Commerce Solutions, which uses secure socket layer (SSL) encryption to provide security.

But Scott said SSL doesn't provide the same level of security and confidentiality as SET, which authenticates the merchant, the cardholder and the financial institution that supplies the card.

With the advent of secure electronic transaction technology, Internet transactions are expected to increase exponentially in the future.

In Canada last year, 500,000 people made $200 million worth of transactions on the Internet, Scott said. By 2003, 3.5 million Canadians are expected to make about $8 billion in transactions on the Internet.

World-wide, nearly $200 billion worth of purchases will be made on the Internet by 2001, but $175 billion of those will be business-to-business, he said.