International user group the Jericho Forum is lobbying the government to back its proposed security standards aimed at building confidence in online collaboration and ecommerce.

Representatives from the group, which consists of 50 leading multinationals including BP, HSBC, KPMG and Royal Mail, met the eGovernment Unit and the Cabinet Office this week to discuss how Whitehall can endorse innovation in IT security.

David Lacey, chairman of the Jericho Forum and Royal Mail director of information security, told Computing the meeting covered ways the public and private sectors could work together so that firms gain greater trust in the technologies used to join up supply chains, ecommerce partners and joint ventures.

'The need for trust and assurance goes right across the board and affects technology, organisations and individuals,' said Lacey. 'It's an area where we need some pragmatism and up-to-date ideas about how the government and industry can support trust models for collaboration.'

Government backing could encourage greater research and development investment, he says.

'We want to encourage new startups and early-stage ventures so that we can produce more imaginative solutions,' he said.

BP chief information security officer Paul Dorey says members plan to make the standards mandatory for their IT purchasing. The forum this month publishes its manifesto for developing IT security standards - a report seen by Computing this week.

The key demands

*More secure information and communication technologies

*Low-cost secure connectivity, improved external access and flexibility if collaboration and ecommerce are to succeed

*Technology to assure real-time trustworthiness of partner organisations and devices

See related links for more detail on the Jericho Forum