USPS aims for secure Web access

Postal officials say it will let them offer online account access and other services.

The U.S. Postal Service has begun upgrading its Web infrastructure to handle new online services for business mailers.

In a time when information about mail is as valued as the mail itself, a secure infrastructure will let USPS offer such online services to businesses as the scheduling drop shipments, gaining access to their customer accounts and viewing the status of their mailed items, postal officials said.

Robert Otto, the chief technology officer at USPS, said he expects the secure Web access connections to be completed by late April. USPS officials selected Oblix Inc.'s Web access-control and identity-management software as the basis for the new business services.