A Guersey-based multimillionaire inventor, who claims to have developed the world's first "unhackable" communications security system, is seeking potential buyers in the Republic. Dr William Johnson, a tax exile with more than 100 registered patents to his name, has sent a negotiating team to the Republic to contact companies who may be interested in purchasing the licensing rights to the security system, E-Larm.

The system is an encryption formula based on chaotic mathematical equations that do not follow the random number standards of the industry standard, public key infrastructure.

The system works as part of a secure private network between users. It is geared towards the business-to-business e-commerce market and is targeting the financial services and banking industries. E-Larm was developed by a team including Prof Jonathan Blackledge, professor of applied mathematics at De Montford University, Leicester, and Dr Johnson's company Guernsey Secure E-Commerce Ltd.

"E-Larm works on a method of creating non-stationary codes," says Dr Johnson. "No matter how powerful the super computer, it cannot break it as if it was a static system."

The system was originally conceived as a means of protecting banknotes from being copied but has been developed to provide secure communications, according to Dr Johnson. He says the consortium that developed the E-Larm system are targeting the Republic for sales due to the Government's decision to pass the E-Commerce Act this year.

The system may run foul of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill (RIP) in Britain, which, if passed, would insist that security services should be able to decrypt communications networks to preserve national security.

Prof Blackledge says the ELarm team will be able to allow a third party to tap into the system as data is sent between users but it can not be decrypted after the event.

"This could cause us legal problems in the UK," he says.