VeriSign wins expanded U.S. export for digital IDs
March 8, 1999 08:00 AM
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 8 (Reuters) - Internet security software maker VeriSign Inc. VRSN said the U.S. agency that controls software exports will allow it to ship its high-security products to a broader set of overseas customers.
VeriSign stock surged following news of the expanded U.S. export approval, rising $12.25, or nearly 12 percent, to $116.50 per share.
The company said it had won approval from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Export Administration to expand the sale of its 128-bit Global Server identification digital certificates.
The software, which is used to authenticate the identity of individual computer users and thus pave the way for commercial transactions, uses powerful 128-bit encryption, considered a virtually unbreakable code against possible hacker attacks.
VeriSign said expanded sales authorization now includes online merchants, healthcare and insurance organizations, and overseas subsidiaries of U.S. corporations.
Previously such customers had to make do with weaker 40-bit encryption due to U.S. government export limitations on more powerful encryption technology, which the government regulates under laws designed to keep advanced munitions from slipping into enemy hands.
Encryption software has been at the center of a debate pitting its supporters -- who see the sale of such software overseas as crucial to the U.S. computer industry's global competitiveness -- versus critics, who see the software as a potential threat to national security. Global Server IDs are available from VeriSign starting at $895 per year.
((-- Eric Auchard, New York newsdesk, 212-859-1840)) REUTERS
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