Sun-Netscape Alliance and Equifax Secure Announce Plans to Provide Advanced E-Commerce Security
Companies Will Enable Increased Security for Online Trading, Banking, Auctions and Other Internet Services
ATLANTA, June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sun-Netscape Alliance and Equifax Secure, a unit of Equifax, Inc. (NYSE: EFX - news), today announced plans to provide security infrastructure for large-scale e-commerce applications based on their combined market-leading Internet security solutions.
Equifax Secure provides a range of e-commerce solutions, including online identity authentication and digital credentialing services for companies wanting to rapidly deploy high-assurance online commerce applications. Under the agreement, Equifax Secure will use Netscape® Directory for Secure E-Commerce, which includes Netscape Certificate Management System 4.0, as part of its multiple directory and digital certificate services offered to e-commerce providers such as banks, credit card companies and consumer retailers. Equifax Secure will also offer its patent-pending remote consumer authentication technology for use with Netscape Certificate Management System 4.0. This allows stronger verification of personal identity for commerce transactions through tight integration with Equifax's vast financial and credit information databases. At the same time, Netscape will include Equifax Secure as a Certificate Authority (CA) in its client products.
Equifax is already the leading provider of consumer information services for traditional businesses and, with this agreement, can extend its leadership onto the Internet. Using the licensed Netscape software, Equifax Secure is able to provide a one-stop e-commerce authentication and digital certificate service. Internet merchants and consumers will have a higher level of confidence that their transactions are secure using information managed by Equifax Secure to verify consumer and seller identities beyond traditional methods such as Social Security number, driver's license and address. The authentication service will also enable new customers to more easily sign up online for sensitive services, such as bank accounts, which require strong proof of identity before membership can be established.
''This represents a major step forward in Internet security,'' said Dr. Stuart Wells, senior vice president of infrastructure products at the Sun- Netscape Alliance. ''It will not only help eliminate barriers to e-commerce but also accelerate the use and acceptance of online business, such as online trading, banking, shopping, auctions, and others.''
''Whether e-commerce businesses deploy their own directory, authentication and certificate services using the Sun-Netscape Alliance infrastructure products or outsource those services to Equifax Secure, under this new agreement they can now offer their customers a higher level of online security than ever before,'' said Jeff Johnson, general manager of Equifax Secure Inc. ''By using more advanced authentication measures, companies will reduce the risk of identity fraud and help increase their customers' confidence in e-commerce.''
Accelerating the use and acceptance of the Internet for e-commerce requires establishing new levels of individual and enterprise privacy and security in networked environments. According to a recent study by the Information Technology Association of America, information technology executives and their customers rank privacy protection, authentication and security as the top three barriers for e-commerce.
''Secure and private one-to-one marketing is essential to growing and fostering trusted relationships over the Internet,'' said Mike Rouse, head of operations for Atlanta-based Security First Network Bank, the world's first Internet bank at www.sfnb.com . ''Together, Equifax Secure's remote authentication technology and Sun-Netscape's directory and certificate management solutions will bring new levels of individual and enterprise privacy and security to the virtual marketplace.''
Highlights of the agreement include:
High speed, E-commerce scale Authentication Delivered with Netscape Directory Server. Netscape Directory Server 4.0, an extranet application directory included in the Directory for Secure E-Commerce bundle, is designed to handle the scalability and reliability requirements of large e-commerce applications, with support for more than 50 million users and 5,000 queries per second. With Netscape Directory Server software, Equifax Secure is among the first CAs to offer its enterprise customers directory-based certificate management.
Certificates Delivered by Certificate Management System 4.0 with Equifax Secure Authentication Technology. Equifax Secure will use the Netscape Certificate Management System, a certificate-based security system included in the Netscape Directory for Secure E-Commerce, in conjunction with its own authentication technology to issue and manage digital certificates. This includes issuing certificates to secure web servers. Netscape Certificate Management System allows companies to easily issue, manage and revoke x.509 certificates for millions of users. Equifax Secure will also offer its authentication technology to Netscape Certificate Management System customers expanding the availability of new authentication technology introduced by Equifax Secure in January 1999.
Equifax Secure's authentication technology improves how enterprises verify consumer and seller identities online by using financial and non-financial information that should be known only to the consumer. Equifax Secure's remote authentication system conducts real-time comparison and analysis of information furnished by consumers against multiple consumer databases from Equifax and other consumer and business information sources. To protect individual privacy and security, information is only verified with Equifax's databases and is not viewed, shared or transmitted from the databases.
''The combination of Equifax Secure's unique authentication and Netscape's Directory Server and Certificate Management System allows electronic commerce and extranet sites to issue digital certificates with much greater assurance of the identity of new members,'' said Phil Schacter, director and senior analyst for The Burton Group. ''Netscape customers have the flexibility of outsourcing just the extended authentication task, or the entire enrollment process to Equifax Secure, including the issuing, and registration of new certificates. By reducing the risk of fraud at the point where certificates are issued, this technology increases the practical uses and value of digital certificates as a form of membership credential. The combination of strong technical infrastructure products with established and trusted assurance services significantly reduces the risk of managing dynamic business relationships on the Internet.''
The Equifax Secure authentication module will be available for use with the Netscape Certificate Management System 4.0 in the second half of 1999. Equifax Secure will begin operating its services using the Netscape Directory for Secure E-Commerce then as well. Equifax Secure Authentication is available from Equifax Secure with pricing based on implementation and on a per-authentication basis, with a sliding scale determined by annual projected volumes. The Netscape Directory for Secure E-Commerce is available from the Sun-Netscape Alliance. Pricing remains unchanged at US$11.50 per extranet user.
About Equifax
Equifax Secure Inc. (www.equifax.com/equifaxsecure ) provides next- generation e-commerce solutions that enable enterprises to authenticate consumer identity, secure business applications and manage digital certificates and directories for highly secure, private e-commerce over the Internet and other networks. Equifax Secure e-commerce solutions significantly reduce the risk, cost and complexity of assuring the privacy and security of electronic transactions and are available for companies across a wide range of industries.
Equifax (www.equifax.com ), a worldwide leader in shaping global commerce, brings buyers and sellers together through its information management, transaction processing and knowledge-based businesses. Atlanta-based Equifax serves the financial services, retail, credit card, telecommunications/utilities, transportation, information technology and healthcare industries and government. Equifax adds knowledge, expertise, convenience and security to provide value-added solutions and processes for its customers wherever they do business, including the Internet and other networks. Entering its second century in business, Equifax employs more than 13,000 associates in 18 countries with sales in nearly 50 and has more than $1.7 billion in revenue.
About the Sun-Netscape Alliance
America Online, Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. formed the Sun-Netscape Alliance to provide easy to deploy, comprehensive enterprise and e-commerce solutions to business partners and other companies competing in today's Net Economy. The Sun-Netscape Alliance product portfolio provides customers with the industry's most scalable, integrated infrastructure software and a family of production ready e-commerce applications. The products are offered on the industry's most widely available product platforms, including DEC, HP, IBM, LINUX, SGI, Microsoft Windows, and Sun. The Alliance software product portfolio includes: messaging and calendar, collaboration, web, application, directory, and certificate servers. The Alliance also offers a family of production-ready applications for e-commerce, including commerce exchange, procurement, selling, and billing.
About America Online, Inc.
Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL - news), based in Dulles, Virginia, is the world's leader in interactive services, web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services. America Online, Inc. operates two worldwide Internet services, America Online, with more than 17 million members, and Compuserve, with approximately two million members; several leading Internet brands, including ICQ and Digital City, Inc., the Netscape Netcenter and AOL.Com portals; and the Netscape Navigator and Communicator browsers. Through its strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems, the company develops and offers easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for companies operating in the Net Economy.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, ''The Network Is The Computer(TM)'' has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW - news) to its position as a leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $11 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at sun.com .
Sun, Sun Microsystems, and the Sun Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
Netscape and the Netscape N logo are registered trademarks in the United States and other countries of Netscape Communications Corporation, a subsidiary of America Online, Inc. Netscape Directory for Secure E-Commerce, Netscape Directory Server, Netscape Certificate Management System, and other Netscape logos, product names, and service names are also trademarks of Netscape, which may be registered in some countries.
SOURCE: Equifax Secure Inc.
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