Some news on PKI & RSAS:
Monday December 13, 6:01 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: PKI Forum
Baltimore Technologies, Entrust, IBM, Microsoft and RSA Security Announce Formation of PKI Forum
Leaders in Public Key Infrastructure Provide Industry Focal Point for PKI Interoperability, Increased Customer Confidence for PKI-Based Solutions
MENLO PARK, Calif., Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading public key infrastructure (PKI) vendors Baltimore Technologies, Entrust Technologies Inc., IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp. and RSA Security Inc. today announced the formation of the PKI Forum, an industry-led collaboration created to accelerate the adoption of PKI technology and PKI-based solutions as the trusted, secure foundation for e-business applications.
The PKI Forum will provide an opportunity for vendors to demonstrate support for standards-based, interoperable PKI by developing PKI interoperability profiles based on business-driven requirements in certificate interoperability, directory-PKI interoperability, application interoperability, certificate validation and other areas. The forum will sponsor product interoperability demonstrations and work closely with standards organizations and external test bodies. The forum also will bring customers and vendors together to increase customer knowledge about the value of PKI and demonstrate how PKI solves key security issues for e-business.
''Infrastructure technologies like PKI succeed only when they can support a large number of users and applications,'' said Jamie Lewis, CEO of The Burton Group. ''By addressing interoperability issues and raising business awareness of PKI, the PKI Forum can increase the number of applications that rely on PKI and thus accelerate the deployment of PKI-based solutions.''
The five founding PKI Forum member companies have expressed their commitment to working collaboratively with other vendors, as well as users, to ensure greater interoperability and utility for PKI-based solutions:
Baltimore Technologies: ''The PKI Forum will enable customers to see demonstrable interoperability among the leading PKI vendors,'' said Paddy Holahan, executive vice president of marketing. ''Baltimore Technologies, as a founding member, will work to ensure the practical implementation of open standards to deliver manageable, robust PKI systems.''
Entrust: ''The PKI Forum is all about increasing customer's confidence in our collective capabilities,'' said Brian O'Higgins, executive vice president and CTO, Entrust Technologies. ''Enhancing interoperability and ease-of-use of PKI Technology will drive more value to our customers. Entrust is committed to the objectives of the PKI Forum.''
IBM: ''IBM is committed to open standards, and our participation in the PKI Forum will benefit our customers who rely on PKI-based applications to provide a secure foundation for e-business,'' said Mark Greene, vice president, IBM SecureWay. ''Working with the other vendors committed to this important forum and with the broader community of technology companies and customers who will participate in the forum's working groups, IBM continues to champion standards-based, interoperable PKI and the value it brings to global e-business.''
Microsoft: ''As e-business evolves, PKI interoperability is crucial to meeting customer demand for Internet security. Microsoft has made this significant commitment to customers by providing PKI in Windows 2000® and is proud to play a founding role in the innovation and vision that the PKI Forum will provide to the industry and to customers,'' said Shanen Boettcher, product manager, Windows 2000 Security, Microsoft. ''Microsoft is committed to keeping customers' information secure, and our membership in the PKI Forum is an important part of meeting this commitment.''
RSA Security: ''Broad PKI interoperability is essential to advancing the deployment of trusted, secure e-business applications, and RSA is happy to have this opportunity to help make it a reality,'' said Scott Schnell, vice president of RSA Security. ''We look forward to working closely with the other PKI Forum members in achieving this goal and lending our expertise to help promote the adoption of PKI technology.''
Membership in the PKI Forum is open to product and service providers, independent software vendors, consultants, integrators and end-user organizations that have a demonstrated interest in promoting PKI technology and PKI-based solutions. In addition to the five founding members, the PKI Forum is supported by a variety of leading companies that are committed to interoperable PKI-based solutions and have expressed interest in the PKI Forum. These companies include British Telecommunications plc, Hewlett-Packard Co., ID Certify, Novell Inc., The Open Group, Sun/Netscape Alliance, SPYRUS, Thawte Certification, Trustpoint, ValiCert Inc. and Xcert International Inc.
Public key technology and digital certificates have emerged as the preferred enablers of strong security for a wide range of e-business applications, including secure e-mail, secure Web access, virtual private networks and digital signatures. The most common functions of a PKI are issuing certificates, revoking certificates, creating and publishing Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs), storing and retrieving certificates and CRLs, and policy enforcement. Enhanced or emerging PKI functions include time-stamping and policy-based certificate validation. To successfully deploy a PKI, organizations must develop a sound strategy, plan for interoperability, determine how e-business applications will interface with the PKI, and plan for technical staffing requirements.
The PKI Forum is being established within the legal framework of the managed consortia program of The Open Group, a vendor and technology-neutral consortium of IT buyers and suppliers. Through defining and extending industry standards, creating customer testing and conformance programs, and educating on best industry practices, The Open Group is focused on helping customers and vendors solve enterprise integration problems.
Members of the PKI Forum plan to establish two standing working groups:
* The Business Working Group will help ensure that the forum understands
the PKI needs of four constituencies: software developers, service
providers, vendors and customers. It will link those needs to the
Technical Working Group and carry out marketing activities.
* The Technical Working Group will develop PKI interoperability profiles
to address the use of PKI in business applications, link with
appropriate standards and other PKI organizations, and charter
demonstration projects to establish interoperability among vendor
products.
The PKI Forum intends to conduct informational meetings and a reception for interested companies in conjunction with the RSA Conference 2000, to be held the week of Jan. 17-21, 2000, in San Jose, Calif. Organizations interested in membership in the PKI Forum should contact Graham Bird of The Open Group by phone at 650-323-7992, by fax at 650-323-8204, or by e-mail at g.bird@opengroup.org .
Further information on The Open Group can be obtained at www.opengroup.org . For general information about the PKI Forum, see www.pkiforum.org .
About Baltimore Technologies
Baltimore Technologies (Nasdaq: BALT - news) develops and markets security products and services to enable companies to develop trusted, secure systems for e-business, e-commerce and the Internet. Its products include a wide range of PKI systems, cryptographic toolkits, security applications and hardware cryptographic devices. Baltimore Technologies markets and sells its solutions worldwide directly and through the TrustedWorld channel program. The company employs over 450 people worldwide and operates from over 20 cities, with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland; London; Boston; and Sydney, Australia. Baltimore Technologies plc is a public company with dual listings on Nasdaq (BALT) and the London Stock Exchange (BLM). For further information and press releases on Baltimore Technologies, please visit baltimore.com.
About Entrust Technologies
Entrust Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: ENTU - news) is a global leader in providing products and services that allow e-businesses to manage trusted, secure electronic transactions and communications over today's advanced networks, including the Internet, extranets and intranets. Since 1994, Entrust Technologies has been providing award-winning solutions to global enterprises, government entities, small to midsize businesses and individuals. Over 4 million Entrust Technologies users have been licensed with digital certificates to date. Entrust Technologies Inc. is headquartered in Plano, Texas, with offices in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany and Japan. For additional company information, please visit entrust.com.
About IBM
IBM (NYSE: IBM - news) is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM Software offers the widest range of applications, middleware and operating systems for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. The fastest way to get more information about IBM software is through the IBM Software home page at ibm.com.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device.
About RSA Security
RSA Security Inc. (Nasdaq: RSAS - news), The Most Trusted Name in e-Security(TM), helps organizations build secure, trusted foundations for e-businesses through its RSA SecurID® two-factor authentication, RSA BSAFE® encryption and RSA Keon(TM) public key management systems. As the global integration of Security Dynamics and RSA Data Security, RSA Security has the proven leadership, innovative technology and systems experience to address the changing security needs of e-business and bring trust to the new, online economy. RSA Security can be reached at rsasecurity.com.
Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust Technologies Inc. in the United States and other countries. In Canada, Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust Technologies Ltd. All Entrust product names are trademarks of Entrust Technologies.
BSAFE and SecurID are registered trademarks, and Keon, RSA and The Most Trusted Name in e-Security are trademarks of RSA Security Inc.
Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries/regions. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Statements of support regarding the mission of the PKI Forum have been received from the following organizations:
''We are delighted to be part of the PKI forum. As one of the leading suppliers of eBusiness solutions in the UK, we are also committed to providing organizations with the most secure eBusiness infrastructure in the world. One of the crucial elements of building trust in eBusiness is the promotion of industry standards which will facilitate secure communication across open networks. The formation of an industry body which actively promotes these standards is a positive step forward and we look forward to working with all our partners.'' -- David Furniss, General Manager, BT eBusiness
''Hewlett-Packard Company supports the efforts of the PKI Forum to achieve greater interoperability among and faster adoption of PKI security technologies. E-Services require a robust security infrastructure to ensure trust, and HP is leveraging standards-based, interoperable PKI to deliver promise of this technology.'' -- Roberto Medrano, General Manager, Internet Security Division, Hewlett Packard Company
''ID Certify is looking forward to playing an active role in the PKI Forum. The Forum goals of interoperability for certificates and education will be critical for the growth and advancement of the industry.'' -- Linda Mackintosh, President, ID Certify
''Novell believes the creation of the PKI Forum is an important step in accelerating the adoption of PKI security technology. PKI technology, in combination with directory services, is critical to the infrastructure of e-business and is central to the success of future technology-based commerce.'' -- Winston Bumpus, Director of Standards, Novell
''The Open Group is pleased to support the members of the PKI Forum in their efforts to accelerate interoperability through industry standards, certification testing and conformance programs. The expected results of the PKI Forum will make a major contribution towards interoperability and increased end-user confidence in the deployment of multi-vendor PKI-based solutions.'' -- Allen Brown, President and CEO, The Open Group
''As a PKI solutions provider, SPYRUS enthusiastically supports the creation of the PKI Forum. We look forward to an era of ubiquitous and interoperable PKI solutions from all of the various technology and service providers in this burgeoning industry. The PKI Forum is the first unified organization to bring together the PKI market leaders to openly discuss and encourage prompt response to critical business issues.'' -- Sue Pontius, CEO, Spyrus
''Thawte is pleased to be a member of the PKI Forum. We are confident that the PKI Forum will increase vendor awareness of the need for PKI interoperability and provide a venue for PKI protocol testing and adoption.'' -- Mark Shuttleworth, President, Thawte Certification
''We fully support the efforts of the PKI Forum and look forward to working with its members in creating open standards for interoperable PKI solutions. Trustpoint's cross-platform Java(TM)-based PKI components and certification authority systems enable standards-based trust management on the widest range of networked computing and communication devices. The PKI Forum's mission closely parallels our own, and we believe our recognized leadership in open PKI standards development will be a valuable asset to this organization.'' -- John Kennedy, Chief Technology Officer, Trustpoint
''Interoperability is a cornerstone of ValiCert's VA solution, and we look forward to working with the other members of the PKI Forum on this and other PKI issues. PKI offers the best security foundation for all e-business applications, and we support the Forum's goal of accelerating PKI adoption.'' -- Sathvik Krishnamurthy, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, ValiCert
''Xcert's commitment to open standards to facilitate interoperability is an intrinsic part of our philosophy. We look at participating in the PKI Forum from its inception as a formal opportunity to drive to successful resolution one of the markets more pressing concerns, that of interoperability. Xcert customers, including American Banker's Association and GSA ACES Project (General Administration Services Access for Electronic Services Project), have voiced their support of Xcert's leadership role in the PKI Forum, reiterating that interoperability is a top priority in terms of their ability to move forward in their multi-vendor PKI initiatives.'' -- Patrick Richard, CTO of Xcert International, Inc.
SOURCE: PKI Forum
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More Quotes
and News: Baltimore Technologies PLC (NasdaqNM:BALT - news)
Entrust Technologies Inc (NasdaqNM:ENTU - news)
International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM - news)
Microsoft Corp (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news)
RSA Security Inc (NasdaqNM:RSAS - news)
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