VeriSign Affiliate Network to Deliver New Wireless Trust Services Worldwide
San Jose, CA, RSA Conference 2000, January 19, 2000 - VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN), the leading provider of Internet trust services, today announced strong support from its Global Affiliate Network for its new suite of wireless technologies and services, announced earlier this week at the RSA Conference 2000. VeriSign's Global Affiliate Network consists of an expanding group of international service providers-currently numbering more than 20-which utilize common technology, operating practices and infrastructure to deliver interoperable trust services over the Internet. Today's support adds to the broad range of wireless industry alliances which VeriSign unveiled earlier this week with leaders including BellSouth, InfoSpace.com, Gemplus, Motorola, Research In Motion, RSA Security, Sonera SmartTrust and others (see related press releases at www.verisign.com).
"Our network of Global Affiliates includes some of the world's leading telecommunications companies and e-commerce service providers," said Richard Yanowitch, executive vice president of Worldwide Marketing for VeriSign. "By combining their expertise, powerful brands and strong customer relationships with our new wireless technologies and services, we are well positioned to enable a wide range of trusted wireless applications on a global basis."
VeriSign's wireless trust infrastructure will enable a new generation of wireless applications, including mobile banking, stock trading, health care and B2B transactions. Earlier this week, VeriSign announced a new suite of innovative technologies, services and alliances specifically tailored to the unique architecture of the wireless Internet. These technologies-the Wireless Personal Trust Agent (PTA), short-lived wireless server certificates, gateway-assisted SSL, and network-enabled PKI-form the core of new wireless trust services for subscribers, developers, servers/gateways, enterprises, network operators and service providers. Several of these services are available now with others, including a platform for VeriSign Global Affiliates, to be introduced later in 2000. More on VeriSign's new wireless technologies and trust services can be found in a white paper entitled "Secure Wireless E-Commerce with PKI from VeriSign," also available on the VeriSign Web site.
Global Leaders Show Worldwide Interest in Wireless Trust Services
arabtrust.com
"Countries in the Middle East are moving quickly towards full adoption of wireless e-commerce," said Alya Al-Bahar, Managing Director of arabtrust.com. "The Bank of Kuwait, for instance, has deployed GSM banking services, enabling clients to receive bank account information, weather, and other data wirelessly. A proposal has been submitted in the Kuwaiti parliament to mandate the use of digital signatures for all communications between the government of Kuwait and its citizens."
BT TrustWise
"BT is already demonstrating applications that work on WAP mobile phones at its laboratories at Adastral Park," said Michele Mooney of BT TrustWise. "Mobile phone ownership and Internet access are both increasing substantially in the UK, and there is growing usage of SMS messaging amongst mobile phone users. All this points to the enormous potential for WAP enabled applications. BT TrustWise is working with VeriSign to add the wireless PKI security which will be required to underpin these mobile applications."
Certplus
"Building trust in the wireless world is a strong demand of our customers," said Jacques Pantin CEO of Certplus, the leading trust and PKI operator in France and a VeriSign affiliate. "Certplus is now able to answer the great demand for wireless secure applications in Europe with the support of our shareholders: Gemplus, the number one SIM card manufacturer in the world is now delivering a powerful PKI-SIM card solution. France Telecom, a leading GSM operator in Europe is among the first to offer WAP services. We are confident that VeriSign will take the leading role in wireless PKI and brings us its strong experience and solutions."
CrossCert
In Korea there are five wireless mobile carriers with 22 million mobile users as of September 1999. "We are very pleased through our affiliation with VeriSign to be able to offer globally recognized trusted PKI services to our current telecommunications clients. As wireless e-commerce becomes readily accepted, CrossCert and VeriSign will be there providing the necessary trust infrastructure," said Jay Bae, vice president of CrossCert, VeriSign's affiliate in Korea.
eSign,
"Australia has one of the highest penetrations of mobile phones and Internet usage in the world. The new wireless trust services announced by VeriSign mean that Australian consumers can now take full advantage of secure e-commerce services quickly and easily," said Gregg Rowley, Managing Director of VeriSign's Australian affiliate, eSign. "Mobile phones are both an ideal way for consumers to utilize many Web services and a convenient device for the storage and use of digital certificates. These new wireless trust services from VeriSign are the "missing link" needed to enable secure and convenient consumer e-commerce transactions such as such as e-banking and e-brokering."
HiTRUST
Another example of the growing support worldwide for wireless trust services is Taiwan's 10 million mobile subscribers, which accounts for 45% of the country's 22 million residents. It is anticipated that growth is to reach 12 million subscribers by the end of 2000. All Taiwan's wireless telecom companies are planning to upgrade their system from GSM (9.6Kbps) to broadband GPRS (115Kbps) within the next two years and are currently already providing mobile banking services. Twenty percent of these subscribers will make use of these services by the end of year 2000. "HiTRUST has the opportunity to provide VeriSign's wireless trust infrastructure to secure these millions of transactions," said Johnny Ho, Vice President, HiTRUST, the leading provider of Internet trust services in Taiwan.
INTERSAT SA
"It's a great opportunity for INTERSAT SA to provide VeriSign's wireless trust services to the mobile users and mobile operators in Greece and the other countries of Southeastern Europe," said Stavros Karaguloglou, vice chairman and general manager of INTERSAT SA. "The market is demanding services that will provide trust for mobile communications and transactions in the new era of anytime, anywhere e-commerce."
KPN Telecom
VeriSign's Affiliate, KPN Telecom, is the largest mobile operator in the Netherlands with more than 3.5 million subscribers. In conjunction with BellSouth, KPN recently acquired Germany's third largest mobile operator, Eplus, and recently launched its Minfo service which offers WAP services to mobile subscribers including Nokia's WAP phone for access to stock exchange and travel information. "With the rapid growth in wireless e-commerce, there is a clear need for wireless security," said Jeroen Borgsteede, senior product manager CA services at KPN Telecom. "VeriSign's product and service platform already provides the basis for trusted e-commerce over the wired Internet, and it is logical to look to them to provide the same level of trust for wireless transactions."
Roccade
In addition, Roccade Megaplex, member of the PinkRoccade group and VeriSign Affiliate in the Benelux countries, is actively developing applications for WAP enabled devices like cell phones. In cooperation with Roccade Finance (which is a major application development organization in the financial industry) the first applications will be in the online investment field with a major Dutch financial institution. Roccade Megaplex offers digital certificates for strong authentication and encryption for these WAP devices. "As a European trusted third party, the wireless PKI infrastructure for enabling e-commerce with these devices is based on local legislation which makes these transactions non-repudiable and enables a future of hand held e-commerce using mobile devices," said Haydar Cimen, Product Manager, TTP Services, PinkRoccade.
SACA
"As VeriSign's South African affiliate SACA is working with leading banks like Nedbank to provide WAP-enabled digital certificates for banking applications such as transaction services, payments, transfers and enquiries," said Tim Ellis, Managing Director of the South African Certification Agency. "SACA already provides Nedbank with global server certificates for Internet banking, so it's a natural move for them to use us to go wireless."
Telia Electronic Commerce
"As the leader in Internet trust services, VeriSign is once again demonstrating its strength in providing open, interoperable solutions for customers," said Peter Lundgren, SVP at Telia Electronic Commerce. "As an affiliate of VeriSign in Scandinavia - the most advanced e-commerce market in the world - and as a provider of wireless telecommunications services, we are especially pleased that customers using all major WAP server platforms will be able to obtain WAP server certificates from VeriSignïs new service."
VPN Tech
"VPN Tech anticipates rapid adoption of wireless PKI by its large installed base of mobile users," said Claude Perreault, president of VPN Tech, Inc. "Our customers have expressed a desire for a trusted infrastructure to service the wireless Internet, VeriSign's innovation in this regard will stimulate the growth of electronic commerce in Canada."
VeriSign Affiliates
VeriSign Affiliates combine VeriSign's expertise in both the Wired and Wireless Internet with their own e-commerce services to serve customers in their local language, currency, and legal system. Key e-commerce applications that require Internet trust services include employee intranets, supply chain extranets, virtual private networks (VPNs), and large scale e-commerce applications such as e-banking, e-brokerage, and e-healthcare, soon to be available wirelessly.
There are now more than 20 VeriSign international Affiliates delivering co-branded digital certificate services under common trust principles. They include: in Europe, British Telecommunications (U.K.), Certplus (France), Comparex Holdings (Germany), KPN Telecom (the Netherlands), Roccade Megaplex (the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg), Adacom (Greece and the Balkans), INTERSAT SA (Greece, Cyprus, and Southeastern Europe), Telia (Nordic and Baltic countries) and an affiliate in Ireland; in Asia, VeriSign Japan, HiTRUST (Taiwan) and CrossCert (Korea); in Australia, eSign; in Africa, SACA (South Africa); in the Americas, AT&T (U.S.), VPN Tech (Canada), CIBC (Canada), Certisign (Brazil) and Certisur (Argentina); and arabtrust.com in the Middle East.
VeriSign, Inc.
VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) is the leading provider of Internet trust services - including authentication, validation and payment - needed by Web sites, enterprises and e-commerce service providers to conduct trusted and secure electronic commerce and communications over IP networks. VeriSign's trust services for Web sites, developers and individuals are available through www.verisign.com and through a growing number of ISPs and Web hosting companies. The company's digital certificate services for enterprises and electronic commerce service providers are available through regional account representatives, resellers, and global affiliates. |
