Entrust Technologies Hosts Teleconference with Forrester Research and Travelocity.com on Digital Certificate Expiry

Business Wire, Dec 6, 1999

OTTAWA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 6, 1999--

Entrust Technologies (NASDAQ:ENTU) will host a teleconference with Carl Howe, director of corporate infrastructure at Forrester Research, and Richard Pendergast, Director of Travelocity Systems, to discuss the expiration of some digital certificates on December 31, 1999, as well as its impact on the millions of browsers trying to connect to e-business sites beginning January 1, 2000.

Date: December 6, 1999 Time: 3pm EST Call in #: 1-800-276-6308

With just 25 days left in the year, the issue of maintaining Internet security through Y2K is of significant concern. A recent research brief issued by Carl Howe, director of corporate infrastructure at Forrester Research Inc. looks at the expiration of many digital certificates, or Root CA (Certification Authority) expiration, and how it is expected to impact millions of browsers trying to connect to e-business sites starting on January 1, 2000. The brief recommends that online companies "move aggressively" to fix this problem, citing that potential ramifications of inaction to include the risk of losing customers and customer confidence along with creating the perception that the company has Y2K problems, all of which can contribute to loss of revenue. This perception will be particularly difficult to dispel since the expiration coincides with Y2K.

Given that Root CA certificates from certain vendors are embedded in millions of users' browsers and are set to expire on December 31, 1999, there is no easy way for these vendors to solve their expiration problem. It could lead to lost revenue, customer dissatisfaction, and costly technical support and customer service calls. To address this issue, Forrester suggests replacing existing Web server certificates with certificates from CAs such as Entrust.net, whose root certificates do not expire until the year 2020.

Please join Carl Howe of Forrester, Richard Pendergast of Travelocity.com, Bob Heard, senior vice-president of marketing and business development for Entrust and Chris Voice, Director of Product Management for Entrust to discuss the potential impact of this problem and how to avoid it.

For more information on this issue, and to view the Forrester brief in full, please refer to http://www.entrust.com/news/y2k