Entrust Technologies Provides PKI Foundation for United States Federal Bridge Certification Authority: Separate Pilots Prove Interoperability of Digital Signatures

Business Wire, April 10, 2000

Business Editors

PLANO, TX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 2000

Entrust Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: ENTU), the global leader in solutions that bring trust to e-business, today announced its long-standing involvement with the U.S. Government's Federal Bridge Certification Authority (FBCA) and a recent interoperability test involving three Federal agencies, the Government of Canada, and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

Entrust's market-leading public-key infrastructure (PKI) software serves as one-half of the prototype FBCA and represented more than half of the CAs tested in the interoperability pilot, which included Canada, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), GTRI, and portions of the Department of Defense. CygnaCom Solutions, now an Entrust Technologies company, and Entrust were involved in both projects from the outset to establish the infrastructure and execute interoperability tests.

A diagram illustrating Entrust's involvement in the FBCA is available for viewing at http://www.entrust.com/news/fbca.htm. Baltimore Technologies, through its acquisition of GTE CyberTrust Solutions, Inc. serves as the second half of the FBCA.

PKI interoperability initiatives of this type are essential to help provide the required trust infrastructure to support the burgeoning Internet economy, which is predicted to reach $2.8 trillion, becoming the world's third largest economy, by 2003*.

Within the U.S. Federal Government's ongoing projects, the FBCA and DoD Bridge CAs are networked together and linked to the Canadian Federal Government's Entrust PKI to provide a trusted test environment for the validation of digital certificates and the subsequent exchange of secure information between participants. This interoperable environment is expected ultimately to extend its reach to serve as a trusted link, or bridge, between government and private sector CAs. This will allow government and non-government organizations to conduct secure communications and transactions over the Internet using digital certificates. These digital certificates provide the basis for a scalable PKI that provides increased control, flexibility and trust for a wide variety of e-business transactions and communications.

"The groundbreaking cooperative efforts represented by the Federal Bridge CA will help enable interoperable e-government transactions, streamline internal processes, and improve service delivery to citizens and agency trading partners," said Richard Guida, chair of the Federal Public Key Infrastructure Steering Committee and champion for Security of the Government Information Technology Services Board. "Inter-agency interoperability between PKIs is critical if we are to cut across agency stove-piped applications. We are confident that the innovative work being done through the Federal Bridge CA will accomplish that goal, and serve us well as agencies move to perform more and more of their business over the Internet."

"Both the US and Canadian governments have been early-adopters of Entrust's leading-edge PKI technology. The Federal Bridge CA project is a prime example of this innovation. As a market-leader and innovator, we continue to join and found interoperability forums to help make it safe for organizations to do business on the Internet," said John Ryan, president and CEO, Entrust Technologies Inc. "Our pioneering work, in participation with government, supports open industry standards and allows agencies to strengthen their trusted e-business relationships in a flexible, cost-effective manner."

In addition to its FBCA and ongoing standards work, Entrust Technologies is a founding member 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 provides 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.

CygnaCom Solutions, an Entrust Technologies company, specializes in Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI) information security consulting for the U.S. Federal Government and provides cost-effective security evaluation and testing laboratories. CygnaCom has expertise in PKI, cryptographic technologies, security engineering, systems integration and development, the FIPS 140-1 Standard, the Trusted Computer Systems Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC) and the Common Criteria (CC).

About Entrust Technologies

Entrust Technologies Inc., is the global leader in solutions that bring trust to e-business relationships by securing business-to-business (B2B), business-to-customer (B2C) and Intra-business (Intra-B) transactions and communications. Entrust Technologies pioneered public-key infrastructure (PKI) and digital certificate solutions that provide security for business transactions and communications over the Internet. Through its innovation, vision and industry-leading security expertise, Entrust Technologies is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the explosive growth of the e-business market. Entrust Technologies Inc. is headquartered in Plano, Texas with worldwide offices and distributors across North America, Asia and Europe. For additional company information please visit www.entrust.com.