Gemplus Delivers New Level of Corporate Security With GemSAFE, Enterprise Solution; PKI Combined With Smart Cards Offers Highest Degree of Security, Control, and Ease of Use

Business Wire, April 9, 2001

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 9, 2001

RSA Security(TM),(SM) 2001--Gemplus S.A. (NASDAQ:GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card solutions, today released the next generation of GemSAFE(TM),(SM) Enterprise (GSE), a corporate security solution enabling companies to protect their business communications. GSE offers the most advanced security solutions, combining smart card and public key infrastructure (PKI) technologies to secure network applications and data transactions. The solution safeguards privacy throughout the enterprise and external business communication by providing controls over authentication and access.

The key added features of the next generation GSE include multiple PKI support and an enhanced card management system, providing remote diagnostics and maintenance. The added capabilities in the new version enable businesses to print and personalize their cards locally, or through a Gemplus personalization center for larger deployments. Combining the card management system with user stations and a development kit, the solution allows businesses to deploy and manage the entire lifecycle of smart cards in-house. The flexibility of the solution makes it possible for enterprises to personalize card systems to fit their individual needs.

The GSE solution customer-base includes a broad range of multi-national corporations, such as ABN AMRO, BRED Banque, British Petroleum, Connecticut Hospital Association, Czech Government, Mondadori Informatica Education, PinkRoccade, Telecom Italia Mobile and Telefonica.

"GemSAFE Enterprise fits our needs well. It was necessary to find a solution that accommodates strong controls for access and authentication," said Eric Koop, VP for ABN AMRO Bank. "We have trust in the GemSAFE solution; we now have peace of mind that communication and transaction information is being conducted in a secure and convenient manner."

Pete Lindstrom, a Senior Security Analyst from Hurwitz Group states: "The smart card industry is poised for growth as PKI becomes more widely adopted and e-businesses increase their demand for stronger authentication than the use of a password. Smart cards play a key role in boosting the potential of PKI, authentication, and digital signatures; providing a significant increase in security."

Offering tamper-resistant storage of encryption keys and digital certificates, smart cards are an ideal way to secure and maintain authorized access for business-critical information and applications. GSE provides smart card solutions that meet rigorous security needs for a variety of industries such as retail, banking, and healthcare. Smart cards offer portability and complete control over information access for convenience and protection of privacy.

It should be noted that certain of the statements contained in this release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of section 27A of the securities act of 1933 and section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors including without limitation customer demand for our products, supply of key components, developments in the market and advances in technology that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, or performance to materially differ from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For a more detailed description of these factors, please see Gemplus' most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements reflect management's current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this release. We are under no duty to update or revise any of the forward-looking statements after this date or to conform such statements to actual results or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated results.

About Gemplus

GEMPLUS: the world's leading smart card solutions provider.

Since its creation in 1988, Gemplus International S.A.(Euronext: Sicovam 5768 and Nasdaq:GEMP) has driven the global marketing and deployment of smart card-based applications for telecommunications, financial services and e-business security.

Gemplus is instrumental throughout the value chain -- chip design, card management systems, software development, and consulting -- delivering integrated custom-made solutions for the security, personalization and privacy management needs of clients and partners worldwide.

Gemplus technology has played a defining role in the development of wireless telephony since the introduction of SIM cards into the GSM standard in 1990. For more than a decade, Gemplus has pioneered applications that enable network operators around the world to answer the changing needs of their customers. Gemplus was first to market with a 3G card and supplies a product range compliant with new and emerging transmission standards - 2.5G, 3G.