Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency -SAMA- Chooses Baltimore Technologies to Establish eTrust Centre

Business Wire, March 19, 2003

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 2003

Baltimore Technologies

Baltimore Technologies Wins New $2.8 Million Contract,

Enabling Saudi Banks to Transact Using Digital Signatures

Baltimore Technologies (London:BLM), a global leader in e-security, today announced that the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), the central bank of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has chosen Baltimore Technologies to provide a comprehensive security solution to enable online trusted transactions for the network of Saudi Arabia-based banks.

Baltimore UniCERT(TM), the company's flagship Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) product, will underpin the online payments systems within the Banking sector to assure the integrity and authenticity of all transactions. In addition, Baltimore's PKI technology will be used to create the Root Certificate Authority for the financial services industry within the Kingdom.

The system allows SAMA to act as a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) for one of the Gulf Region's most important banking networks. UniCERT provides SAMA with a complete policy based Digital Certificate Management System for the creation and management of certificate-based digital identities and signatures. In addition, Baltimore's professional services and security consultancy practice are working with SAMA and the Banks to establish the eTrust Centre.

"Baltimore was selected because of its flexible and scalable PKI-based digital identity and signature management system. Baltimore's ability to provide a complete solution for this project has been a decisive factor and enables SAMA to ensure that Saudi banks can conduct e-business with confidence using digital signatures," commented Ibrahim S. Al-Sayari, Director of Banking Technology - SAMA.

"This project not only emphasises Baltimore's position as the leading provider of high-end PKI-based trust infrastructures in the global financial services as well as Government sectors, but also demonstrates our commitment to the Gulf Region," added Bijan Khezri, chief executive of Baltimore Technologies plc. "We see this transaction as a critical platform for expansion into the region, which we believe, will provide significant growth in IT investment in the years to come. Historically, SAMA has been recognised for technology leadership and has also frequently set the standard throughout the region. We are looking forward to a long-term partnership with SAMA."

Baltimore has partnered with Mohammed M. Al Rumaih Co. in Saudi Arabia who will provide local support and services. The eTrust Centre will be Gulf Region's first large scale application of PKI technology in the banking sector. As Baltimore's security technology is scalable to support millions of transactions daily, SAMA can also leverage the system to issue digital certificates to the wider corporate community, allowing businesses throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to securely transact online.

About SAMA

Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), is the central bank of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Please visit http://www.sama.gov.sa.

About Baltimore Technologies

Baltimore Technologies' products, services and solutions address the fundamental security needs of e-business in distributed environments. Baltimore's e-security technology enables companies to verify the identity of electronic counterparties and securely manages which resources and information users can access through open networks. Many of the world's leading organisations in Finance and Government have deployed Baltimore's e-security technology to enable e-business over fixed and wireless networks. Baltimore also offers worldwide support for its authorization management and public key-based authentication products.

Baltimore's products, services and solutions are sold directly as well as through its worldwide partner network, Baltimore TrustedWorld(TM). Baltimore Technologies is a public company, listed on the London Stock Exchange (BLM). For more information on Baltimore Technologies, please visit http://www.baltimore.com.

Trademarks

Note to Editors: UniCERT and SelectAccess are trademarks of Baltimore Technologies plc. All other product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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Certain statements that are not historical facts including certain statements made over the course of this document may be forward-looking in nature. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance and achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements implied by such forward-looking statements.