PKI Forum News

Baltimore Technologies, Entrust, IBM, Microsoft and RSA Security Announce Formation of PKI Forum

Leaders in Public Key Infrastructure Provide Industry Focal Point for PKI Interoperability, Increased Customer Confidence for PKI-Based Solutions

MENLO PARK, Calif., Dec. 13, 1999 -- Leading public key infrastructure (PKI) vendors Baltimore Technologies, Entrust Technologies Inc., IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp. and RSA Security Inc. today announced the formation 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 will provide 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. The forum will sponsor product interoperability demonstrations and work closely with standards organizations and external test bodies. The forum also will bring customers and vendors together to increase customer knowledge about the value of PKI and demonstrate how PKI solves key security issues for e-business.

"Infrastructure technologies like PKI succeed only when they can support a large number of users and applications," said Jamie Lewis, CEO of The Burton Group. "By addressing interoperability issues and raising business awareness of PKI, the PKI Forum can increase the number of applications that rely on PKI and thus accelerate the deployment of PKI-based solutions."

The five founding PKI Forum member companies have expressed their commitment to working collaboratively with other vendors, as well as users, to ensure greater interoperability and utility for PKI-based solutions:

Baltimore Technologies: "The PKI Forum will enable customers to see demonstrable interoperability among the leading PKI vendors," said Paddy Holahan, executive vice president of marketing. "Baltimore Technologies, as a founding member, will work to ensure the practical implementation of open standards to deliver manageable, robust PKI systems."

Entrust: "The PKI Forum is all about increasing customer's confidence in our collective capabilities," said Brian O'Higgins, executive vice president and CTO, Entrust Technologies. "Enhancing interoperability and ease-of-use of PKI Technology will drive more value to our customers. Entrust is committed to the objectives of the PKI Forum."

IBM: "IBM is committed to open standards, and our participation in the PKI Forum will benefit our customers who rely on PKI-based applications to provide a secure foundation for e-business," said Mark Greene, vice president, IBM SecureWay. "Working with the other vendors committed to this important forum and with the broader community of technology companies and customers who will participate in the forum's working groups, IBM continues to champion standards-based, interoperable PKI and the value it brings to global e-business."

Microsoft: "As e-business evolves, PKI interoperability is crucial to meeting customer demand for Internet security. Microsoft has made this significant commitment to customers by providing PKI in Windows 2000® and is proud to play a founding role in the innovation and vision that the PKI Forum will provide to the industry and to customers," said Shanen Boettcher, product manager, Windows 2000 Security, Microsoft. "Microsoft is committed to keeping customers' information secure, and our membership in the PKI Forum is an important part of meeting this commitment."

RSA Security: "Broad PKI interoperability is essential to advancing the deployment of trusted, secure e-business applications, and RSA is happy to have this opportunity to help make it a reality," said Scott Schnell, vice president of RSA Security. "We look forward to working closely with the other PKI Forum members in achieving this goal and lending our expertise to help promote the adoption of PKI technology."

Membership in the PKI Forum is open to product and service providers, independent software vendors, consultants, integrators and end-user organizations that have a demonstrated interest in promoting PKI technology and PKI-based solutions. In addition to the five founding members, the PKI Forum is supported by a variety of leading companies that are committed to interoperable PKI-based solutions and have expressed interest in the PKI Forum. These companies include British Telecommunications plc, Hewlett-Packard Co., ID Certify, Novell Inc., The Open Group, Sun/Netscape Alliance, SPYRUS, Thawte Certification, Trustpoint, ValiCert Inc. and Xcert International Inc.

Public key technology and digital certificates have emerged as the preferred enablers of strong security for a wide range of e-business applications, including secure e-mail, secure Web access, virtual private networks and digital signatures. The most common functions of a PKI are issuing certificates, revoking certificates, creating and publishing Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs), storing and retrieving certificates and CRLs, and policy enforcement. Enhanced or emerging PKI functions include time-stamping and policy-based certificate validation. To successfully deploy a PKI, organizations must develop a sound strategy, plan for interoperability, determine how e-business applications will interface with the PKI, and plan for technical staffing requirements.

The PKI Forum is being established within the legal framework of the managed consortia program of The Open Group, a vendor and technology-neutral consortium of IT buyers and suppliers. Through defining and extending industry standards, creating customer testing and conformance programs, and educating on best industry practices, The Open Group is focused on helping customers and vendors solve enterprise integration problems.

Members of the PKI Forum plan to establish two standing working groups:

	The Business Working Group will help ensure that the forum understands the PKI needs of four constituencies: software developers, service providers, vendors and customers. It will link those needs to the Technical Working Group and carry out marketing activities.
	The Technical Working Group will develop PKI interoperability profiles to address the use of PKI in business applications, link with appropriate standards and other PKI organizations, and charter demonstration projects to establish interoperability among vendor products.

The PKI Forum intends to conduct informational meetings and a reception for interested companies in conjunction with the RSA Conference 2000, to be held the week of Jan. 17-21, 2000, in San Jose, Calif. Organizations interested in membership in the PKI Forum should contact Graham Bird of The Open Group by phone at (650) 323-7992, by fax at (650) 323-8204, or by e-mail at g.bird@opengroup.org.

Further information on The Open Group can be obtained at www.opengroup.org. For general information about the PKI Forum, see www.oasis-pki.org.

About Baltimore Technologies
Baltimore Technologies develops and markets security products and services to enable companies to develop trusted, secure systems for e-business, e-commerce and the Internet. Its products include a wide range of PKI systems, cryptographic toolkits, security applications and hardware cryptographic devices. Baltimore Technologies markets and sells its solutions worldwide directly and through the TrustedWorld channel program. The company employs over 450 people worldwide and operates from over 20 cities, with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland; London; Boston; and Sydney, Australia. Baltimore Technologies plc is a public company with dual listings on Nasdaq (BALT) and the London Stock Exchange (BLM). For further information and press releases on Baltimore Technologies, please visit http://www.baltimore.com/.

About Entrust Technologies
Entrust Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: ENTU) is a global leader in providing products and services that allow e-businesses to manage trusted, secure electronic transactions and communications over today's advanced networks, including the Internet, extranets and intranets. Since 1994, Entrust Technologies has been providing award-winning solutions to global enterprises, government entities, small to midsize businesses and individuals. Over 4 million Entrust Technologies users have been licensed with digital certificates to date. Entrust Technologies Inc. is headquartered in Plano, Texas, with offices in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany and Japan. For additional company information, please visit http://www.entrust.com/.

About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM Software offers the widest range of applications, middleware and operating systems for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. The fastest way to get more information about IBM software is through the IBM Software home page at http://www.ibm.com/software/.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device.

About RSA Security
RSA Security Inc. (Nasdaq: RSAS), The Most Trusted Name in e-Security™, helps organizations build secure, trusted foundations for e-businesses through its RSA SecurID® two-factor authentication, RSA BSAFE® encryption and RSA Keon™ public key management systems. As the global integration of Security Dynamics and RSA Data Security, RSA Security has the proven leadership, innovative technology and systems experience to address the changing security needs of e-business and bring trust to the new, online economy. RSA Security can be reached at http://www.rsasecurity.com/.

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Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust Technologies Inc. in the United States and other countries. In Canada, Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust Technologies Ltd. All Entrust product names are trademarks of Entrust Technologies.

BSAFE and SecurID are registered trademarks, and Keon, RSA and The Most Trusted Name in e-Security are trademarks of RSA Security Inc.

Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries/regions.

All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Editorial Contacts:

Baltimore Technologies
Tracy Ross
(650) 372-5288
tross@baltimore.com

Entrust Technologies
Carrie Bendzsa
(613) 247-3455
carrie.bendzsa@entrust.com

IBM
Nancy Riley
(919) 486-2834
nriley@us.ibm.com

Microsoft
Luisa Vacca
Waggener Edstrom
(425) 637-9097
luisav@wagged.com

RSA Security Inc.
Rick Mack
(781) 301-5344
rhmack@rsasecurity.com