PKI Forum

["Juan Rodriguez-Torrent" <jrtorrent@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think this press release is of prime interest to this group

Juan Rodriguez-Torrent
torrent@us.ibm.com

"It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them
afterwards." Baltasar Gracian


For additional information on the PKI Forum:
Patrick Corman
Corman Communications
(650) 326-9648
patrick@cormancom.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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.pkiforum.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-SecurityT,
helps organizations build secure, trusted foundations for e-businesses
through its RSA SecurID® two-factor authentication, RSA BSAFE® encryption
and RSA KeonT 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/.
# # #
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

 Statements of support regarding the mission of the PKI Forum have been
received from the following organizations:

"We are delighted to be part of the PKI forum. As one of the leading
suppliers of eBusiness solutions in the UK, we are also committed to
providing organizations with the most secure
eBusiness infrastructure in the world. One of the crucial elements of
building trust in eBusiness is the promotion of industry standards which
will facilitate secure communication across open networks. The formation of
an industry body which actively promotes these standards is a positive step
forward and we look forward to working with all our partners." -- David
Furniss
General Manager, BT eBusiness

"Hewlett-Packard Company supports the efforts of the PKI Forum to achieve gr
eater interoperability among and faster adoption of PKI security
technologies.  E-Services require a robust security infrastructure to ensure
trust, and HP is leveraging standards-based, interoperable PKI to deliver
promise of this technology." - Roberto Medrano, General Manager, Internet
Security Division, Hewlett Packard Company

"ID Certify is looking forward to playing an active role in the PKI Forum.
The Forum goals of interoperability for certificates and education will be
critical for the growth and advancement of the industry." -- Linda
Mackintosh, President, ID Certify

"Novell believes the creation of the PKI Forum is an important step in
accelerating the adoption of PKI security technology. PKI technology, in
combination with directory services, is critical to the infrastructure of
e-business and is central to the success of future technology-based
commerce." -- Winston Bumpus, Director of Standards, Novell

"The Open Group is pleased to support the members of the PKI Forum in their
efforts to accelerate interoperability through industry standards,
certification testing and conformance programs. The expected results of the
PKI Forum will make a major contribution towards interoperability and
increased end-user confidence in the deployment of multi-vendor PKI-based
solutions." -- Allen Brown, President and CEO, The Open Group

"As a PKI solutions provider, SPYRUS enthusiastically supports the creation
of the PKI Forum. We look forward to an era of ubiquitous and interoperable
PKI solutions from all of the various technology and service providers in
this burgeoning industry. The PKI Forum is the first unified organization to
bring together the PKI market leaders to openly discuss and encourage
prompt response to critical business issues." - Sue Pontius, CEO, Spyrus

"Thawte is pleased to be a member of the PKI Forum. We are confident that
the PKI Forum will increase vendor awareness of the need for PKI
interoperability and provide a venue for PKI protocol testing and
adoption." - Mark Shuttleworth, President, Thawte Certification

"We fully support the efforts of the PKI Forum and look forward to working
with its members in creating open standards for interoperable PKI solutions.
Trustpoint's cross-platform JavaT-based PKI components and certification
authority systems enable standards-based trust management on the widest
range of networked computing and communication devices. The PKI Forum's
mission closely parallels our own, and we believe our recognized leadership
in open PKI standards development will be a valuable asset to this
organization." -- John Kennedy, Chief Technology Officer, Trustpoint

"Interoperability is a cornerstone of ValiCert's VA solution, and we look
forward to working with the other members of the PKI Forum on this and other
PKI issues. PKI offers the best security foundation for all e-business
applications, and we support the Forum's goal of accelerating PKI
adoption." -- Sathvik Krishnamurthy, Vice President of Marketing and
Business Development, ValiCert

"Xcert's commitment to open standards to facilitate interoperability is an
intrinsic part of our philosophy. We look at participating in the PKI Forum
from its inception as a formal opportunity to drive to successful resolution
one of the markets more pressing concerns, that of interoperability. Xcert
customers, including American Banker's Association and GSA ACES Project
(General Administration Services Access for Electronic Services Project),
have voiced their support of Xcert's leadership role in the PKI Forum,
reiterating that interoperability is a top priority in terms of their
ability to move forward in their multi-vendor PKI initiatives." -- Patrick
Richard, CTO of Xcert International, Inc.