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Status: U To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Identrus buys Digital Signature Trust From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 27 Mar 2002 13:48:12 -0800 Identrus buys Digital Signature Trust By LUCAS MEARIAN (March 25, 2002) Identrus LLC today announced that it has signed a deal to acquire Digital Signature Trust Co. (DST) from Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorporation and the Washington- based American Bankers Association for an undisclosed amount. The deal gives Identrus the service arm it has sorely needed as it struggles to be the user authentication service for business-to-business e- commerce. "There is a need for a B2B payment network. The banks were missing the boat, and now they'll be able to jump on and have a solid have base to operate from," said Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn. New York-based Identrus, a vendor formed by a consortium of banks, has been building a global public-key infrastructure (PKI)-based system that was trying to be the de facto "digital handshake" for cross-border business-to-business transactions. Although Identrus had the framework, guidelines and preferred vendors, it didn't have its own service. "Many banks ran into problems with vendors, and it took months to get [the PKI service] implemented. And then the customer didn't want to use it," Litan said. Last year, Identrus assumed ownership of Project Eleanor (see story), a joint venture of several financial institutions aimed at creating a standard for secure business-to-business payments over the Internet and bolstering straight-through processing or single-day settlement of trades. Salt Lake City-based DST provides online digital identity services to federal and state government agencies, including the Social Security Administration, and to U.S.-based financial services and utilities markets through its TrustID program. Greg Worch, chief marketing officer at Identrus, said the two companies are complementary from a geographical standpoint, a market segment standpoint and from a capabilities standpoint. Identrus has been dominant on global basis, but although the U.S. it has some "major players," the PKI market was fragmented compared with the rest of the world, he said. "TrustID is more targeted to needs of the middle market and B2B space," Worch said. "DST also operates not just with banks but has more strength with the nonbank industry -- the mortgage industry, government sector and supply chain area." To remove yourself from this list send a message Unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA The IBUC Symposium on Geodesic Capital April 3-4, 2002, The Downtown Harvard Club, Boston <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> for details... "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]