Authentic8 Card Management Suite Simplifies Administration of Smart Cards, Digital Credentials.

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 1999--

Authentic8 Inc. today unveiled Authentic8 Card & Key Management System (CKMS), a flexible and powerful integrated suite of applications for issuing, personalizing and managing smart cards for use in secure e-business and networking applications.

Smart cards have emerged as the optimal secure storage device for multiple digital credentials, as users are able to conveniently and securely consolidate a number of such credentials onto one seamless device.

"Until now, it's been extremely difficult for organizations to manage and control all these digital credentials," said Brian Donaldson, Authentic8 Inc. president & CEO. "CKMS not only provides an easy-to-use means of generating smart cards, it also vastly simplifies and centralizes the management of all the credentials they store."

CKMS can be used as a smart card and key management system for the Authentic8 family of security products or allow e-business application developers to quickly integrate smart card security into their applications. CKMS supports a number of third party certification authority solutions from vendors such as Netscape, Baltimore and Entrust. In addition, CKMS supports products from a wide range of smart card and reader vendors including Gemplus, Schlumberger and DeLaRue, and is fully scalable for smart card applications of any size.

Generate Keys and Certificates

CKMS allows an organization to generate its own cryptographic keys and certificates and store them on smart cards. The certificates can be sent to a trusted third-party Certification Authority (CA) to be signed, or the organization may choose to operate as its own CA. CKMS can also publish certificate and public key information to LDAP or X.500 directories.

CKMS supports most leading smart card printers to issue and personalize smart cards with information such as user names and identification numbers, company logos, photographs and bar codes. Simultaneously, it can also write digital information securely to the card such as signed certificates, private keys, passwords and other required data.

The CKMS suite includes the following application features:

Registration Client (RC) The RC is a Web application that acts as an order entry facility, providing the ability to enter requests for smart cards. It communicates to the Organizational Registration Authority (ORA) application that processes the request. Information such as the employee's name and company details are entered at order entry time and are later used to generate the X.509 certificate and personalize the smart card.

Organizational Registration Authority (ORA) The ORA is used as the queuing system for all smart card requests from RC workstations. Requests are passed onto one or many Personalization Facility (PF) once the request has been validated (identity verification) and released by the ORA operator. Smart card requests can also be entered into the ORA queue via a batch file load system, which is useful when a large number of cards have been pre-validated.

Personalization Facility (PF) The PF processes requests form the ORA; generates the RSA key pair, adds an entry to the configured LDAP or X.500 directory and requests an X.509 certificate from the configured CA. The smart card chip is personalized and graphics printed on the smart card exterior.

CKMS is available immediately and is priced starting at $10,000 US.

About Authentic8

Authentic8 Inc. is a pioneer in building and marketing software that utilizes smart card and public key infrastructure technology to solve e-business security issues, allowing customers to trust the electronic exchange of sensitive data. Based in Bellevue, WA, Authentic8's products were born out of innovative research and development conducted by Philips Electronics beginning in 1994. Philips recognized the management and card issuing problems associated with deploying PKI-based systems utilizing smart cards and began to develop "shrink wrapped" applications and management solutions to address these issues. In 1998, with backing from the Allen & Buckeridge venture capital fund, Authentic8 acquired the smart card intellectual property and the original development team from Philips Electronics and is now bringing to market a line of commercial security products.

Authentic8 Inc. is located at 11120 NE 2nd St., Suite 100, Bellevue, Washington 98004, Tel. [phone], Fax [phone]. For more information about Authentic8 products, technologies and employment opportunities, send email to [e-mail], or browse the company's web site at http://www.authentic8.com

Authentic8 Secure Network (SNET), Authentic8 Card & Key Management System (CKMS), Authentic8, and other names and logos of Authentic8 products and/or services, are registered and common law trademarks of A8 Corporation Limited. Other products and company names mentioned in this publication are the trademarks of their respective owners.