Baltimore Technologies Partners with Datakey to Deliver Certificate-based Smart Card Solution; Certificate issuance to smart card demonstrated at CTST'98 West.

CARDTECH/SECURTECH'98 WEST CONFERENCE, SAN JOSE, Calif. --(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 1998--Baltimore Technologies, international leaders in Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems, today announced a partnership with Datakey, Inc., a supplier of cryptographic information security solutions that deliver a certificate-based smart card solution for strong, end user authentication.

Digital Certificates provide users with the ability to identify themselves in an electronic transaction. With the integration of Datakey's SignaSURE? smart card product and Baltimore's UniCERT Certificate Authority system, users can be identified and authenticated using two factor authentication -- resulting in a security solution ideally suited for a wide range of electronic commerce and remote access applications.

"The ability to process private key operations and securely store digital certificates in a smart card is critical for strong, mobile authentication," said Carl P. Boecher, president and CEO of Datakey. "Datakey is pleased to partner with Baltimore, a recognized global leader in certificate authority systems."

Datakey's SignaSURE CIP (Cryptographic Interface Provider) provides on-card processing and storage of private cryptographic data that enables user identification and authentication, secure data exchange, and information validation. Critical private key operations are performed on the smart card allowing a much higher level of information security than is provided by software-only systems. Datakey smart cards provide the user with the additional security of two-factor authentication: something they know (a passphrase or PIN) and something they have (a personal smart card). In addition, the smart cards give the users complete portability of their digital certificate. They can gain access to applications from any computer or workstation location.

"Security is one of the most important factors in successfully deploying smart card technologies for use in electronic commerce and remote access applications", commented Fran Rooney, president and CEO of Baltimore Technologies. "Baltimore selected Datakey as a smart card partner due to their leadership in providing advanced security features and adherence to industry standards such as PKCS#11."

UniCERT is Baltimore Technologies flagship product and is one of the leading Certificate Authority (CA) systems world-wide. UniCERT is a modular system offering flexible, scalable deployment for both public and private CAs. Its modular design allows for distributed operation for a wide variety of systems including secure electronic transactions, secure email, secure web, and virtual private networks. UniCERT includes a unique policy enforcement system enabling security policies to be enforced at registration and at application level.

About Datakey

Datakey, Inc. is an international supplier of electronic products and services. The Company provides product, subsystem and system solutions to record, store, and transmit electronic information. Datakey provides products and systems directed to the information security markets that enable user authentication, secure data exchange, and information validation. It also provides OEM products, consisting of proprietary memory keys, cards and other custom-shaped tokens, that serve as a convenient way to carry electronic information and are packaged to survive in portable environments.

About Baltimore Technologies

Baltimore Technologies is a global provider of Information Security products and systems. Its products include solutions for Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI), secure e-mail, web & e-commerce. Baltimore Technologies also provides a range of C and Java cryptography toolkits and supplies design and consulting services to the IT security industry. Baltimore's headquarters are located in the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin and it has offices throughout the world. US headquarters are based in Boston, MA. The company was founded in 1976 and is privately held.

Baltimore Technologies helped make e-commerce history when its digital signature system was used by President Clinton and Prime Minister Bertie Ahern of Ireland to execute the first digitally signed state document between governments using smart cards provided by Datakey.