Baltimore Technologies Secures Internet Trading for Australian Stock Exchange.

Business Editors

SYDNEY, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 31, 2000

Successful trial breaks new ground for the ASX and

opens the way for a new era of online trading in Australia

Baltimore Technologies (NASDAQ: BALT; London: BLM), a global leader in e-security solutions, today announced that the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) has deployed its technology and hosting services to secure block trading of shares over the Internet, in a three week &uot;live&uot; trial of an internet based trading system.

The new system, called BLOX, is designed specifically by the ASX to meet the needs of traders, brokers and institutions who buy and sell stocks in large &uot;blocks&uot;. In order to increase liquidity and reduce costs of block trading and thereby enhance the service, the ASX developed BLOX around the Internet and Internet-based technologies with web browsers on the client side and Java on the server side running off an Oracle database.

Security of the high-value transactions, over A$1.8 billion during the three-week trial period, is enabled through the combination of digital certificates provided by Baltimore and full-strength 128-bit encryption built into the web browser software. Baltimore's award-winning UniCERT product manages the complete cycle of registering users of the system, issuing them with digital certificates and revoking and expiring the certificates when they are no longer valid, all in accordance with strict policy control and using robust, open standards-based technology in a user-friendly environment. Digital certificates act as 'electronic passports' to ensure user authentication, data integrity, confidentiality and message non-repudiation when transacting electronically and when used within a Certificate Authority (CA) infrastructure, provide the basis for trust in electronic business and commerce.

In addition, the certificate management process is run by Baltimore's secure hosting services operation in Australia, Certificates Australia Pty Ltd., on behalf of the ASX which significantly reduced the set-up time and costs for the new system. Baltimore's Certificates Australia was the first -- and to date the only -- CA in Australia to be awarded the &uot;Gatekeeper&uot; accreditation by the Australian Government in May 1999 which sets the standards for PKI-based services to deliver new online government activities.

&uot;There is a need for strong authentication and confidentiality when dealing with sensitive information on the Internet,&uot; said David Williams, ASX e-commerce manager. &uot;The username and password method just isn't good enough any more, so a sophisticated PKI-based solution was obvious. Following a thorough evaluation of PKI technology we chose Baltimore Technologies because of their experience. An architecture of this kind provides the highest level of trust for the transmission and storage of sensitive information on public networks.&uot;

Commenting on the announcement, John Palfreyman, Managing Director for Baltimore Technologies in Australia said, &uot;This deal justifies the efforts we have made to achieve the highest levels of accreditation of our products and services, as well as the strong partnerships we have fostered with other players in the market. KPMG provided some of the initial consulting work on user registration and it is through our close alignment with them and other global partners such as Hewlett-Packard, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Unisys, as well as more local experts such as Megatec here in Australia, that we aim to continue to deliver the best solutions for secure e-business to both government and business.&uot;

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 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems, cryptographic toolkits, security applications and hardware cryptographic devices. Baltimore's global professional services organization offers a wide variety of consulting, training and deployment support to its customers worldwide.

Baltimore Technologies markets and sells its solutions worldwide directly and through the TrustedWorld(tm) channel program. TrustedWorld includes many of the world's leading technology companies and a wide variety of global, regional and local business alliance partners.

Baltimore Technologies employs over 450 people worldwide and operates from over 20 cities with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland; London, UK; Boston, USA and Sydney, Australia. Baltimore Technologies plc is a public company with dual listings on NASDAQ (BALT) and the London Stock Exchange (BLM). Intel Corporation is a minority shareholder in the Company. Baltimore Technologies made e-commerce history in 1998 when President Clinton and Ireland's Prime Minister Ahern digitally signed an inter-governmental communique using security technology provided by Baltimore.

For further information and press releases on Baltimore Technologies, please visit http://www.baltimore.com.

About Australian Stock Exchange

ASX operates Australia's primary national stock exchange for equities, derivatives and fixed interest securities and facilitates capital raisings for unlisted companies, using advanced computer systems for trading, settlement and issuer/investor matching that provide Australia-wide market access. It also provides comprehensive market data and information to a range of users. These operations are underpinned by comprehensive high-quality information technology systems.

ASX's core purpose is to conduct markets in which investors and enterprises come together with confidence to create prosperity through the sharing of risks and rewards.

ASX's continued success depends on its ability to maintain a high level of market integrity. ASX promotes market integrity in a number of ways including:- the development and implementation of Business Rules and Listing Rules designed to ensure orderly and fair markets; supervision of those markets; the active pursuit of technological improvements to meet market participants' requirements for system reliability, integrity, performance, capacity and cost effectiveness; and close co-operation with other regulators, notably the Australian Securities &Investments Commission (&uot;ASIC&uot;).

Note to Editors: E-Security, Baltimore, TrustedWorld, PKIWorld and Baltimore product names including UniCERT, MailSecure, PKI Plus and J/CRYPTO are all trademarks of Baltimore Technologies plc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Certain statements that are not historical facts including certain statements made over the course of this document may be forward-looking in nature. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance and achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements implied by such forward-looking statements.