Baltimore Technologies Selected to Participate in Development of United States Federal Bridge Certificate Authority.

Business/Technology Editors

NEEDHAM HEIGHTS, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 6, 2000

Prototype of Federal PKI Initiative Tested at

The Electronic Messaging Association Challenge 2000

Baltimore Technologies (NASDAQ:BALT;London:BLM), a global leader in e-security solutions, today announced that through its acquisition of CyberTrust Solutions, Inc. it has been selected to serve as one-half of the U.S. government's prototype Federal Bridge Certification Authority (FBCA). The FBCA, a focal point for interoperability among U.S. Federal agencies and ultimately between the U.S. government and non-government certification authorities (CA), utilizes the Baltimore Technologies CA Hosting Service as well as other vendor products to act as a "bridge of trust" used to validate digital certificates.

Digital certificates, the unique electronic credentials that support user authentication, data integrity and confidentiality, have been adopted in Federal, state and municipal government agencies to conduct transactions over the Internet in order to streamline procedures and reduce costs. However, with each agency developing its own Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), a mechanism is needed to ensure that the digital certificates each PKI issues will be interoperable between agencies. The FBCA is an initiative that will enable Federal agencies on all levels to connect through a national PKI that allows each agency's electronic credentials to be accepted by other agencies, and ultimately will allow the acceptance of credentials issued by parties external to the Federal government.

The prototype FBCA will demonstrate its interoperability during the Electronic Messaging Association (EMA) Annual Conference, April 6-8 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Mass. The demonstration will be part of the WEMA Security Challenge, EMA Showcase. The WEMA Security Challenge is a global event spanning one year of security demonstrations throughout the world all sponsored by the World Electronic Messaging Associations. The WEMA Security Challenge is co-chaired by Michele Rubenstein of B2B Communications, Inc., and Paul Evans, of Evans and Associates. As part of the EMA Showcase, the FBCA demonstration will support secure messaging among several disparate PKI domains including a total of five different CA products, three different X.500 directory products and one email client. The demonstration participants will include representatives of the Government of Canada, the U.S. National Security Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. General Services Administration, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Georgia Tech Research Institute and various other entities.

"As government agencies transition processes to the Internet, authenticating users and ensuring data integrity and confidentiality become critical needs. Agencies want interoperability, so that the electronic credentials - digital certificates - issued by one can be accepted by all," said Richard Guida, chair of the Federal Public Key Infrastructure Steering Committee and champion for Security of the Government Information Technology Services Board. "The FBCA fulfills this need in an efficient and technically elegant fashion."

"Baltimore Technologies has a distinguished history enabling governments around the world to implement innovative PKI solutions to streamline their processes and better interact with their citizens," said Peter J. Hussey, executive vice president for Baltimore Technologies in the Americas. "Our CA hosting service helps the FBCA provide a convenient and cost-effective solution to support the interoperability of digital certificates across agencies."

"This EMA Showcase is the first of several showcases around the world that will demonstrate multi-domain, multi-CA trust paths between trading partners, commercial and government," said Michele Rubenstein, Challenge Co-Chair. "The fact that we have succeeded is quite noteworthy because this hasn't been demonstrated publicly before anywhere. This is big! WEMA has accomplished something never done before! And there's more to come in the near term. The other EMAs, along with the U.S. EMA, will have other demonstrations over the next 12-15 months."

About Baltimore Technologies

Baltimore Technologies develops and markets security products and services to enable companies to develop trusted, secure systems for e-business, the Internet and mobile commerce. Its products include a wide range of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems, wireless e-security solutions, cryptographic tool-kits, 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 700 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 when President Clinton and Ireland's Prime Minister Ahern digitally signed an inter-governmental communique using security technology provided by Baltimore.

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