Bull Integrates Management of Digital Certificates within its OpenMaster Secure Enterprise Management Software Suite.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 1999--

BullSoft becomes first security software vendor to provide its own

PKI, which also can manage standards-based certification authorities

from third parties

Providing further safeguards to secure organizations' electronic mail, e-commerce, Web-based computing and other business-to-business applications, BullSoft, the worldwide software division of Bull, announced today that it has added support for standards-based public key infrastructure (PKI) capabilities to AccessMaster(R), the enterprise security domain within its OpenMaster(R) enterprise management software.

BullSoft is the first enterprise security management vendor to provide its own certification authority. The announcement was made at the 1999 RSA Data Security Conference, and reinforces BullSoft's position as the leader in end-to-end secure enterprise management.

BullSoft's PKI includes both certificate authority and registration authority, and implements the PKIX standard of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as well as the X.509 V3 standard recognized by the International Standards Organization (ISO). Because it is standards-based, BullSoft's PKI can work with and manage other certification authorities. A beta version of BullSoft's PKI will be available in March, with general release planned for April.

"Lack of security has been a deterrent in the deployment of e-commerce and Extranet applications," said Henry Ancona, president and CEO of BullSoft. "This announcement addresses those concerns by providing a single, integrated security management platform that allows customers to manage digital certificates for e-commerce and other business-to-business applications as well as security for their legacy environments. In addition, the integration of PKI within AccessMaster results in significant cost savings by accelerating the deployment of certificate-based applications."

A Comprehensive Certification Solution

"With this announcement of certification authority support within AccessMaster, BullSoft is showing that it recognizes the importance to user organizations of integrating security for electronic commerce and similar applications within a broad enterprise security environment," said Rich Ptak, vice president, systems and applications management, at Hurwitz Group, an industry research and analysis firm located in Framingham, Mass. "Once again, with its standards-compliant PKI, BullSoft demonstrates its technology leadership, the openness and the flexibility of OpenMaster, and its capability to adapt to existing and emerging infrastructures."

"Management of digital certificates within AccessMaster allows users to reduce cost and complexity while increasing the level of security," said Eric Baize, BullSoft's worldwide security product manager. "In the past, when employees left a company, a time consuming, unsecured manual procedure has been necessary to remove employee access to each computer system as well as to revoke each employee's certificate in the PKI.

"Now with AccessMaster, the security administrator can accomplish all these tasks in a single operation, consistent with the organization's security policy," Baize said. "Users who already have deployed a certification authority from another vendor can benefit in the same way from AccessMaster's PKI administration capability."

OpenMaster and AccessMaster Features & Benefits

BullSoft's OpenMaster secure enterprise management suite is the most highly integrated and customer-proven distributed network, system and security enterprise management solution in the world. More than 29,000 OpenMaster licenses are in use at more than 1,500 customer sites worldwide - more than the production installed base of comparable products from all other vendors combined.

As an enterprise security solution, AccessMaster provides centralized user administration across applications and systems, single sign-on, encryption and security services for distributed applications, control over remote users, and now public key infrastructure. All AccessMaster components share common security management services and are integrated around a central repository of user information.

About BullSoft

BullSoft, the worldwide software division of Bull, is a leading vendor of network system and telecommunications management software (OpenMaster(R)), and internet security and e-commerce software (SecurWare).

Based in Billerica, Mass., BullSoft has research and development, sales and marketing operations in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Information on OpenMaster is available toll-free by calling 800/285-5727, via e-mail at [e-mail], and via http://www.openmaster.com. Information on SecurWare is available at http://www.securware.com.

About Bull

Present in more than 85 countries with more than 21,000 employees and combined revenues of more than $4.2 billion in 1997, Bull offers a comprehensive range of systems, infrastructure software and IT services through focused innovation, alliances with the best partners and its own integration expertise. Bull's worldwide software division, BullSoft, and its North/South American operations, are headquartered in Billerica, Mass. The company's web addresses are http://www.bull.com and, in the U.S., http://www.us.bull.com.

OpenMaster and AccessMaster are registered trademarks of Bull S.A. in the U.S. and other countries. All trademarks, service marks and company names are the property of their respective owners.