Datum Announces Strategic Alliances That Provide GPS-based NIST-traceable Time for E-commerce Applications.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 1998--Datum Inc. (Nasdaq: DATM) Thursday announced strategic alliances with Digital Delivery Inc. and Coastek Inc. to develop advanced digital security for transmitting highly sensitive documents across the Internet.

The alliance will provide GPS-based time stamps, referenced to UTC (NIST), that can be encapsulated into transactions and documents in a cryptographically protected manner and transmitted as e-mail, FTP, CD or diskette.

"As the Internet grows into critical component of both the domestic and international economic infrastructure, this strategic alliance takes our focus on the growing e-commerce time stamping market one step further," said Mitch Stone, vice-president of Datum's E-Commerce Marketing Group. "With Coastek's DigiSeal(TM) providing the means of encapsulating time stamps into documents and Digital Delivery's Confidential Courier(R) distributing the documents in a crytographically protected manner, we are providing the NIST traceable time our customers have been requesting."

Coastek's DigiSeal family of electronic notary software applications enables businesses and individuals to digitally sign e-mail messages, electronic forms and other on-line documents. These electronically notarized digital signatures are non-repudiable cryptographic objects that securely bind the essential Who, What and When aspects of an electronic transaction, agreement or record. For the When aspect, Coastek uses the UTC (NIST) time provided by Datum's NTP network time server or PCI timing module.

Digital Delivery's Confidential Courier encryption key management software uses the UTC (NIST) time provided by Datum's products to control files access by the time-sensitive locking of files. This encryption scheme can control the time of day, date or number of days that an authorized user can access a file. These time-sensitive features rely on the availability of NIST-traceable time at the key server and, in critical applications, at the file recipient's system as well.

About Datum

Datum has a long history in the timing industry with over 28 years of experience designing, manufacturing and marketing high precision time and frequency products. Today, Datum is the largest timing focused company in the world. In recent years, Datum has emphasized the distribution of time over the rapidly evolving computer network infrastructure.

Both the TymServe 2100L(R) and the companion TymServe 2100(R) provide time service using NTP in TCP/IP networks, with typical accuracy of 1 to 5 milliseconds. In addition, the TymServe 2100 has a full suite of precision timing outputs to synchronize local peripheral equipment, with typical accuracy of 1 microsecond. The non-NTP functionality is not supported by the TymServe 2100L, offering network managers an NTP only unit with substantial price savings.

For additional information on the TymServe 2100L or Datum's family of precision time and frequency products, contact: Datum Bancomm-Timing Division, 6781 Via Del Oro, San Jose, Calif. 95119-1360, telephone [phone], fax [phone] or e-mail [e-mail].

For editorial information, contact The Huffer Group Inc., Jennifer Huffer, 19700 Fairchild, Suite 380, Irvine, Calif. 92612, telephone [phone], fax [phone] or e-mail [e-mail].

For corporate or investor information on Datum Inc., contact Datum Inc., David A. Young, CFO, telephone [phone] or Morgen-Walke Associates, Chris Danne, Todd Friedman or Doug Sherk on telephone [phone].

About Coastek Inc.

Founded in 1996, Coastek empowers corporations to perform trusted electronic transactions by providing products and services for strong notary-level authentication of mission-critical electronic records. Coastek's DigiSeal family of electronic notary products enables e-mail messages, electronic forms and online documents to be signed with a Notarized Digital Signature(TM). This Notarized Digital Signature binds the essential who, what and when aspects of an electronic transaction, agreement or record.

For additional information on Coastek or the DigiSeal family of products, contact Coastek, Scotts Valley, Calif., telephone [phone] or e-mail [e-mail].

About Digital Delivery Inc.

As a worldwide leader in secure product and information distribution, Digital Delivery provides superior software, services and expertise to companies who distribute products and proprietary information. Digital Delivery's Confidential Courier is an affordable software system that makes it easy to manage and distribute confidential information. It provides a secure method of receiving data and an easy way of unlocking encrypted products and information -- only if the data recipient has the appropriate keys.

For additional information on Digital Delivery or the Confidential Courier family of products, contact Digital Delivery, Inc., 54 Middlesex Turnpike, Bedford Mass. 01730-1417, telephone [phone], fax [phone] or visit the Web site at http://www.digitaldelivery.com.

Definitions

1 UTC: Coordinated Universal Time 

The initials follow the original French phrase, not the English.

This is the official commercial time scale of the world. Loosely,

UTC corresponds to the now obsolete "Greenwich Mean Time".

NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology 

NIST and the United States Naval Observatory, USNO, share time

keeping responsibilities. NIST is fundamentally responsible for

the standard SECOND and USNO is responsible for TIME OF DAY;

however maintenance and dissemination of Time of Day is split

into NIST/civilian and USNO/military responsibilities.