Network Solutions Registry Joins Multilingual Internet Names Consortium.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 22, 2000

Rapid Expansion of Local Language Technology

and Standards to be Explored

The Network Solutions Registry (NSI Registry), a division of Network Solutions, Inc., and the world's leading provider of Internet locator services with more than 14 million names registered, gathered in Seoul, Korea last week, along with representatives from more than ten international companies and organizations dealing with Internet domain names and keywords, for the inaugural launch of the Multilingual Internet Names Consortium (MINC) on 12-13th June 2000.

"Network Solutions views efforts such as MINC to be critical to the sustained exponential growth of the Internet," said Bruce Chovnick, senior vice president and general manager of Network Solutions Registry. "Local languages and standardization will make it easier and more efficient for millions of people to join the Internet community. NSI's involvement in MINC, and our investment in Nominum are all consistent with our belief that to make the Internet truly global, it must be truly accessible."

MINC's goal is to open discussion on how best to internationalize the Internet. Additionally, MINC will support development of multilingual Internet domain names in email and web addresses. This integrated and concerted effort is designed to create awareness in the largely English-dominated web world and draw attention to the linguistic needs of non-English speaking Internet communities worldwide.

MINC will support Internet development in any region in the world where the English language or the ASCII alphabet is not natively understood or in widespread use specifically where it pertains to Internet names. The Consortium's principal activities include: coordination of research and development on multilingual names, coordination on technical deployment on multilingual names, and acting as a liaison with organizations such as IETF, IANA and ICANN.

"MINC's non-governmental, global approach takes its lead from members of the Internet community who are involved and interested in the development of Internet names," said Professor Tan Tin Wee, the APNG chairman who commissioned the project in 1998 http://www.apng.org/commission/idns which has now led to the formation of MINC. "By making linguistic barriers to the Internet a thing of the past, MINC aims to make the Internet globally accessible for all peoples of the world." MINC will also lead coordination efforts for multilingual DNS solutions such as those solutions proposed by i-DNS.net Inc, .NU Domain, a joint group comprising TWNIC, CNNIC and HKNIC for Chinese internet domain names, and other commercial groups.

Last week's MINC launch will be followed by special sessions during the period of the INET2000 conference in July 2000, in Yokohama, Japan, and by an entire conference track during an upcoming conference in September 2000 in Singapore.

For more information and membership details, please see http://www.minc.org/ .

About the Network Solutions Registry

The Network Solutions Registry is the leading provider of Internet locator services and is a business within Network Solutions, Inc., a VeriSign company (NASDAQ: VRSN). The Registry maintains the definitive directory for Web addresses and is responsible for the infrastructure that propagates this information throughout the Internet. As the exclusive provider of registry services to .com, .net and .org, the Registry currently supports 48 active ICANN accredited registrars operating in 13 countries around the globe. On June 8, 2000 Network Solutions was acquired by VeriSign, Inc. to create the world's largest provider of Internet Trust Services. For more information, see the http://www.verisign.com or the http://www.nsiregistry.com website.

Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, potential volatility in the company's stock price, uncertainty of Internet privatization, increased competition in the domain name registration business including price competition, customer acceptance of new products and services offered by the company in addition to or as enhancements of its registration services, risks associated with the company's international business, uncertainty of future revenue and profitability and fluctuations in its quarterly operating results. More information about potential factors that could affect the company's business and financial results is included in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, especially in the company's Registration Statement on Form S-3 filed on December 22, 1999, as amended, Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2000.