New encryption software provides unsurpassed information confidentiality announces Sterling Commerce.

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 20, 1997--For organizations that need to provide privacy and authentication for information stored or transmitted across public or private networks, Sterling Commerce (NYSE:SE) Thursday announced CONNECT:Conceal(TM) -- the next-generation encryption software that provides confidentiality for information while reducing key management and administrative overhead.

The company also announced its related alliances with Toronto, Ontario-based Certicom Inc. and Oakland, Calif.-based SourceFile.

Unlike other software that supports only one key management methodology, CONNECT:Conceal is designed to provide a choice of key management systems and extend an organization's access control to establish information flows -- enabling electronic commerce by securing user-to-user and business-to-business communication.

Defining the set of transactions a user is authorized to perform, CONNECT:Conceal's roles-based labels define the relationship and access authority between users and information, and are used to create symmetric session keys.

Using "Just-In-Time" Key Management(SM) (JIT), CONNECT:Conceal exploits the performance advantages of symmetric encryption processing and helps to eliminate the need to attach encrypted session keys to encrypted data, helping to reduce the interception or theft of session keys.

Sterling Commerce has introduced CONNECT:Conceal as part of its new secure access management strategy -- a comprehensive blueprint for enterprisewide security that includes a growing portfolio of software and services.

Also released today is the completely redesigned CONNECT:Firewall(TM) solution, which provides protection for data traveling on public and private networks and also securely manages Internet and World Wide Web transmissions. (See news release: Sterling Commerce protects corporations from security risks with its new Firewall technology)

"With conservative industry estimates marking financial losses from computer crime at more than $10 billion a year, CONNECT:Conceal is an invaluable tool to organizations requiring information confidentiality," said Steve Perkins, president of the Communications Software Group of Sterling Commerce. "Not only does this software offer next-generation encryption for file, memory and streams-based data, the simplicity of the desktop application makes it usable by anyone."

Perkins said the relationship with Certicom and SourceFile further amplifies the commitment of Sterling Commerce in fulfilling its secure access management blueprint.

Sterling Commerce will license an Elliptic Curve (EC) Toolkit from Certicom Corp., a leading provider of cryptographic technologies and information security products, to provide high-speed data encryption and digital signature generation and verification functions. The EC Toolkit uses Certicom's implementation of the Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem (ECC), which has the highest strength-per-bit of any known public-key system.

The result is smaller keys, faster processing and less bandwidth while providing strong security. Combining Certicom's ECC technology and CONNECT:Conceal's symmetric key technology allows organizations to choose the type of key management, authentication and encryption algorithms based on their particular security or business need.

As the only company currently authorized by the U.S. government to provide key recovery services for export-approved products that contain strong encryption, SourceFile will use CONNECT:Conceal to provide authentication and encryption for its key recovery and source code escrow clients. CONNECT:Conceal will support SourceFile's SourceKey(TM) as its initial key recovery agent.

Developed from the ground up as a key recovery system, CONNECT:Conceal is available as a simple plug-and-play solution for desktop file encryption and as a developer's toolkit for developing new applications or customizing existing applications to support encryption requirements.

The desktop version of CONNECT:Conceal is simple to install for the untrained user and is easily integrated into existing environments with minimal network configuration modifications. With "EZ Interfaces" to programs such as Microsoft Word(R) and Excel(R), CONNECT:Conceal simply adds new icons and menu items to existing tool bars. Available today, the desktop version is priced from $149 per client and the developer toolkit starts at $2,495.

Sterling Commerce, with its executive offices in Dallas, is a leading, global provider of electronic software products and services that enable businesses to engage in business-to-business electronic communications and transactions. Sterling Commerce has been providing electronic commerce solutions for over 20 years, and has nearly 25,000 customer sites worldwide and 1,300 employees. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Additional Contacts/Related Sources:

Bill Ferguson, vice president, business development,

Certicom Inc.; phone: [phone]

Tucker Cox, business development,

SourceFile; phone: [phone]

CONTACT: Sterling Commerce, Dallas

Mary Van Zandt, 972/868-5764

[e-mail]

or

M/C/C, Dallas

Bridget Cavanaugh, 972/480-8383

[e-mail]