Xcert Introduces Sentry CA 3.5, First Scaleable PKI Product Suite to Extend Beyond the Firewall.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 15, 1999--

Industrial Strength PKI Solution Enables Secure, High-Assurance Internet Commerce, Communications for Enterprises, Customers, Partners

Xcert International, Inc., the premier developer of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology, today introduced Sentry CA 3.5, the first PKI product suite to extend beyond the firewall. The next-generation Sentry CA 3.5 product suite enables secure, high-assurance Internet commerce and communications for enterprises, customers and partners. Xcert's technology enables financial institutions, large corporations and government agencies to increase revenue and improve productivity by conducting sensitive business transactions electronically.

Xcert's industrial-strength PKI solution is the only digital certificate software to support both the security and business requirements of large enterprises. Scaling upwards of hundreds of thousands of users, Sentry CA 3.5 lets an organization own and operate its own digital Certificate Authority (CA) according to its existing business practices. It is the only solution to interoperate with all other standard PKI systems and extend PKI beyond the firewall, enabling enterprises to exchange digital certificates with business partners and customers regardless of location.

Built upon Internet and standard industry protocols, Sentry CA 3.5 is crypto-agnostic and was the first PKI to support elliptic curve, the preferred cryptography for mobile applications. Its directory-centric design allows companies to distribute certificates with a wide range of attributes as well as withhold information that is not relevant to individual transactions. Only Xcert provides real-time status checking for high-assurance transactions through secure Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to the Sentry CA.

"Hardware-based root key security, secure LDAP and the ability to accommodate multiple trust models are often overlooked," said Lawrence Dietz, director of information security & legal strategies for Current Analysis. "These features should be at the very heart of any PKI destined for large organizations. Xcert seems to be on the right track by incorporating these critical features in Sentry CA 3.5."

"The financial sector exchanges nearly $2.5 trillion dollars in funds a day. This is clearly a market that demands robust solutions," said Kawika Daguio, PKI Architect for American Bankers Association and ABA e-com. "When the American Bankers Association and ABA e-com were looking for a complete PKI software solution, the only product that fit our needs was Xcert's Sentry CA suite. We use Sentry CA 3.5 as the basis for the fundamental root or foundation of our PKI."

The Sentry CA 3.5 product suite provides the security necessary to conduct sensitive business over the Internet or through intranet, extranet and Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications. It enables application solutions that require digital certificates and non-repudiation for secure messaging, secure remote access, Web site authorization and document authentication. The product suite includes the following modules:

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--   Sentry CA -- A high assurance Certificate Authority (CA). The
     Sentry CA features FIPS 140 hardware from Chrysalis-ITS for root
     key security, real time certificate status checking over secure
     LDAP and support for multiple cryptographic algorithms including
     elliptic curve. It scales across large enterprises and supports
     massive demands for signing operations, PKI queries and
     large-scale certificate storage and management. Sentry CA is
     designed for fault tolerance, load balancing and component
     redundancy. It provides a highly flexible solution for both
     hierarchical and peer-to-peer trust models and interoperates with
     all PKIX compliant systems.

--   Sentry RA -- A distributed Registration Authority (RA). The
     Sentry RA works with Sentry CA to easily enroll significant
     volumes of customers or partners for certificate usage. It allows
     organizations to set up local or standalone enrollment centers
     for large user implementations at distributed geographic
     locations. Highly scaleable, Sentry RA streamlines enrollment by
     supporting large volumes of requests for certificates and is
     flexible enough to work within any trust model. Sentry RA is
     designed for secure Web-based administration and vetting via
     authenticated, access-controlled SSL sessions. Vetting procedures
     can be quickly customized for specific installations and
     applications.

--   WebSentry -- A plug-in module that works with Sentry CA to
     PKI-enable Web servers. WebSentry leverages existing technology
     investments by dropping into an organization's current Web
     server. It offers high assurance user authentication through
     digital certificates for Internet applications such as home
     banking, remote access and collaboration with partners outside
     the organization. It is scaleable for the enterprise as many
     WebSentry plug-in modules can operate with a single CA. WebSentry
     ensures instant certificate revocation over secure LDAP for
     high-assurance transactions. As soon as a digital certificate is
     revoked by the CA, it becomes instantly invalid at all Web
     servers across the enterprise.

--   Xcert Development Kit (XDK) -- A PKI toolkit. The XDK enables
     developers to easily integrate products with a certificate
     authority and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) using secure
     directory services. The XDK provides an easy-to-use, well-defined
     Application Programming Interface (API) that enables programmers
     to enroll public keys, retrieve certificates and Certificate
     Revocation Lists (CRLs), check the security status of certificate
     users and verify digital signatures. It supports all relevant
     PKIX extensions and standards, while insulating developers from
     complex PKI technologies.

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Availability, Pricing and Configuration Information

The Sentry CA 3.5 product suite is available immediately, and pricing is offered for the enterprise to accommodate user populations from pilot operations through multi-million user environments. The suite takes advantage of existing infrastructure investments by dropping into network environments. Sentry CA 3.5 works with desktop clients, such as Communicator, MSIE and Outlook Express without additional upgrades or plug-ins. Sentry CA 3.5 installs with existing directory, O/S and server systems such as X.500, UNIX, NT, Apache, Microsoft IIS, Netscape LDAP and Enterprise servers.

About Xcert International Inc.

Based in Walnut Creek, California, Xcert International Inc. is a premier developer of digital certificate and Certificate Authority software products for Public Key Infrastructure solutions. Xcert's solutions provide privacy and authenticity for conducting high assurance business transactions over the Internet. Xcert develops, manufactures and distributes Certificate Authority and PKI solutions with secure directory services to enable enterprise organizations with a secure method of e-business throughout the enterprise and beyond the firewall. Xcert also licenses its underlying PKI technology to selected service providers and third party developers worldwide. Xcert can be reached on the World Wide Web at www.xcert.com.

Xcert International will be demonstrating Sentry CA 3.5 at the RSA Data Security Conference in booth No. 409.