beTRUSTed, Equifax form alliance to enhance security solutions for global e-business

Integrated services to combat identity fraud and enable secure commerce beTRUSTed, an e-security business of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Equifax Secure, the e-commerce enabling business of Equifax today announced an alliance extending their leadership in risk management to provide solutions combating identity fraud and enhancing the safety and integrity of commercial transactions.

The threat of cybercrime - particularly identify theft - is ever-present and growing rapidly. At least one incident of economic mass victimisation of thousands of Internet users will occur by the end of 2002, according to a new Gartner study of Internet crime.

The governmental Internet Fraud Complaint Centre reports a steady rise in the number of consumer complaints of Internet fraud from 106 countries around the world.

"We see an increasing need for businesses to implement a state-of-the-art e-security solution. Through this alliance with Equifax Secure, we have the opportunity to ensure that our customers have peace of mind, with e-security solutions from two of the most trusted names in the industry" said Dr. Alastair MacWillson, joint global CEO for beTRUSTed.

Ron Garmon senior vice president and general manager of Equifax Secure said: "As businesses face increasing risk in the e-commerce environment, the pairing of beTRUSTed and Equifax Secure products and services allows companies to reduce the risks associated with online communications."

Under the alliance agreement, Equifax Secure along with beTRUSTed will provide digital certificate registration services and patent-pending authentication solutions. As a result, beTRUSTed alongside Equifax will have the ability to authenticate communicating parties, validate the identity of prospective partners, issue certificates and oversee certificate renewal and revocation.

Equifax and beTRUSTed will offer enhanced authentication and registration services as part of a seamless Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) service.

The alliance enables beTRUSTed to leverage Equifax`s services to provide a full range of solutions to secure online business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions over the Internet and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

eIDverifier, the Equifax patent-pending identity authentication solution, fights the rising incidence of online fraud and enables businesses to determine reliably if individuals are who they claim to be through a secure, real-time, simple Internet-accessed procedure.

eIDverifier also enables the secure issuance of digital certificates to their intended recipient and provides a superior shield against tampering and identity theft.

beTRUSTed will offer eIDverifier to customers and Equifax will process in real-time the authentication and verification of user identities in e-commerce transactions.

Unlike basic authentication methods that rely solely on wallet information - such as name, address or driver`s licence number - to identify users online, eIDverifier requests both financial and non-financial information that should be known only to the user and to Equifax.

In addition, beTRUSTed`s clients will be able to subscribe to Equifax registration services while automating the issuance of certificates through the following offerings:

ConsumerSecure: enables a company to conduct high-value business transactions with previously unknown consumers by authenticating identities and automating the certificate registration process.

EmployeeSecure: allows a company to issue digital certificates to employees in a highly efficient and automated fashion using its own data sources, such as human resources databases.

PartnerSecure: allows a company`s known vendors and/or customers to be issued digital certificates in a highly automated and efficient process, thus enabling partners to communicate in a mutually authenticated fashion for B2B extranet transactions.

TradeSecure: enables companies to establish secure communications with previously unknown buyer or seller trading partners.

Equifax and beTRUSTed will oversee certificate issuance, renewal and revocation through the certificate system designed to closely match client requirements. Both companies maintain secure vaults, systems and data centres that ensure the integrity of each solution.

beTRUSTed and Equifax will offer PKI Web certificates that enable Web servers to establish Secure Socket Layer (SSL) sessions with a variety of supported browsers.

These Equifax signed certificates are co-branded as beTRUSTed 1024 Web Server Certificates and use the most current and secure encryption technology available.

beTRUSTed 1024 Web Server Certificates lead the industry in terms of price, compatibility and warranty and are trusted by approximately 98 percent of deployed browsers. beTRUSTed object signing and SMIME certificates will also be offered.