AST Business Integrity Solutions brings Entrust`s blanket 128-cryptography to SA

AST Business Integrity Solutions has announced that Entrust Technologies has received approval from the U.S. Government to export its complete portfolio of public-key infrastructure (PKI) solutions and developer kits with 128-bit cryptography to commercial firms in 43 countries around the world.

"Customers in SA can now implement e-commerce activities such as online banking, order management, procurement, and retail sales over the Internet with the strongest encryption available," says Steve Crutchley, GM of AST Business Integrity Solutions, SA distributor of Entrust.

According to market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) "e-commerce is rapidly spreading beyond U.S. boundaries and going global." IDC reports that non-U.S. Internet commerce will account for almost half of world-wide spending by 2003, growing from 26 percent of world-wide e-commerce spending in 1998 to 46 percent by 2003.

Entrust Technologies new blanket export approval allows U.S. companies to take advantage of this international growth trend as they secure mission-critical communications and transactions. With this agreement, Entrust Technologies now has the ability to export 128-bit encryption to international markets from the United States, which complements its existing favourable export situation from Canada and Switzerland.

This provides customers, for the first time ever, the flexibility to re-distribute Entrust Technologies` PKI-based products to their foreign offices and subsidiaries from the United States, Canada or Switzerland.

"This is essentially a blanket approval for export of a complete PKI and software application developer kits with full strength cryptography," adds Crutchley. "Entrust offers the most complete set of PKI solutions for export. We`re excited by our ability to provide more customers in more countries with the tools they need to protect their critical information backed by 128-bit cryptography."

Entrust Technologies` newest export approval is in addition to the export license agreement granted earlier this year which provided the company with the ability to ship under a license exception to U.S.-based corporations world-wide, banks and financial institutions, health, medical and on-line merchants to 46 countries.