VeriSign pending acquisition of low assurance SSL provider GeoTrust puts VeriSign in position to fulfill on the promise of its “Trusted Commerce Initiative”

Comodo challenges VeriSign to end the practice of issuing low assurance, non-business authenticated SSL certificates without any means to establish true Internet and identity assurance as demanded by consumers, organizations and regulators.

Jersey City, NJ (May 25, 2006) – Comodo, a global leader in Identity and Trust Assurance Management solutions, believes VeriSign's announcement to acquire GeoTrust is a positive first step toward VeriSign fulfilling its promise to ensure the highest standards in identity assurance for all online merchants. With this announcement, Comodo believes that VeriSign, by curtailing the dispersion of non-validated low assurance SSL certificates, can deliver identity assurance for previously unverified eCommerce sites.

With the news of this acquisition, consumers, organizations and regulators can soon expect more SSL certificates to provide critical identity assurance for websites, thus creating trust online. Since most GeoTrust certificates are currently domain validated only without any business authentication, they significantly undermine the efficacy of the padlock icon as a trust indicator. In contrast, Comodo provides a balanced portfolio of SSL certificates solutions, all of which provide the means to establish critical identity assurance. Our SSL certificate solutions scale to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes and include:

• Enterprise SSL – a high volume, enterprise class solution that provides high level security with management tools for ease of use;
• Instant SSL – the eCommerce SSL certificate that provides highly secured encryption with full business validation; and
• Positive SSL – domain validated SSL with optional free business verification in IdAuthority, one of the world's largest online directories of authenticated ebusinesses managed by Comodo.

Comodo's focus is Identity and Trust Assurance (ITA) and has been a core business driver since Comodo's inception as a Certification Authority in 2001. As a result of this focus, Comodo has innovated with new technologies (e.g. patented web content verification for site assurance) and free consumer security tools to expand the pool of confident online consumers. In addition, Comodo led the establishment of the CAB Forum – a consortium of the major browser providers and leading Certification Authorities for developing guidelines that will drive future SSL certification practices.

"As a leading CA, Comodo has been aggressively pushing to strengthen identity assurance certification on the Internet," said Melih Abdulhayoglu, CEO and Chief Security Architect of Comodo."We have invested significantly in authentication processes and technologies for every SSL certificate under the Comodo brand. We are hopeful that with its acquisition of GeoTrust, VeriSign will raise the level of Internet assurance for all VeriSign SSL certificates."

About Comodo

The Comodo companies provide the infrastructure that is essential in enabling e-merchants, other Internet-connected companies, software companies, and individual consumers to interact and conduct business via the Internet safely and securely. The Comodo companies offer PKI SSL, Code Signing, Content Verification and Email Certificate; award winning PC Security software;  Vulnerability Scanning services for PCI Compliance; secure e-mail and fax services.   

Continual innovation, a core competence in PKI, and a commitment to reversing the growth of Internet-crime distinguish the Comodo companies as vital players in the Internet's ongoing development. Comodo secures and authenticates online transactions and communications for over 200,000 business customers and 3,000,000 users of our desktop security products. 

For additional information on Comodo – Creating Trust Online® visit Comodo.com

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Comodo
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