IBM Vault Registry Enhances Trust for E-business

IBM Announces Digital Certificate Solution for e-business Applications

NEW YORK (June 08, 1998) – IBM today announced IBM Vault Registry*, a digital certificate software solution that enables customers to conduct e-business with confidence. IBM Vault Registry helps establish the level of trust and security needed for e-business by allowing customers to identify the people and organizations with whom they do business online. With IBM Vault Registry, customers have a security-rich means to register and certify users for access to sensitive documents, services and business applications over the Internet.
A digital certificate can be used to establish people’s identities online and define their relationships or privileges within a certain business, group or community, much like a driver’s license or passport can be used for identification in face-to-face transactions. Digital certificates also allow users to encrypt and send information with the confidence that unauthorized parties are not permitted to open the data and that any compromise to the data en route can be detected.

By building key components into one solution, IBM Vault Registry simplifies for customers the cost and complexity of building their own digital certificate solutions with offerings from multiple vendors. IBM Vault Registry integrates the following:
IBM Vault Controller– advances Web technology security by providing and managing an environment conducive to critical e-business applications by isolating an individual’s data and applications from unauthorized parties
IBM Vault Certificate Management System — enables a certificate authority to issue, renew and revoke certificates
IBM Vault Registration Application — built to exploit the IBM Vault Controller environment, the Registration Application enables organizations to register users for its services, and administer the issued certificates throughout their lifecycle
IBM Vault Agent — exchanges information between the IBM Vault Controller and remote environments with security
IBM Vault Certificate Validator — validates the certificates when presented for the initiation of a business transaction
IBM eNetwork X.500 Directory (pre-requisite product) — stores certificates, certificate revocation lists, policies and other information about registered users and servers
IBM DB2 Universal Database (pre-requisite product) — stores transaction data, audit and reporting information
Lotus Domino Go Webserver — serves as the underlying Web server for the IBM Vault Controller and the IBM Vault Registration Application
“To conduct business in the faceless world of the Internet, customers need confidence in the identities of the parties with whom they are dealing,” said Mark Greene, vice president, Internet payments and trust solutions, IBM Internet division. “IBM Vault Registry provides the identification technology customers need to create the levels of trust and security for e-business.”
IBM Vault Registry goes beyond other digital certificate solutions with enhanced protection for critical e-business assets. IBM Vault Registry introduces innovative “vault” software that uses encryption and digital signatures to help protect data and applications from unauthorized parties — even system administrators. Vault software helps to enable a higher degree of trust in the issued certificates by safeguarding the process of how certificates are applied for and are issued.
IBM Vault Registry builds confidence that only people possessing an appropriate digital certificate can access specific applications or personal data over the Internet. This approach can be compared to a safe deposit box at a bank that protects your valuable assets, even from bank employees. IBM Vault Registry also gives companies the flexibility to establish individual vaults for different applications and issue certificates with unique access privileges.
IBM Vault Registry, part of IBM’s SecureWay family of offerings, is designed to grow with customer needs. IBM Vault Registry also offers the flexibility to integrate with existing systems and can be customized to unique business policies and requirements. For increased security and mobility, IBM Vault Registry is designed to work with PKCS11-compliant smart cards which allows for highly portable certificates.
Availability
Scheduled for general availability in the third quarter of this year, IBM Vault Registry will be available on the IBM AIX platform. The IBM Vault Agent and Certificate Validator components also will be available on Windows NT. IBM Vault Registry is the first member of the IBM Vault Solutions family of trusted e-business solutions; other solutions are expected to be announced in the near future. Developers and customers can find out more about IBM Vault Registry on the Web at http://www.ibm.com/registry.
Support
Equifax today announced a planned alliance with IBM under which it intends to offer certificate authority services based on IBM Vault Registry.
IBM Global Services will provide consulting and implementation services for IBM Vault Registry along with business partners Deloitte & Touche and SRA International.
Deloitte & Touche
Deloitte & Touche LLP plans to offer support and services for IBM Vault Registry to help its customers implement digital certificate solutions for e-business applications. Today’s announcement builds on the current Deloitte & Touche/IBM e-business relationship, which helps customers implement e-business initiatives based on the IBM Net.Commerce* server and CommercePOINT* payment families of products.
“IBM Vault Registry is designed to easily and securely integrate into our clients’ back-end systems to protect and leverage their investments in technology,” said Scott Kandel, partner, Deloitte & Touche, Business Computing Infrastructure Group. “Deloitte & Touche clients benefit from our combined strengths of consulting and systems integration services and IBM’s scalable and flexible, industrial-strength technology.”
Deloitte & Touche LLP, one of the nation’s leading professional services firms, provides accounting and auditing, tax, and management consulting services through 23,000 people in offices in more than 100 U.S. cities. Deloitte & Touche LLP is part of DeloitteTouche Tohmatsu International, a global leader in professional services with more than 72,000 people more than 125 countries. For additional information, please visit Deloitte & Touche’s website at http://www.us.deloitte.com.
SRA International
SRA International, a Fairfax, Virginia-based systems integrator, plans to provide application-building, customization and integration services centered on the IBM Vault Registry solution for its large corporate and government clients. SRA’s plans include customized development of applications using IBM Vault Registry that would allow customers to become certificate authorities or engage with confidence in a variety of Web applications such as home banking.
“We believe that Vault Registry offers the marketplace a sound and dependable framework for large-scale secured Internet applications, and we look forward to providing these applications to our customers,” said Richard Spires, SRA senior vice president and account executive, IBM strategic partnership.
SRA has also teamed with IBM in work on other systems solutions, including electronic services solutions for postal administrations, electronic commerce site development and enterprise management. For additional information on SRA, please see http://www.sra.com.
IBM SecureWay
SecureWay is IBM’s portfolio of security hardware, software, consulting and services designed to help customers protect their information assets and resources. These offerings range from a worldwide I/T Security consulting practice to help customers manage and design systems with dependability and security, to firewalls and other preventive and emergency response services. They also include hardware and software products that put our security technologies into action, such as cryptographic co-processors and smart cards, to mention a few. Whether addressing an individual client or creating a total enterprise solution, IBM SecureWay provides customers with the ability to plan, design, implement and operate security-rich solutions for e-business. Additional information on these offerings can be found through the IBM SecureWay website at http://www.ibm.com/Security.

Source: IBM

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