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Entrust secures its niche

The company makes a series of announcements to boost its visibility as a full-service computer security provider for the corporate market.

CNET News staff
2 min read
Entrust Technologies wants to own the niche market for corporate security software.

The company has made a series of announcements designed to boost its visibility not just as an computer security infrastructure player but also as a provider of full-service security.

"We think we now have all the key elements delivered to customers in a true solution," said spokeswoman Shauna White. Customers have pressured Entrust for products they can't get elsewhere, she added, such as a new secure email plug-in for Microsoft Exchange and Entrust's ICE (integrated cryptographic engine), which lets PC users automatically encrypt files.

Entrust also announced that secure email products built with Entrust's tools have passed interoperability tests with other secure email packages that conform to S/MIME (Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension), a de facto email standard.

The test results, done by RSA Data Security, mean a message encrypted by one email program can be decrypted and read by another secure email package. Hewlett-Packard's Open Mail software and a security add-on from LJL Enterprises, both using Entrust's Toolkit for S/MIME, passed the interoperability tests with secure packages, as did Netscape Navigator, ConnectSoft's Email Connection, Secure Messenger from Worldtalk's Deming Internet security unit, Frontier Technology's Intranet Genie, and OpenSoft's Express Mail.

Entrust, a spin-off of Canadian telecommunications equipment provider Northern Telecom (NT), said its Express plug-in, to be shipped this quarter for $49 per user, lets Exchange users encrypt and digitally sign email messages while running Exchange.

Entrust also announced commercial availability of its WebCA and ICE products, which let companies issue their own digital IDs. WebCA is a browser-based product that allows company or person to act as a certification authority (CA) to issue digital certificates to identify with anyone they do business.

The ICE product lets PC users encrypt files automatically when they are saved in specified folders or whenever their machine shuts down.

The announcements came at an electronic messaging trade show in Philadelphia.

WebCA, which works with both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, costs $500 for 500 certificates and additional certificates for $1 each. ICE costs $49 per user. Both are available from Entrust's Web site.