Entrust fills in its email strategy

Aiming to be the glue that ties together secure email systems for giant companies, Entrust Technologies today said its plug-ins for two Microsoft (MSFT) email products are now shipping. Plug-ins for other email packages go into beta this month.

Entrust's email strategy is designed to add an extra layer of service to existing email systems and to help make different secure email systems interoperate, said Brian O'Higgins, Entrust's chief technology officer.

"Everyone wants secure email, but in large environments, companies have a slew of email packages," O'Higgins said. "We can give you one total solution for secure email."

Entrust, a spin-off of Canadian communications equipment giant Northern Telecom (NT), plans to accomplish its goal through its plug-ins for other companies' products and by selling its core public key infrastructure (PKI) system.

Entrust PKI manages secure email, digital certificates, electronic forms, and other secure applications for large companies. It sells for $159 per seat but with major discounts for large purchases.

For email, Entrust's strategy is built around the S/MIME email protocol (Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension, a de facto standard pushed by RSA Data Security. Entrust has added S/MIME testing capabilities for vendors.

In addition to email plug-ins for Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook, Entrust will soon begin beta testing similar plug-ins for Lotus Notes, Lotus cc:Mail, Netscape Messenger, Novell GroupWise, Qualcomm Eudora Pro, and Worldtalk Secure Messenger. The plug-ins are schedule to ship before the end of 1997.