New company addresses smart card security

New company addresses smart card security
Tags: Debit / Credit, Security
February 25, 2002

BELLEVUE, Wash.-- A new Bellevue, Wash.-based company, Authentic8 Incorporated, will build and market software that utilizes smart card and public key infrastructure (PKI) technology to solve e-business security issues.

Authentic8's products were born out of research and development conducted by Philips Electronics beginning in 1994. Philips recognized the management and card issuing problems associated with deploying PKI-based systems utilizing smart cards and began to develop "shrink-wrapped" applications and management solutions to address these issues. In 1998, with backing from the Allen & Buckeridge venture capital fund, Authentic8 acquired the smart card intellectual property and the original development team from Philips Electronics and is now bringing to market a line of commercial security products.

"The tremendous growth in e-business is creating a need for stronger authentication in order to give greater confidence in electronic transactions," said Brian Donaldson, Authentic8 president. "The need for end-user mobility and a growing proliferation of protected applications and systems adds even more complexity to the issue. Deploying digital credentials on smart cards solves the problem. They are ultra-secure, completely portable, inexpensive and easily capable of storing multiple credentials for accessing multiple systems. Best of all, the user interface is as familiar as an ATM."

According to Donaldson, factors contributing to the growth of the market include the increased use of digital certificates and Public Key Infrastructure technology as well as Microsoft's announced plans to release a smart card operating system and smart card support in Windows 2000. In addition, smart card readers are becoming widely available on business PCs from major vendors such as IBM, Compaq and HP.

Authentic8 is initially bringing two products to market:

• Authentic8 Card & Key Management System (CKMS) -- an integrated suite of applications for issuing, personalizing and managing smart cards for secure storage of digital credentials such as certificates, encryption key pairs and passwords.

• Authentic8 Secure Network (SNET) -- a solution for transparently establishing trust (authentication) and managing secure, encrypted connections over public and private data networks utilizing smart cards and public key infrastructures.