Tech Bytes: Swift Network to Use Entrust's Public Key

Entrust Technologies Inc., the data authentication company spun off by Northern Telecom of Canada, said the Swift international banking communications network has chosen its public key infrastructure as the basis for its security system.

Belgium-based Swift, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is Entrust's "first major win outside North America," said Terry Schoen, managing director of the recently formed Entrust Technologies Europe. "Swift's choice of Entrust sets an important precedent that the whole financial services community will take notice of."

Entrust says it offers the only complete public key infrastructure software, ranging from issuance and revocation of digital identities to message encryption, storage, and decryption upon receipt.

The public key infrastructure "supports Swift's need to continuously strengthen end-to-end security through encryption, authentication, and nonrepudiation," said Erik Guldentops, Swift's director of global information security.

"Entrust will allow us to manage our security environment even more effectively and respond more quickly to customers' needs with a nonintrusive solution to their security requirements," Mr. Guldentops said.

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