In Brief: Identrus Unveils Internet Security Program

NEW YORK - Identrus LLC, a consortium of about 30 banks, is offering a program to help financial institutions outsource their digital certificate authority services.

Under the Identrus Express program, a number of security firms will operate data centers to support separate security infrastructures for each financial institution client.

Financial institutions are able to use these centers to certify their corporate customers as trusted trading partners. These partners then use the program to identify one another, ensure secure communications, and compile a record of their commercial activities.

Identrus has retained Ernst & Young to help with the program rollout and to certify the data centers.

Eight security firms - Baltimore Technologies, Mitsubishi Electric, Unisys Corp., Verisign, beTRUSTed (a division of PriceWaterhouseCoopers), Global Commerce Systems, SECOM Co. Ltd., and TC TrustCenter - are working with Identrus to develop and implement the program.

Some of the eight already are delivering the infrastructure to financial institutions. All eight are expected to be certified under the program by yearend. Banks that meet prequalifying criteria can receive the digital certificate authority infrastructure in 90 to 120 days.

Pricing varies according to the complexity of each installation. Banks have the option of building their own Identrus infrastructures or hiring their own contractors.

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