Tech Bytes: Top Software Provider Backs SET 1.0 Version

iCAT Corp., a leading provider of electronic commerce software for merchants, said it will support SET 1.0, the first market- ready version of the MasterCard-Visa Secure Electronic Transactions protocol for Internet payments.

iCAT said it is working with three vendors backing SET-International Business Machines Corp., Outreach Communications, and Verifone Inc.-to connect to a wide range of "virtual cash registers." The system would also run on Microsoft Windows NT and Sun Solaris operating platforms and, in the future, those of Hewlett-Packard Co., Verifone's parent.

"SET represents another milestone in the development of e-commerce, and iCAT is proud to be the only Internet catalogue software vendor supporting the three SET leaders," said Craig Danuloff, president and chief executive officer of iCAT, a five-year-old company that has garnered numerous industry awards for its Electronic Commerce Suite.

"With this strategy, merchants and hosts for the first time can choose the solution that best fits their existing infrastructure and financial relationships with our SET portfolio," he said.

iCAT said it will further integrate card-payment capabilities in the next version of its software by using acceleration technology from nCipher Corp. and by promoting digital certificates with Verisign Inc.

Acceleration hardware promises to speed the complex algorithmic calculations required by SET. Digital certificates are used to authenticate on-line buyers, sellers, and banks.

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