Entrust Announces Advanced Security for Adobe® Acrobat® 6.0 Software
U.S. Department of Energy to receive Entrust Entelligence™ Verification Plug-In 7.0 to enable digitally signed document workflow
03 Feb 2004
DALLAS - Entrust, Inc. [NASDAQ: ENTU], a world leader in securing digital identities and information, today announced enhancements to the Entrust Entelligence™ Verification Plug-in that can enable enterprises and government organizations, such as the U.S. Department of Energy, to make use of digital signatures and encryption capabilities with Adobe Acrobat 6.0 software. The Entrust Entelligence Verification Plug-In improves the ability for any Federal government agencies, business partners and other customers to verify the origin and integrity of high-value Portable Document Format (PDF) files signed by another agency. These agencies can also sign and encrypt these files when required. This can further increase cost savings and productivity benefits.
The plug-in is used to apply digital signatures and encryption to electronic forms and documents created using Adobe Acrobat 6.0. These capabilities can help to bind the user to, and protect the privacy of, information. The plug-in is also available in a scaled-down version for those recipients who only require the ability to verify digital signatures using Adobe Reader 6.0. This version may be particularly beneficial for recipients outside an organization as it is designed to allow them to easily download a thin-client to help verify the origin and integrity of an electronic form or document. Entrust® products can also provide automatic and transparent management of the Digital IDs used in this workflow.
Electronic forms and digital signatures are critical to our efforts to eliminate paper-based processes," said Rose Parkes, Chief Information Officer of the U.S. Department of Energy. "As part of our participation with the Federal Bridge Certification Authority (FBCA) initiative, we have extended our e-forms processing capability to include other Federal departments and agencies. The new version of the Verification Plug-In for Acrobat makes it easier to accomplish these goals."
"We're happy to build upon our long-standing relationship with Entrust to help government agencies share sensitive PDF documents created using Acrobat 6.0 software with employees, other agencies and citizens," said Harry Vitelli, vice president of Business Development, Intelligent Documents Business Unit, Adobe Systems Incorporated. "Because the Entrust plug-in makes use of FIPS-verified technology, it provides more trustworthy security for workflows based on Acrobat and PDF."
"We are pleased to deliver government-strength security for electronic documents and forms in PDF," said Kevin Simzer, chief marketing officer at Entrust. "Our government and enterprise customers can now send high-value forms and documents beyond the walls of their organizations with greater confidence. At the same time, they can better comply with various mandates and regulations, such as GPEA or HIPAA, while helping to improve overall information security governance."
Globally, Entrust serves more than 50 foreign governments, including the governments of Canada, Denmark, U.K., Spain, Singapore and France. Within the U.S., Entrust's secure digital identity technology helps power the Federal Bridge Certificate Authority (FBCA), a multi-agency information-sharing program that is now "up and running" and ties together the U.S. Departments of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Treasury, the National Aeronautical and Space Agency (NASA), and the National Finance Center (USDA-NFC) to securely communicate and share information. Additionally, Entrust serves as the technology provider to three out of the four individual agencies that have achieved certification under the FBCA.
Expected commercial availability of Entrust Entelligence Verification Plug-in 7.0 is February 2004. Procedural guidance is expected to be available for Federal agencies on the DOE, CIO Website at: http://www.doe.gov/engine/content.do in February 2004.
About U.S. Department of Energy
The Department of Energy's overarching mission is to advance the national, economic and energy security of the United States; to provide scientific and technological innovation in support of that mission; and to ensure the environmental cleanup of the national nuclear weapons complex.
This press release contains forward looking statements relating to commercial products and/or services that Entrust expects to release and the expected benefits of such products and/or services, and such statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward looking statements are Entrust's inability to continue to license technology from Adobe System's Incorporated ("Adobe") that entitles Entrust to make the Entrust Entelligence Verification Plug-In commercially available, delays or failure to complete development and/or testing of the Entrust Entelligence Verification Plug-In, failure of the Entrust Entelligence Verification Plug-In to support or interoperate with Adobe Acrobat software, delays in the training of Entrust's sales/marketing forces in respect to the Entrust Entelligence Verification Plug-In, undetected software errors or bugs in the Entrust Entelligence Verification Plug-In, competitive pressures, market acceptance of the Entrust Entelligence Verification Plug-In, changes in customer requirements, the manner in which the Entrust Entelligence Verification Plug-In is implemented, licensed and used, local laws and governmental regulations including failure to procure the necessary export classification for the Entrust Entelligence Verification Plug-In, general economic conditions and the risk factors detailed from time to time in Entrust's periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including without limitation Entrust's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2003. Entrust cautions investors that it might not update any or all of the foregoing forward-looking statements.