Entrust Customers

Electric Power Industry gets Powerful Internet Security Technology—U.S. Electric Utility Companies face the Internet

It is common in the United States to have some parts of the country face energy shortages while other parts face energy surpluses. This fluctuation in demand and generation is due to a number of factors such as the climate, time of year, and unforeseen events.

When a utility company experiences energy shortages, it negotiates to buy energy from another company with a surplus. Since, prices are neither regulated nor made public, the seller can overcharge because demand is high for their commodity. The buyer passes on these inflated prices to consumers, who have little choice but to pay the extra costs for their energy consumption.

Transitioning to the Internet
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), an organization within the U.S. Federal Government, has mandated that all electric utilities post surplus electrical transmission capacity on the Internet so the bidding and the exchange of information is public. The government mandate is intended to create an open access system for information that will level the playing field and promote competition through industry deregulation. It will allow utility companies with energy shortages to openly bid for extra energy, thereby ensuring that prices remain competitive. The system will evolve into an energy trading system where industrial and individual consumers will be able to choose their source of electricity.

The World Wide Web (WWW) was chosen as the means of communication and doing business because it is accessible and easy to use. However, the lack of security that is inherent in an unmanaged and unaffiliated network like the Web is a serious concern.

To resolve this problem, the Joint Transmission Services Information Network (JTSIN), a task force representing over 200 electric utilities and utility cooperatives, responded to the FERC mandate by hiring companies to create and maintain the network and its applications. TradeWave a developer of software products and services that enable secure, business-to-business electronic commerce over the Internet, was one of the technology partners chosen to build a system to enable the secure transmission of sensitive data over the Internet. Its TradeVPI product, which is based on Entrust, affords the needed security. "There isn't another solution that offers the level of security, information access, and performance that the Entrust/TradeWave vendors are providing today," said Jeff Geltz, of All Energy, Inc., former Chairman of the JTSIN Management Committee. "The skill and experience that these vendors bring to the JTSIN implementation team, from both a technology and a business perspective, is second to none."

Partnering for Success
Entrust®, Inc. is a world leader in security software products. Entrust and TradeWave, have provided a solution for the secure communication of information on the Internet. JTSIN chose the TradeWave/Entrust solution to meet the requirements for this project of security, single sign on access, fine grained access control, and user administration.

TradeWave selected Entrust as their first choice in software security for several reasons: "To provide our customers with the greatest flexibility and most complete solution, it was important for us to partner with organizations who support open, standards-based systems. Entrust more than exceeds the requirements of the JTSIN project," said Tom Patterson, corporate vice president of CyberGuard, parent company of TradeWave.

The Entrust security technology provides TradeWave's products with software-based encryption, digital signature, and automated key management services, and it enables TradeWave to operate the leading third-party Entrust certificate authority (CA) service. The solution uses Entrust's EntrustSession, a variant of the Entrust/Toolkit product line. Entrust/Toolkit is a family of standards-based Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow application developers to quickly and easily incorporate security functions into their applications. Applications that can take advantage of the EntrustSession toolkit include real time transaction sessions between computers such as remote access, database transactions, FTP, Telnet, and Web transactions. TradeWave's TradeVPI family of products and services offers a virtual private Internet (VPI) that prohibits unauthorized users from accessing the Web-based energy application and enables private communication between authorized users through encryption and mutual authentication.

TradeVPI is Entrust-Ready, which means it dynamically links to the Entrust security technology when the application is launched. This partnership combines Entrust public-key technology with TradeVPI's powerful platform, to authenticate the identities of all users and Web servers within this nationwide energy extranet. "Entrust is pleased to be partnered with TradeWave on this first-of-its-kind project. TradeWave is serious about security, and their high-end products reflect this corporate attitude. The TradeWave technology is regarded as one of the best in the business, complementing and adding value to the Entrust security software products," said Brian O'Higgins, Director, Entrust®, Inc.

The Solution is Simple
The technology is complex, but the user interface hides the complexity from the utility companies and makes it easy to use. For example, if a utility company wants to post or retrieve information from the Internet, they must be authenticated before they are allowed access. TradeWave's Entrust-based certificate authority, TradeAuthority, transparently authenticates users. Through an easily-administered graphical user interface, application information is finely controlled based on the user's digital certificate, or "identity." Based on privileges, users can perform secure transactions, such as buying or approving orders, or reserving capacity for future use with a single sign on.

The project has been in full production since January 1997. It is the largest electronic commerce application of its type operating over the Internet and could save consumers up to $5.4 billion each year, thanks to bidding competition.

About TradeWave
TradeWave is the number one provider of Entrust-based products and services which include Web security applications and the leading third-party, Entrust-based certificate authority outsourcing service. TradeWave also provides add-on management tools which facilitate the deployment, management, and ongoing administration for the Entrust infrastructure.

TradeWave Corporation is a subsidiary of CyberGuard Corporation (NASDAQ:CYBG) a leading Intranet and Internet security solutions provider to Fortune 1000 companies and governments worldwide. CyberGuard's award-winning, industrial-strength firewall and security products protect the integrity of data and applications from hackers and digital thieves. CyberGuard's firewall is certified by the U.S. National Computer Security Center, the National Computer Security Association, and the European Information Technology Security Evaluation Criteria. The company has U.S. headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and branch offices worldwide. Products are sold worldwide through a direct sales force, value added resellers, distributors, network integrators, and Internet service providers.

Authentication and Data Protection Solutions

Entrust security products are trusted by security experts and are known for their reputation for reliability and manageability. Our innovative suite of authentication solutions include digital certificates (including device certificates), two factor authentication and token security products that provide trusted security for less. Entrust's data protection solutions can help organizations meet regulatory mandates such as FFIEC or PCI security. For this reason, business and governments alike rely on Entrust over other solution providers and certification authorities to meet and exceed rigorous IT security requirements.