Entrust Brings E-Business Security to Canada

E-commerce security provider Entrust Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENTU) has entered into an agreement to secure e-Scotia.com, a newly established subsidiary of Canada-based Scotiabank. The pact comes on the heels of the recently-launched Entrust Secure Enabled E-Business (SEE) program, which was designed to help define security standards for firms that conduct business over the Internet.

e-Scotia.com will move beyond its traditional geographic borders and the existent Scotiabank online banking services. By utilizing Entrust’s public-key infrastructure (PKI) technology, the company will become a certificate authority (CA) to issue digital certificates that are, according to Entrust, “the electronic equivalent of a person’s passport.” Digital certificates, which utilize electronic signatures to ensure the integrity of transactions, tap into the power of cryptography.

E-Commerce in the Great White North and Beyond

“e-Scotia.com is using our solution to offer a trusted service that provides proven tools for securing the transactions and communications of businesses worldwide,” commented John Ryan, president and CEO of Entrust. “The Bank’s continuous technological evolution to online services, and now to the launch of e-Scotia.com, is helping carve new ground in Canada, and globally, as trusted e-business becomes an economic reality.”

According to Albert Wahbe, president of e-Scotia.com, “Canada, with its vast geography, provides the ideal setting for e-commerce to thrive here at home and around the world as we enter the 21st century.” E-Scotia.com is an example of what Entrust calls a “SEE.”

Learning To SEE

Entrust recently issued a white paper, “The Security Enabled E-Business: The Management Mandate for the New Millennium,” in which it outlines a framework for what it will take for a business to securely and successfully move its operations online.

“Many enterprises, for the last year or so, have been mired down in their year 2000 initiatives,” said Bob Heard, senior vice president of marketing and business development for Entrust, in an E-Commerce Times interview. As enterprises conclude Y2K preparations, continued Heard, online security initiatives will move to “the top of the list” with regard to business investment priorities.

“With the proper security infrastructure, companies can dramatically reduce the cost of transactions, lower the cost of remote access, launch new lines of business quicker by shortening the time-to-market, lessen corporate risks, and effectively communicate with much wider audiences of partners, suppliers, employees and customers,” added John Ryan, President and CEO of Entrust. “Because a SEE views security as a doorway to new opportunities rather than a defensive posture it can more fully realize its business goals.”

“SEE” will become a sort of seal of approval that Entrust applies to firms that it feels have leveraged technology to achieve their business goals while ensuring the security of all transactions.