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EUROTRUST

EUROTRUST PKI Pilot Service

Dublin, Ireland, 13th January, 1997: Baltimore Technologies today signed a major contract with the European Commission to operate a Certification Authority (CA) service throughout Europe. This is one of a number of contracts from the Commission for the provision of European Trusted Third Party Services.
The service, to be named "EuroTrust", will be run in co-operation with commercial partners throughout the EU. It will be fully operational from July 1st, 1997.

Objectives and Scope

Baltimore Technologies Limited has been awarded a contract from the European Commission to operate a pilot Certification Authority (CA)/ Trusted Third Party service.

Certification Authorities issues digital certificates which "notarise" or certify that a user's public key belongs to that user. That public key can then be used to securely encrypt messages or data over an insecure network such as the Internet.

EuroTrust will allow full CA facilities to be accessible by a number of different methods. Using EuroTrust, systems such as Email, EDI, Web Browsers etc. can verify communications without user intervention. Individuals can issue requests to EuroTrust to certify their public keys interactively using any Web Browser.

Baltimore will design and implement the CA/TTP infrastructure using strong modern cryptographic techniques and will address the relevant regulatory and legal issues in each country. EuroTrust's full service will operate on UNIX and Windows NT platforms with Registration Authority (RA) facilities from a wide variety of client platforms including Web, Windows 95 and custom systems.

Approach

Using the EuroTrust Certification Authority, partners will be able to distribute, manage digital keys and certificates for use in secure Email, EDI, File Transfer and Electronic Messaging and Payment services.

A vital part of this project is that EuroTrust will operate services with partners on a pilot basis. This will ensure that EuroTrust analyses and solves real world challenges within the project.

These partners will commit to implementing a pilot scheme which utilises all or part of a Certification Authority system.

As part of the project, EuroTrust will provide a full CA service which will be accessible on-line. Certification and Trusted Third Party products and services will be provided using Baltimore Technologies UniCert technology.

Expected Results

EuroTrust will report its findings by publishing reports to the European Commission. Partners will be invited to submit their findings for inclusion in the final report. This will be made available by EuroTrust and the EU through the Web and conventional means.

• Partners can assist in formulating the recommendations and results of pan-European security issues
• Commercial issues involved in CA/TTP systems
• Regulatory issues of key recovery/key escrow

EuroTrust will be an important forum for EU companies involved in design and implementation of Trusted Third Party and Certification Authority systems. Participation in the forum will ensure that partners are fully briefed on industry trends and real world experiences. From this knowledge, informed commercial decisions can be used for future projects.

About Baltimore Technologies

Baltimore Technologies is a world leader in the provision of Information Security products and systems. Its products include UniTrust & UniSign CA products as well as a range of cryptographic toolkits, secure email products, secure login and other utilities. Baltimore also supplies design and consultancy services to the IT and security industry.

For more information contact:

Mr. Jack Nagle

Click below to download the EUROTRUST Final Report

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