GeoTrust and USERTrust offering free SSL service to businesses worldwide

[June 26th 2001]

GeoTrust, Inc has announced its partnership with USERTrust to offer free Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates to companies in the e-marketplace.

The Secure Sockets Layer protocol is the Web standard for encrypting communications between users and e-commerce sites. Support for SSL is a standard built into all major browsers.

Data sent over an encrypted SSL connection is protected by encryption, a mechanism that prevents eavesdropping and tampering for any transmitted data. This helps provide businesses and consumers the confidence that private data sent to a Web site, such as credit card numbers, are kept confidential through the use of SSL.

"We are providing free SSL certificates to lower the barrier of entry to companies doing business online and are placing more value on site authenticity," said GeoTrust CEO, Neal Creighton. "GeoTrust and USERTrust have joined forces, creating the only place in the market where businesses don't have to pay upwards of $895 to obtain an SSL certificate. For the first time, businesses can assure their customers that transactions and information are secure on the Internet without having to pay an unreasonable price."

USERTrust is a governmentally licensed certification authority (CA) and trusted third party that generates SSL's certificates and digital ID certificates to companies and individuals conducting business on the Web.

SSL-enabled consumer software, such as a Web browser, can automatically check that a site's SSL certificate and public identification is valid and has been issued by a CA, such as USERTrust.

Businesses interested in obtaining a free SSL certificate, can do so two ways; by signing-up for GeoTrust's True Site service or registering with a domain hosting company that is licensing the True Site technology.

Domain-hosting companies currently licensing the True Site technology include InfoDial (www.infodial.com), Media3 (www.media3.com), Superb Internet Corp., (www.superb.net), Lynch2.com (www.lynch2.com), Web Transitions (www.Webtransitions.com), Applied Computer Technologies (www.wcisp.com) and HitSites (www.hitsites.com).

Links
GeoTrust		http://www.geotrust.com
USERTrust		http://www.usertrust.com