http://www.swisskey.com/mitteilung_e.html Swisskey: Swiss issuing office for Internet certificates established Zurich/Berne, 18 December 1997 - Swisscom, Telekurs and DigiSigna have established the joint venture Swisskey and thus laid the foundations for secure electronic commerce in the worldwide web. The certificates issued by Swisskey are available to individuals and companies and enable clear and secure mutual identification in the Internet. Swisskey will be registered in January 1998 and will start offering its services on the Internet at www.swisskey.com in the second quarter of 1998. Electronic commerce has good future prospects: telebanking and teleshopping in the Internet and the secure exchange of EDI messages between applications are some of its possible applications. So far, however, service offers and their acceptance have both been limited, since service providers and customers cannot identify each other immediately and are dependent on bilateral agreements. Electronic certificates are the solution to this problem. They offer mutual trust in the otherwise anonymous field of electronic commerce. They allow users to be identified and texts to be signed digitally and encoded in such a way that only the recipient can read them. Users can obtain a certificate from a registration office by showing some form of identification. Possible registration offices are post offices, Swisscom shops, banks and chambers of commerce. "The Swisskey joint venture aims to encourage the development of electronic commerce in Switzerland by offering a customerfriendly, secure and upgradeable certification service," explained Swisskey Managing Director, Christian Graber. Swisskey will offer SSL certificates as supported by all common Internet browsers (X.509 certificates), Edifact certificates for EDI messages and application and companyspecific certificates for uses such as Intranet applications. Swisscom Ltd and Telekurs Holding AG each hold 47.5% of Swisskey AG and DigiSigna (an association of chambers of commerce of Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein) holds the remaining 5%. DigiSigna also aims to win international approval for the Swisskey certificates. For questions: DigiSigna Otto Müller omueller@zurichcci.ch Tel. 01 / 221 07 42 Fax. 01 / 221 76 15 Telekurs Holding AG Bernhard Wenger wnb@holding.telekurs.com Tel. 01 / 279 22 20 Fax. 01 / 279 23 36 Swisscom Sepp Huber Josef.Huber@swisscom.com Tel. 031 / 342 13 00 Fax. 031 / 342 13 10