GlobalSign Announces Support For Transparent SSL Certificate Lifecycle

PRESS RELEASE

Portsmouth, NH " May 13, 2009 " GlobalSign Inc. (www.globalsign.com), one of the longest established Certification Authorities (CA) and specialists in SSL Certificate lifecycle management yesterday announced the beginning of the end for SSL Certificate installation issues across a range of server / OS platforms. Following a collaboration with the Microsoft public key infrastructure (PKI) team responsible for digital certificate services in the upcoming Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 products, GlobalSign was able to demonstrate a fully operational WS-Trust (Web Services Trust) implementation at yesterday's Microsoft TechEd North America 2009 conference in Los Angeles. In addition, GlobalSign also announced the availability of their lightweight One-Click SSL API to platform providers who are unable to support a full WS-Trust model yet need to meet the core improvements in the SSL Certificate lifecycle management process that this PKI technology revolution marks.

One of the fundamental changes offered by both WS-Trust and One-Click SSL is the removal of the need to generate and handle a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). The CSR process now happens silently on the platform, allowing GlobalSign (as the Certification Authority) and stakeholder to seamlessly follow industry best practice for keylength and hashing algorithm, avoiding the need to explain best practices to non tech savvy buyers. The resulting improved purchasing process results in a clear separation of duties for purchasing teams and system administrators, offering a low friction user experience to everyone involved. An additional process improvement is support for silent automated renewals of expiring certificates eliminating the need to worry about costly system downtime due to unexpected expirations.

The "PKI in a Web Services World" session covered the essential changes that Microsoft and GlobalSign made to their enrolment and installation services in order to support the WS-Trust model for certificate installation. This in turn enabled GlobalSign to deliver a fully transparent SSL Certificate lifecycle management experience on top of Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5 on Windows Server 2008 R2. The benefits will now be reaped by GlobalSign's existing enterprise customers and hosting partners as an increasing number of platforms offer the improved lifecycle management processes over the coming months.

"SSL Certificate adoption and usage continues to dramatically increase across a range of industries and therefore moving forward, the lifecycle management technologies supported by a Certification Authority, such as GlobalSign, offer a clear differentiator. This is especially true for web hosting providers and for large enterprises where large deployments of SSL Certificates are required across disparate platforms." said Steve Roylance, Worldwide Business Development Director for GlobalSign and visionary behind the process improvements realized through the OneClickSSL model.

Prior to the release of Windows Server 2008 R2, enterprises interested in trialing the improved experience should apply at (www.globalsign.com/wstrust.html).

About GlobalSign

Established in 1996 and as a WebTrust accredited public certificate authority, GlobalSign offers publicly trusted SSL, including EV SSL Certificates, S/MIME and Code Signing Certificates for use on all platforms including mobile devices. Its Trusted Root solution uses the widely distributed GlobalSign Root CA certificates to provide immediate PKI trust for Microsoft CA and enterprise CAs, eliminating the costs associated with using untrusted Root Certificates. Its partnership with Adobe to provide Certified Document Services (CDS) enables secure digitally signed PDF e-documents. These core Digital Certificate solutions allow its thousands of customers to conduct secure online transactions and data transfer, distribute tamper-proof code, and bind identities to client certificates for email security and remote two factor authentication. The company has a history of innovation within the online security market and has offices in the US, UK, Belgium, Japan, and China.

About GMO Internet Group

GMO Internet Group, headquartered in Japan, is a leading force in the Internet industry offering one of the most comprehensive ranges of Internet services worldwide. The group holds top domestic market share in domain registration, web hosting, and payment processing and provides a host of other Internet services including global online security services, e-commerce solutions, and Internet advertising to both businesses and individuals. At the centre of the group is GMO Internet, Inc. a company listed on the prestigious first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE: 9449). Please visit www.gmo.jp/en for further details.

For further details please contact:

Steve Waite

GlobalSign

603-507-7060 / +44 1622 766 766

[email protected]