Actalis, a provider of electronic security services to the Italian banking sector, is to use Baltimore Technologies’ public key infrastructure (PKI) software to secure electronic transactions between four major Italian banks.
The system will be implemented in compliance with Identrus requirements, the global standard that uses PKI to secure inter-bank transactions.
The project, which will be one of the largest Identrus implementations worldwide, will go live by the end of this month. The four banks involved are San Paolo IMI, Intesa-BCI, Monte dei Paschi di Siena and Banca di Roma. Additional banks have already committed to launch the service during 2003 and 2004.
From its inception, Identrus chose PKI as the security mechanism to underpin this trust system. The Identrus root certification authority is based on Baltimore’s UniCert technology. During the past three years, Baltimore has emerged as one of the leading security software vendors to Identrus-enable the banking sector worldwide.
Baltimore UniCert enables Actalis to deliver the Identrus trust service to identify and verify the authenticity of electronic trading partners. It also ensures the integrity of information as well as non-repudiation of electronic transactions by delivering a complete infrastructure for the creation and management of digital certificate-based identities and signatures.
“Italy has embraced PKI in finance and government at an early stage,” commented Bijan Khezri, chief executive of Baltimore Technologies plc. “We believe that the Italian banking sector will be strongly positioned to further enhance its competitiveness as it exploits the cost and business benefits resulting from PKI-based e-business enablement.”
By Brian Skelly
