point to verify ™

IdAuthority ensures Instant SSL can provide fast, almost instant issuance without compromising levels of validation

July 1 2002 - Kent, England. Comodo, the Internet Security Specialists behind the hugely successful Instant SSL product range, have announced the use of IdAuthority to provide fast SSL issuance without the compromise of its stringent validation processes. The move uniquely positions Instant SSL in the SSL providers market - strong validation processes combined with fast issuance speed.

To date, SSL providers have clearly been divided into two classifications: those who provide full and proper validation of applications (such as Verisign and Thawte), and those whose validation process comprises only of an email challenge to the applicant such as GeoTrust). The latter group of SSL providers is the cause of growing concern throughout the industry, especially as many view the lack of validation as causing a potential long term danger for end consumers.

As a recent Gartner report (April 2002) into the current SSL market states; "If SSL certificates are issued without adequate identity checking of the enterprises applying for the certificates, the opportunity for fraud vastly increases." The report continues to explain why this may be the case; "If legitimate enterprises can obtain certificates for domains that they don't own, or if nonexistent companies can obtain certificates for domains masquerading as legitimate (e.g., amazom.com pretending to be amazon.com), then it will be increasingly easy to create fraudulent Web sites."

The value of SSL is protected by the strength of a standard two-point validation process. The first step is to verify that the applicant owns, or has legal right to use, a domain name. The second step is to verify that the applicant is a legitimate entity. The compromise of either step potentially undermines the level of security provided though SSL to the end consumer.

"Good validation has traditionally taken time," states Melih Abdulhayoglu, Chief Security Architect with the Comodo Research Lab, "yet the market increasingly demands fast issuance - consequently customers have either opted for good validation and have been patient, or they have opted for fast issuance at the expense of being validated properly." Instant SSL is the first Certification Authority to combine both good validation practices and fast issuance, and as a result are positioned uniquely within the market.

"Unlike Verisign or Thawte, the turnaround time on Instant SSL certificate issuance is comparable with GeoTrust, yet unlike GeoTrust, the validations processes employed are comparable with Verisign or Thawte!" comments Abdulhayoglu, "This ensures we can serve customers requiring both speed and unmatched validation. Furthermore, by levying the investment made in IdAuthority we maintain our position as the most cost effective professional Certificate providers."

IdAuthority is world's first and unique real-time identity assurance service developed by Comodo and used by a growing number of applications and services. IdAuthority has been designed to connect the inherent commercial and legal comforts of the physical world with the online world. As a result of this revolutionary step, IdAuthority ensures that consumers and business are provided with a comparable level of assurance in the virtual world that already exists in the physical world.

Part of the critical functionality of the IdAuthority is the provision of website identities to applications and services. Instant SSL utilises this service within its issuance process - by determining the entity behind a website, applications details can be verified against IdAuthority data in real time. This first step in the validation process speeds up the domain name ownership check and submitted company details check considerably.

IdAuthority is constantly being updated and expanded with company and domain name ownership records. As well as many automated processes, Comodo have recently extended its internally operated Data Management Unit, a team of human information editors, and ensure the IdAuthority records provided to Instant SSL is both timely and accurate. The end effect is a unique database of pre-validated company information run on an infrastructure to provide, in real-time, domain name ownership information that can be used to expedite SSL applications.

InstantSSL webserver security solutions are available at www.instantSSL.com. More information of the commercial rollout of IdAuthority, and its applications and services, is available at www.idauthority.com

About Comodo: Comodo (SSL Certificate Authority ) is a leading Internet security specialist and provides next generation E-commerce Security Solutions. Through a growing range of products, services and applications developed by its dedicated research lab, Comodo provides software, hardware, secure messaging and certificate based security.

After its first year of issuing SSL Certificates, Comodo has quickly become the 2nd largest Certification Authority in the world. For product information please contact + 1.888.266.6361 or + 1.703.581.6361 or visit the Comodo Home Page at www.comodogroup.com.

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