From: “Joseph M. Reagle Jr.” <reagle@rpcp.mit.edu>
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Message Hash: 53d69d5c70e201ddb2c2ba4230fbaf55df673488010d36074dd85f11f3546cc5
Message ID: <199607261434.KAA08910@mccannerick-bh.mccann.com>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1996-07-26 18:06:15 UTC
Raw Date: Sat, 27 Jul 1996 02:06:15 +0800
From: "Joseph M. Reagle Jr." <reagle@rpcp.mit.edu>
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 1996 02:06:15 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: MasterCard & GTE In Electronic Certification Deal 07/25/96
Message-ID: <199607261434.KAA08910@mccannerick-bh.mccann.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
What I spoke of yesterday:
PURCHASE, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1996 JUL 25 (NB) -- REPEAT/By
Ian Stokell. The race is on to provide extensive, secure electronic
commerce over the Internet. Now MasterCard International and GTE
Corp. (NYSE:GTE) have announced plans to deliver electronic
certification services under the new Secure Electronic Transaction
(SET) standard.
The certificate authority services will be appearing by the fourth
quarter, and will be implemented in a number of pilot programs
worldwide, say the two companies.
Newsbytes notes that a major obstacle to electronic commerce on
the Internet is not the lack of suitable technologies, but public
distrust in having to send credit card numbers electronically, with
the perception that they can be easily intercepted en route. Industry
experts say the public needs some sort of proven online security
methods backed by financial and online heavyweights such as MasterCard.
A sort of digital certificate will be developed by the two companies
that will protect both the consumer and vendor against unauthorized
card number use. The digital certificates will reportedly be issued
via the Internet to cardholding consumers, Internet merchants, and
institutions processing the transactions.
While a number of methods for secure transactions are beginning to
appear in the online world, notes Newsbytes, none have instantly
jumped out in front of the pack.
The companies say that the SET standard appeared first in June, and
that software to allow it to be incorporated into Internet browsers,
servers, and gateways will be available by the early fourth quarter
from several vendors. The standard was developed by MasterCard and
Visa in cooperation with a number of other companies, including GTE,
IBM, Microsoft, and Netscape.
Said Steve Mott, senior vice president, Electronic Commerce/New
Ventures at MasterCard. "Obtaining digital signatures is expected to
be no more difficult than signing up for an online service. We are
also pushing to extend SET certification to chip cards to get added
hardware/platform security and portability. We expect to extend our
activities with GTE along these and other lines, so they are a key
strategic ally for MasterCard and our members."
Mott added: "We will begin testing the software by the end of the
summer and through the remainder of this year. The missing link (to
online commerce) was providing digital certificates to add the extra
software authentication needed to make SET complete."
A number of electronic commerce pilots are being planned for the fourth
quarter. Pilots that have already been announced in which MasterCard is
participating are in Denmark (with PBS, IBM, and Europay) and Malaysia
(with MBf and VeriFone).
GTE plans to offer both certification authority products and services
under the CyberTrust brand name. CyberTrust will reportedly support all
popular Web browsers, servers, and other public key-enabled
applications, such as secure e-mail and electronic data interchange.
(19960724/Press Contact: Sean Healy, MasterCard International,
914-249-4606)
_______________________
Regards, Silence is the voice of complicity. -?
Joseph Reagle http://rpcp.mit.edu/~reagle/home.html
reagle@mit.edu E0 D5 B2 05 B6 12 DA 65 BE 4D E3 C1 6A 66 25 4E
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