From: Alexandre Maret <amaret@infomaniak.ch>
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 07:35:55 +0800
To: "cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: Swisskey: Swiss issuing office for Internet certificates established
Message-ID: <30FC30BB.776975B1@infomaniak.ch>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



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