SmartTrust solution offers enterprises all the benefits of smart card-based PKI services without investment in cards and readers
The divide between fixed and mobile Internet channels has been further bridged with the release of SmartTrust Personal V3.0 from Sonera SmartTrust Ltd. With over one million copies already sold, the latest version of the PC-based solution will allow a number of desktop applications, including Microsoft Outlook and Explorer and Netscape Messenger and Communicator to accept digital signatures signed using a mobile phone equipped with signing keys.
“Digital signing keys stored within smart cards have always offered the most secure means of digitally signing transactions and communications. However, the deployment of smart cards and smart card readers as peripherals to PCs has been slow to take off, impacting on the number of users able to leverage this extremely secure way of authenticating themselves and encrypting information,” explains Sten Lannerstrom, Product Portfolio Manager at Sonera SmartTrust Ltd.. “Now, organizations will be able to partner with operators to leverage the huge installed base of mobile devices and roll-out digital signature functionality to staff without investment in smart cards and readers.
“The SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card within a mobile offers an equally tamper-resistant environment and has the advantage of being a mass-market device used by millions of people around the world.”
By linking the mobile device to SmartTrust Personal, users will be to digitally sign emails, web transactions and a growing number of SmartTrust partner applications such as electronic forms and VPN connections from their PC without the need for a separate smart card reader. They will also be able to authenticate themselves during Windows 2000 session log-ins.
“The combination of mobile technology with the now ubiquitous applications being run on most desktop PCs will offer users the most secure and convenient means of communication,” finishes Lannerstrom.
SmartTrust Personal V3.0 will be released in Q3 2001.
SmartTrust Personal
SmartTrust Personal combines extensive support for smart cards and digital signatures with strong encryption, enabling end users to securely conduct financial transactions, ecommerce and other security-critical services from their desktops. SmartTrust Personal seamlessly integrates this security functionality with a number of third-party
applications, eliminating the need for the installation of customized software solutions.
As SmartTrust Personal implements the PKCS#11 standard and includes a Microsoft Cryptographic Service Provider (CSP), it can be integrated seamlessly with a number of third party products, such as mail clients from Microsoft and Netscape. SmartTrust Personal can also be used in Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions as a digital signature add-on to XML-forms software and any other type of security-critical application.
Functionality:
- Includes a Microsoft Cryptographic Service Provider (CSP) for the Microsoft CryptoAPI
- Implements version 2.01 of the PKCS# 11 standard
- Smart card reader access via the PC/SC or CT-API standards
- Compatible with all major smart card and SIM card manufacturers.
- Full support for secondary certificates
- Supports the standard digital signature format – PKCS# 7
- Includes full cryptographic support -128- bit key length
- Uses the standard client authentication procedure in the SSL 3.0 protocol
- Automated configuration of smart card readers
- Utilizes the security proxy feature in standard Internet browsers
SmartTrust Personal has been tested on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000.
About Smart Trust
Sonera SmartTrust Ltd. is a leading provider of comprehensive security and service management solutions for mobile e-services. The company’s infrastructure software is designed to increase user value amongst operators, financial institutions, trusted service providers, portals and other service and content providers. SmartTrust currently has nearly 60 mobile operator and 160 corporate customers on all continents and is an active member of many industry interest groups and standardization bodies such as ETSI, Radicchio, PKI Forum and WAP Forum.
SmartTrust is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sonera Corporation (HEX: SRA, NASDAQ: SNRA), an international forerunner in mobile communications as well as mobile and Internet-based services and applications (www.sonera.com).
More information on SmartTrust is available at www.smarttrust.com.