VeriSign unveils new online identity verification services

[R. A. Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


Status: RO
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 09:49:22 -0700
From: lynn.wheeler at firstdata.com
Subject: VeriSign unveils new online identity verification services
To: epay at ca0.net, internet-payments <internet-payments at ls.fstc.org>

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/privacy/story/0,10801,76558,00.html


Trust services vendor VeriSign Inc. today unveiled a new online identity-
verification service that allows Web customers to positively establish
their identities with online merchants.

The new Consumer Authentication Service (CAS) provides online businesses
with instant, round-the-clock information taken from more than 50 public
and private databases to ensure a customer's identity, said Anil
Chakravarthy, director of product management for VeriSign's enterprise
group.

The information comes from state motor vehicle department, government,
credit bureau and telephone number databases, Chakravarthy said. Optimized
scoring models are used to help businesses quickly and easily determine
whether potential buyers are who they claim to be.

The services, which are charged to the businesses on a per- transaction
basis by Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign, vary with the importance of
the identity checks.

The services aren't for typical retail online sales but could be used by
online auction houses such as eBay or similar businesses to establish the
identities of first-time customers seeking credit accounts, Chakravarthy
said.

"It makes very good sense for the online auction house to check on you" to
reduce fraud, identity theft and other problems, he said.

The new service uses a predefined set of XML standards to connect to an
enterprise's customer-facing Web application. The authentication data
entered by the consumer is then automatically routed using XML and
encryption through VeriSign's services and is checked against varied
databases to cross-verify and risk-rank the consumer identity in real time.
Verification is then automatically sent back to the enterprise application
and to the consumer, using underlying XML data.

The communication is secured with Secure Sockets Layer encryption that is
already built into standard Web servers and browsers.

"We take extraordinary measures not only to be highly secure ... but also
we take extraordinary care to ensure the privacy of this information,"
Chakravarthy said.

VeriSign had previously offered such services only to online auction
vendors but is now making the services available to a broader audience.

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-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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