GlobalSign Passes TERENA Pilot With Distinction

Signs Three Year Extension With Europe’s Largest Research and Educational Networking Organisation; UKERNA Joins Popular Scheme

By Stephanie Ross
DomainInformer.com Contributing Author
April 13, 2007

LONDON, UK – GlobalSign (www.globalsign.com), one of the longest established Certification Authorities (CA) and specialists in SSL security, today announced that it has been awarded a three year contract by the Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association (TERENA) to build upon the recently completed 12 month pilot project for the deployment of a managed SSL Server Certificate Service. The contract allows participating TERENA members to act as service providers to educational and research organisations within their regions, thereby providing a fast and efficient method of obtaining an unlimited amount of certificates at a cost effective price.

TERENA provides a platform to encourage the development of a high-quality computer networking infrastructure for the European research community. Its principal members are European National Research and Education Networking organisations (NRENs) that represent the academic community in their countries. An increased use of SSL server certificates at the NRENs and their user communities, in combination with a growing need for encrypted channels and the introduction of authentication and authorisation solutions, initially encouraged TERENA to investigate a global solution to meet an increasing demand for SSL server certificates and a technology to address security issues such as phishing and other forms of identity fraud.

Following a successful one year pilot phase, in which eight NRENs participated and 5,000 SSL certificates were issued, TERENA has extended and expanded the agreement with GlobalSign, authorising up to 11 NRENs to benefit from the scheme, administrated by TERENA itself. One such NREN to take advantage of the programme is UKERNA (United Kingdom Education and Research Networking Association), a government funded operation, with the primary aim of providing and developing a network infrastructure that meets the needs of the UK’s education and research communities.

GlobalSign designed a tailored product for TERENA that is now known as Organisation ServerSign-EDU, a solution with all the benefits of GlobalSign’s Organisation ServerSign SSL but priced with educational and research budgets in mind. Benefits of this solution include:

• Trusted by all popular browsers
• "Secured by GlobalSign" seal
• One-day Express Turnaround
• Strong 256-bit enabled encryption
• Organisation Validated - customers see vetted proof of who operates the website

“The TERENA project is a valuable example of how GlobalSign can adapt and design enterprise-class solutions for sectors such as education and research,” commented Johan Sys, general manager, GlobalSign. “We are proud to have proven that our technology and service levels position us as a leader in the market and hope that we can replicate this success over the next three years.”

About GlobalSign NV
Established in 1996 and as a WebTrust accredited public certificate authority, GlobalSign offers publicly trusted SSL (standard and new Extended Validation), S/MIME and code signing certificates. These core solutions allow its thousands of enterprise customers to conduct secure online transactions and data submission, and provide tamper-proof distributable code as well as being able to bind identities to client certificates for email security and remote two factor authentication, such as SSL VPNs. It has sales and support expertise available through its US, UK and Belgian offices, available in 6 languages.

In October 2006, GlobalSign was acquired by Certification Services Ltd (now GlobalSign Ltd.) a UK based marketing & sales company specialising in digital certificate sales, support and strategy and part of the GMO Internet Group. The new ownership has resulted in significant investment in the GlobalSign product and service portfolio, customer service infrastructure as well as ongoing R&D.

About GMO Internet Inc.
Company Name: GMO Internet Inc. (Tokyo Stock Exchange, First Section: 9449)
URL: http://www.gmo.jp/en/
CEO: Masatoshi Kumagai

Business Description:

Internet business - Infrastructure
Internet business - Media/Advertising
Internet business - Finance

For further details please contact:

EU Press Department Matthew Cross
GlobalSign NV AxiCom UK
+44 (0) 1622 766766 +44 (0)20 8392 4079
[email protected] [email protected]