Entrust Technologies and Secom Use Digital Signatures to Finalize Agreement During Japanese Visit.

PLANO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 16, 1999--

TOKYO--International Contract Signing Ceremony Witnessed

by Canadian Prime Minister and Local Dignitaries

Entrust(r) Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: ENTU), a global leader in solutions that bring trust to e-business, showcased its industry-leading digital signature technology today in Tokyo by digitally signing an agreement with Secom Co. Ltd., Japan's largest security company. The agreement establishes Secom as the Japanese distributor for Entrust Technologies' recently- introduced business unit, Entrust.net(, which provides a trusted security service for issuing digital certificates to e-business Web servers.

This signing ceremony represents the first time in the history of e-business that a formal contract has been signed publicly between two private-sector parties using digital signatures. Digital signatures authenticate the signing parties and witnesses to an electronic document or contract, and protect these documents from unauthorized access or alterations. Approvers, document reviewers, and authors can electronically "sign" and process electronic documents easily and securely by attaching their digital signatures for quick, cost-effective routing and processing across private and public networks like the Internet.

Entrust Technologies' executive vice-president and chief technology officer, Brian O'Higgins, and Secom Ltd.'s CIO, Yoichi Tao, digitally signed the contract, while the premier of Ontario, Michael Harris, and the Canadian federal minister for International Trade, Pierre S. Pettigrew, served as formal witnesses to the agreement. The contract was signed in the presence of Canada's Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, several of Canada's Provincial Premiers and territorial leaders and local dignitaries.

"We are extremely pleased to facilitate today's event, which provides a real-world example of the practical use of digital signature technology as the foundation of an important activity that happens every day in business - the signing of contracts," said Brian O'Higgins, executive vice-president and chief technology officer, Entrust Technologies Inc. "This contract with Secom is a key progression in our global Entrust.net strategy. We look forward to working with Secom.net to provide security to Japanese organizations conducting e-business transactions and communications over the Internet."

In its new role as Japanese distribution partner, Secom.net will be responsible for receiving requests from Japanese customers and providing the necessary validity and background checking before requesting a certificate from Entrust.net.

"Today's digital contract signing marked an important contract for Secom in Japan," said Yoichi Tao, CIO, Secom Co. Ltd. "As the first and largest security company in Japan, we have built a reputation for excellence. We look forward to serving as the local distribution point for Japanese businesses as they order Entrust.net certificates to manage secure transactions and communications with their customers, partners and employees."

How the Technical Process Worked For Digitally

Signing the Contract

- The signing parties from both companies and the witnesses to the

agreement used an electronic authentication system created by

Entrust Technologies that combines Entrust's digital signature

technology with Entrust-Ready( partner products from Adobe and

ActivCard.

- An Adobe Acrobat pdf file version of the contract was created and

all officials were issued unique ActivCard smartcards in advance.

The smartcards store each official's unique personal credentials.

- To sign the contract, each official inserted their smartcard into

a smartcard reader and entered a unique code that enabled their

digital signature to be attached to the contract.

About Entrust Technologies

Entrust Technologies Inc. is a global leader in providing products and services that allow e-businesses to manage trusted, secure electronic transactions and communications over today's advanced networks, including the Internet, extranets and intranets. Since 1994, Entrust Technologies has been providing award-winning solutions to global enterprises, government entities, small to mid-sized businesses and individuals. Over four million Entrust Technologies users have been licensed with digital certificates to date. Entrust Technologies Inc. is headquartered in Plano, Texas with offices in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany and Japan. For additional company information please visit http://www.entrust.com.

In the United States, Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust Technologies Inc. All Entrust product names are trademarks of Entrust Technologies. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.