Press Release

GlobalSign Awarded WebTrust Compliancy for Seventh Consecutive Year

GlobalSign continues to display the WebTrust seal of assurance plus the new Extended Validation (EV) seal after another successful annual audit

London UK, Leuven Belgium and Portsmouth NH – 24 September 2008 – GlobalSign (www.globalsign.com), a specialist in SSL Certificate security has today announced that its auditors, Ernst & Young, have awarded the company the WebTrust Seal of Assurance for Certification Authorities for the seventh consecutive year, giving GlobalSign one of the longest WebTrust compliancy records throughout the industry.  In addition it has been awarded the newly devised WebTrust accreditation for Extended Validation (EV).

The WebTrust accreditation was established by the American Institute for Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and sets an industry standard for the code of practice for Certification Authorities issuing publicly trusted Digital Certificates.  Such trusted Digital Certificates can be used for SSL security, email security, access control and document security.  Practices such as customer authentication procedures, physical, network and logical security surrounding the Certificate issuance infrastructure, handling of customer data and business continuity planning were rigorously reviewed against the WebTrust accreditation criteria. 

After the introduction of Extended Validation SSL Certificates in 2006, the AICPA has launched a new compliancy audit in line with the Certification Authorities and Browser (CA/B) Forum’s  EV SSL Certificate Issuance Guidelines.  Certification Authorities must pass the EV compliancy audit in order to issue EV SSL Certificates.

EV SSL turns the browser address bar green in the latest versions of the Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera browsers in addition to showing the standard SSL “padlock”.  It also offers further visible indicators of the organisation behind the website by displaying the organisation’s name and the Certification Authority who issued the EV SSL Certificate. 

“As one of the original members of the CA/B Forum, we are happy to show ongoing commitment to delivering the EV standard through our latest EV WebTrust accreditation” said Paul Tourret, Managing Director, GlobalSign Ltd in London, UK.  “It shows our customers the dedication GlobalSign has to delivering trustworthy Digital Certificates through our proven PKI solutions, all governed by our stringent best practices and data protection policies.” 

In 2002, GlobalSign became one of the first Certification Authorities worldwide to attain the original WebTrust compliancy accreditation.  GlobalSign’s newly expanded EV accreditation proves it remains one of the longest serving and most trustworthy names in the online security and identity authentication world.

For more information please visit http://www.globalsign.com/  

About GlobalSign
Established in 1996 and as a WebTrust accredited public certificate authority, GlobalSign offers publicly trusted SSL, including SSL Certificates, EV SSL, managed SSL services, S/MIME and Code Signing Certificates for use on all platforms including mobile devices. Its Trusted Root solution uses the widely embedded GlobalSign Root CA certificates to provide immediate PKI trust for Microsoft CA and enterprise CAs, eliminating the costs of using untrusted Root Certificates. Its partnership with Adobe to provide Certified Document Services (CDS) enables secure digitally signed PDF documents, certified transcripts and e-invoices.  These core Digital Certificate solutions allow its thousands of authenticated customers to conduct secure online transactions, data transfer, distribution of tamper-proof code, and protection of online identities for secure email and access control.  The company has a history of innovation within the online security industry and has offices in the US, UK, Belgium, Japan, and China. 

GMO Internet Group
GMO Internet Group, headquartered in Japan, is a leading force in the Internet industry offering one of the most comprehensive ranges of Internet services worldwide. The group holds top domestic market share in domain registration, web hosting, and payment processing and provides a host of other Internet services including global online security services, e-commerce solutions, and Internet advertising to both businesses and individuals. At the centre of the group is GMO Internet, Inc. a company listed on the prestigious first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE: 9449). Please visit www.gmo.jp/en for further details.

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