Business Wire (Copyright (c) 2000, Business Wire)

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2000--In a bold move to deliver a

new worldwide standard for secure data exchange on the Internet, Electronic

Data Systems (NYSE:EDS) and Biz Interactive Zone (BIZ) have joined forces to

market SSP(TM), a comprehensive solution for the secure, real-time exchange

of authenticated financial and intellectual information over the Internet.

The alliance to provide Secure Digital Communications was announced today by

Shakil Kidwai, vice president of EDS' Information Assurance Group, during a

news conference held at Comdex Fall 2000 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

SSP, for Secure Service Provider(TM), is a Core to the Edge(TM) security

solution presenting a hardware/software worldwide industry standard for real

time, secure, private and authenticated financial and intellectual

transactions over the Internet. The two companies have forged agreements to

work together in an alliance to market SSP. The SSP solution suite of 15

primary products and services will be one of the core offerings of EDS'

worldwide Information Assurance Group. The initial term of the agreement is

10 years.

"Information assurance is vital to the success of the digital economy. EDS'

Secure Digital Communications solves the main problem that is holding back

the growth of e-commerce," according to EDS' Kidwai. "Biz Interactive Zone,

under the SSP brand, has marshaled a team of best-of-breed products and

services to manifest a total solution for security that is complete and

extensive, combining the comprehensive back-end IT infrastructure of EDS

with the advanced technologies of the SSP brand. We plan to fully integrate

this powerful new suite of products and services to equip our clients with

the capability to protect both consumers and intellectual property owners."

SSP addresses the myriad security-related problems facing the Internet such

as content piracy, privacy issues, secure e-commerce, virus attacks,

transaction scalability challenges, and the dynamic changes in security

approaches. The agreement between BIZ and EDS includes the marketing,

training, installation and consulting related to the following core products

and services:

-- SSP Smart Cards with expanded storage and accelerated

processing of complex cryptographic functions

-- SSP Smart Card Readers direct communications between the host

computer and the smart card, specifically engineered to

eliminate the need for a separate power supply

-- SSP Netsignia for securing Web and desktops from unauthorized

access as well as providing flexibility and certificate

integration

-- SSP Profile Manager to securely leverage the Internet for

e-business and communications by controlling the smart card

and the certificate lifecycle

-- SSP 2108 CipherServer, which offloads cryptographic processing

to achieve dramatically expedited response times

-- SSP Crypto Accelerator, a PC card that fits into a server to

provide the same function at the CipherServer, but is

dedicated to an individual server

-- SSP Maestro, which brings together all the components of the

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

-- SSP EMBASSY(TM) Trusted Client, a subsystem in user devices

which provides a platform capable of hosting secure

application processing and access to secure resources such as

storage, time, cryptographic functions and key management. The

Embassy chip denotes SSP open technology for an embedded

application security system executing secure application

called applets. The EMBASSY Device, along with applets,

application providers and servers, are authenticated within a

trusted infrastructure.

-- SSP Applet Development Kit, which provides the hardware and

software tools to create applications for the EMBASSY system

-- SSP Digital Notary provides a one-way identification and time

stamp for notarizing a digital object. Establishes the

integrity of a record without exposing the content.

-- SSP Agent Addressed (XNS) providing unique personal or

business agent ID addresses for which access rights are

controlled, allowing only select individuals or business

entities to view specific administrative, intellectual or

financial information on a worldwide basis

-- SSP Gilian G-Server is a Web server front-end that verifies

data on web pages and overrides any hacking or unauthorized

information alterations. It uses digital signatures and

hashing to check Web page content as it leaves the server for

a request from online users

-- SSP Metering provides Embassy device applets which provide

time metering, digital rights management (DRM) and specific

business rules

-- SSP Broadcasting Kit allows a content provider to prepare

products with digital rights management (DRM) and specific

business rules

-- SSP Trust Assurance Consulting to assist clients in selecting

the appropriate SSP technology and ensure unique needs and

requirements are met

"This alliance with EDS allows us to accelerate the mass adoption of

broadband-based, embedded security all the way from the Core to the Edge(TM)

-- which is the user's Internet access device, be it desktop, cable, DSL,

wireless modem, satellite receiver or other appliance," according to Rob

Gorman, president and COO of Biz Interactive Zone. "A new generation of

e-commerce is now enabled with a truly secure and trusted environment."

SSP represents the only open embedded security architecture supporting

multiple standards of public key infrastructure (PKI) and digital rights

management (DRM) simultaneously. With the impressive performance capability

to process transactions at the minimum rate of 3,500 per second, the SSP

solution is tens of thousands of times faster than software-only based PKI

solutions. The suite of end-to-end components assures that every link in the

transaction chain is secure, resulting in impenetrable embedded security at

every step. SSP supports all e-commerce requirements, including automatic

rules handling, digital rights management, micro-payment processing,

transaction clearing and sub-clearing, authentication and content

preparation.

The complete suite of firmware, software, applications and services will

support all e-commerce requirements, including automatic rules handling,

digital rights management, micro-payment processing, transaction clearing,

authentication and content preparation and protection. The SSP system

employs smart cards so any individual or virtual community can direct funds

or information through a secure channel. SSP is platform independent, easy

to integrate, open and programmable by third parties.

About EDS

EDS, the leading pure-play global services company, provides strategy,

implementation and hosting for clients managing the complexities of the

digital economy. EDS brings together the world's best technologies to

address critical client business imperatives. It helps clients eliminate

boundaries, collaborate in new ways, establish their customers' trust and

continuously seek improvement. EDS serves the world's leading companies and

governments in 55 countries globally. EDS reported revenues of $18.5 billion

in 1999. The company's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange

(NYSE:EDS) and the London Stock Exchange. Learn more at www.eds.com.

BIZ Interactive Zone is pioneering the only Core to the Edge(TM) security

solution that enables merchants, consumers, and vertical virtual communities

to confidently transact commerce and exchange confidential information

online, by delivering a new worldwide broadband industry standard for

real-time, secure, private transactions. These technologies, when combined

with BIZ partners, completes the SSP (Secure Service Provider) (TM) suite of

products and services enabling secure transactions at the rate of 3,500 per

second, as compared to 100 transactions per second of the current software

only solutions utilizing Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). For more