It was named one of Red Herring's top 50 private companies in 1997. Its digital identification products and verification services are recognized by national authorities all over the world. Even the FBI uses them. What more assurance could you need? VeriSign wants to be the de facto standard for Internet security the way Microsoft Windows is for the PC. The company's main product is the Digital ID (or digital certificate), a string of crack-resistant computer code (called a key) that ascertains whether the parties on each side of an e-conversation are really who they purport to be. The technology is used for e-mail, access control for corporate Intranets, and e-commerce.

You need it... really, you do

The company's success depends on the wide acceptance of its brand - the technology is worthless unless both users in a transaction support it. One of the biggest challenges to VeriSign is convincing consumers that the Digital IDs are a necessity. The company hopes to encourage this by getting online vendors to require them for online transactions. The recent media attention given to attakcs on popular web sites such as yahoo.com and cnn.com has further highlighted the need for top-notch internet security - especially to the average consumer who has no desire to see their credit card number fall into the wrong hands. To ensure its place in the market, the company has already partnered with high-tech heavies like Netscape, Microsoft, Apple and IBM, as well as young but powerful Internet kingpins like OpenMarket, CompuServe and ETrade. Its public key codes are used in common web browsers, including Netscape Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

VeriSign was spun off from RSA Data Security in 1995, and went public in January 1998. It offers four classes of security -- these range from a simple Internet "driver's license" to a certificate that enables secure credit card transactions on the Web. VeriSign has issued more than 65,000 digital IDs for websites, and over 2 million to individual users. The IDs are recognized worldwide, and deemed as legally binding signatures in a number of states. Businesses using the VeriSign ID include the Federal Reserve Bank of NY, and Bank of America. Visa owns a minority stake in the company.

The competition

Several other companies offer digital-certificate software, including GTE CyberTrust and Entrust Technologies. One competitor that VeriSign is happy to have is the U.S. Postal Service - company leaders say the entry of the post office into the market confirms the need for digital identification. At the same time, consumers may wonder if such a bureaucratic entity can do as well as an energetic start-up like VeriSign, which in the 1999 turned the first profit in company history.

In March 1999, VeriSign received permission from the U.S. Commerce department to export a more sophisticated version of its digital certificates. The software will be marketed to online merchants, insurance organizations and foreign subsidiaries of American corporations. Previously, Verisign was only allowed to offer the software to overseas banks. The company is the only manufacturer of Global 128-bit encryption software, the highest level of encryption available.

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