Netscape Included Among Industry Leaders Offering PKI Interoperability
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- November 18, 1998 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) announced today that its CiscoAssure Policy Networking initiative will support multi-vendor Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) solutions for security policy management. Netscape Communications Corporation joins other industry-leading vendors in support of CiscoAssure through interoperability with Cisco's Certificate Enrollment Protocol (CEP).
"Cisco is committed to supporting multiple PKI solutions within CiscoAssure and integrating with our customers' existing security environments," said Elizabeth Kaufman, general manager of Internet Services Management Group for Cisco Systems. "Cisco's strong relationships with leading PKI vendors and leadership in the development of encryption and PKI standards, demonstrate Cisco's commitment to secure mission-critical applications and networks."
Through its CiscoAssure Policy Networking initiative, Cisco will provide its customers the intelligence to translate intuitive, high-level security policies into specific configurations that are implemented in Cisco network devices. By automating the execution and centralized administration of a robust, end-to-end network security solution, CiscoAssure enables customers to transparently and securely extend their business applications to remote users, customers, and partners.
Today's enterprise networks support a wide range of mission-critical requirements - including enterprise resource planning (ERP), multimedia, or electronic commerce applications; and intranet, extranet, and virtual private network (VPN) implementations. These networks often leverage a combination of public private connections, and require advanced security capabilities to ensure data integrity and protect critical infrastructure.
As a critical element of CiscoAssure's security solution, Certificate Authority (CA) and PKI technology will enable an enterprise to securely connect the campus with remote offices, business partners, mobile users, telecommuters, and customers. Cisco network devices - including routers, switches and firewalls - will obtain and use digital certificates to perform authentication. Certificate Authority technology will also provide manageability and scalability for Cisco's IPSec-based encryption and virtual private network (VPN) solutions.
Cisco has teamed with the industry's leading PKI vendors to provide robust solutions for enterprise customers and end-users. Through Cisco's Certificate Enrollment Protocol (CEP), CAs can provide certificate life cycle operations such as certificate enrollment and revocation processes, and certificate revocation list (CRL) access. CEP is currently supported by PKI solutions offered by Baltimore Technologies, Entrust Technologies, and VeriSign, and will be supported by Netscape Communications' Certificate Server. software.
"Enterprise customers want to deploy secure, policy-based networks to help them compete in the Net Economy," said David Weiden, vice president, Directory and Security Products for Netscape Communications. "The combination of Netscape Certificate Server software with CiscoAssure and CEP provides customers with a reliable, scalable solution for improved security on the Internet."
The Cisco Enrollment Protocol, co-developed by Cisco and VeriSign, leverages industry standards PKCS#7, PKCS#10, while following the structure defined both by NIST and by the IETF PKIX Working Group. Cisco will continue to support the PKIX effort and extend CEP to ensure interoperability with industry standards.
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