Microsoft Security Breach Underscores the Risks of Digital Certificates
Sterling, VA -- March 29, 2001: Following the announcement last week of the breach of Microsoft\'s two digital certificates, officials at Surety, Inc., a security and digital notarization service provider, said today that the security infringement underscores the vulnerability of using digital certificates where trust is an issue.
\"Because human trust is a factor when using digital certificates, there is always a risk that they can be compromised. The events of last week underscore the vulnerability of digital signatures,\" Executive Vice-President Barry Libenson said. \"We are likely to see this type of problem again in the future.\"
Surety uses a patented digital timestamping service that if used in conjunction with digital certificates, provides irrefutable proof of the validity of the document. This allows anyone to prove far into the future that a digital transaction was legally binding regardless of the status of the digital certificate used to sign it.
About Digital Notary Service
Digital Notary® Service notarizes any digital content by creating a small digital fingerprint of the target data and sending it to Surety to be registered and timestamped. A unique Digital Notary Record is then sent back to the requesting client for later use in validating the notarization. Individuals, companies and governments using Surety.com\'s Digital Notary Service can be assured their proprietary data is protected because a digital fingerprint is a one-way identifier-no part of the original data record or file can be reconstructed from its fingerprint.
Offering unprecedented and irrefutable record security, Digital Notary Service protects electronic records in legal settings; reliably dates inventions to establish intellectual property rights; guarantees tamperproof records for regulatory compliance; prevents insider fraud, and; validates the authenticity of electronic records created by e-commerce transactions.
Posted: Thursday, March 29, 2001