Equifax Launches E-Business Alliance With IBM To Help Build Trust On Internet, Other Networks

New York, June 8, 1998 -- Equifax is entering into an alliance with IBM to develop and market services to help ensure safe and more secure transactions over the Internet and other networked environments.

The explosion in networked computing and information exchange has motivated the need for solutions addressing the privacy and authentication of transactions. The availability of registration and digital certificate solutions from these two well known and trusted companies is expected to accelerate e-business into the next millennium.

"Equifax and IBM are helping to enhance business on the Internet and facilitate network communications by building trust, and ensuring safe communications," said Thomas F. Chapman, Equifax President and CEO. "At the same time, we will maintain standards that safeguard an individual's - and company's - privacy."

Within this business alliance, Equifax plans to offer a broad range of digital certificate services on an outsourced basis to businesses. The services will consist of complete certificate management and authentication capabilities for the secure transport of information and payment messages over the Internet, corporate intranets and extranets.

These services will combine Equifax's long-standing expertise in secure, high-volume information processing with IBM's world-class technology and systems integration skills. This powerful alliance is important for the companies' customers and for the marketplace because the e-business alliance wraps products and services together for a value-added total solution. And it is something companies must have to take advantage of the convenience, cost efficiency and ease of the Internet, and other communications networks, in conducting their business.

The marketing alliance will offer certificate solutions to a range of corporate customers, including banks, financial institutions and retailers, to facilitate the issuance of digital certificates to consumers, trading partners, employees and servers. The services will also include the associated authentication of certificate applicants, leveraging Equifax's extensive expertise in information management and large-volume transaction processing. These services are planned for availability in the third quarter of this year.

The Equifax digital certificate service is intended to be integrated with the full line of IBM e-business products, as well as being interoperable with solutions offered by other leading technology providers.

"Our new Vault Registry solution for digital certificates is such a critically important aspect of e-business that we want our customers to have a truly excellent service provider," said Irving Wladawsky-Berger, general manager IBM Internet Division. "Equifax is already recognized as an expert in this area, a well-known trusted third party who thoroughly understands the issues of privacy and trust."

The components of the Equifax service are:

• Certificate Management Services: A high-volume, efficient operation that issues, revokes, suspends and renews certificates. This is built utilizing IBM's recently announced Vault Registry and Payment Registry technologies (formerly known as IBM Registry for SET) to provide customers with complete services for general purpose certificates and certificates for secure credit card payments.
• Remote Authentication Services: Authenticates certificate applicants based on Equifax's vast data repository and Remote Authentication System.
• Directory Services: A highly scale-able repository of certificates, including revoked certificates. This will be based on business processes developed by Equifax in managing large positive and negative files.

"In conducting business in networked environments, including the Internet, security is absolutely critical," said Jeff Johnson, Equifax Senior Vice President of Electronic Commerce. "The combination of digital certification and remote authentication helps address the key question of whether parties transacting on a network are really who they say they are. In addition, the combination of Equifax and IBM gives customers the ability to source these solutions from companies they've worked with for many decades."

Equifax's worldwide knowledge-based information, transaction processing, consulting and software businesses are designed to bring buyers and sellers together, thus changing the shape of global commerce. Equifax serves the banking, financial, retail, credit card, telecommunications/utilities, automotive, government and health care industries. It is a leading supplier of business information solutions in Canada, the UK and Latin America. Equifax operates in 17 countries with sales in more than 40 countries. Founded in 1899 in Atlanta, Equifax (NYSE: EFX) today has 10,000 employees around the world. Revenues for the 12 months ended March 31, 1998, were more than $1.4 billion.