resource center
  See your link here
|
Subscribe to Computerworld Computerworld -
A group of four major banks based in Europe and the U.S. today said they're going live with a system that's designed for use in processing large electronic payments between different companies.
The technology, developed by New York-based consortium Identrus LLC, provides identity confirmation, security and a legal framework for large financial transactions. That's supposed to make it easier for banks to do business on the Internet and to help them give commercial customers ready access to online payment capabilities.
Bank of America Corp. in Charlotte, N.C., and European financial institutions ABN AMRO Holding N.V., Deutsche Bank AG and HypoVereinsbank are the first to deploy business-to-business payment applications based on the system developed by Identrus, which was formed last year by a group of eight banks. Other members of the consortium include Barclays PLC, Chase Manhattan Corp. and Citigroup Inc.
An Identrus spokeswoman said business customers of the participating banks are eligible to receive an Identrus-approved digital certificate and a smart card. They would then use the smart card to log on to a Web-based system that lets them make electronic payments to other companies that also have Identrus certificates, she said.
Other companies make similar promises - for example, VeriSign Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., also offers authentication services for online payments. The Identrus spokeswoman said VeriSign's technology supports the Identrus system and is also being used by Bank of America.
But Identrus differs from vendors such as VeriSign because it's a vendor-neutral consortium of financial institutions and as such is the closest thing that the business world has to a global standard for securing large-scale electronic payments, said Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner Group Inc. in Stamford, Conn.
"You need a bank-owned consortium to pull [the development of such a standard] off," Litan said. However, she added, a recent Gartner survey showed that moving to digital certificates for processing business-to-business payments isn't a high priority for most companies, with less than 1% of transactions involving the technology at this point.
"User IDs and passwords work fine today," Litan said. "I don't think digital certificates will be a total failure, but it's going to be an uphill battle [for Identrus and other proponents]."
Related stories:
Centralized Data Backup and Your WAN
Is your organization prepared to tackle the massive challenge of protecting your data in a cost effective and timely manner? With a growing...
Why Compliance Pays
This OnDemand webcast explores the relationship that firms with best compliance records have higher revenue, greater customer retention, lower financial losses from data...
An All-in-One Approach to Web Security
Granting web access to employees poses challenges to IT administrators and introduces unique security risks. Even as companies have perfected their security techniques...
Best Practices for Managing Business Risks from the Use of IT
(Source: Symantec) Based on exhaustive benchmarks conducted by the IT Policy Compliance, this session highlights the relationship between business risks and use of...
The Hidden Dangers of Spam
Beyond the well-understood productivity drain that spam inflicts on businesses, threats posed by illicit email circulating through a network are causing many security...
Managing And Protecting Your Ever Increasing Mobile Assets
(Source: Absolute Software) Your users are becoming more mobile each day. This is great for productivity - yet challenging for IT control. Natalie...
Open Source Security Myths Dispelled
(Source: Astaro) Open Source Software is computer software whose source code is available to the general public. This openly viewable nature...
Sun OpenSSO Enterprise Webinar
(Source: Sun) This webinar replay discusses Sun OpenSSO Enterprise innovation--the single, open-source solution that helps your business solve the challenges around internal access...
Best Practices for Backing Up VMware® with Veritas NetBackup™
VMware® is used by enterprises large and small to increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their IT operations. With this in mind, Symantec...
Agile Enterprise Content Management (ECM) for Rapid ROI
(Source: IBM) Content rich business processes are a core feature of daily operations at just about any organization today. Very often these essential...
Sign up to receive updates on the latest Security resources
CIO
Computerworld
CSO
DEMO
GamePro
Games.net
IDC
IDG
IDG Connect
IDG Knowledge Hub
IDG TechNetwork
IDG Ventures
IDG.net
InfoWorld
ITwhitepapers
ITworld
JavaWorld
LinuxWorld
Macworld
Network World
PC World
The Industry Standard
Copyright © 1994 - 2009 Computerworld Inc. All
rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium
without express written permission ofComputerworld Inc. is prohibited. Computerworld and Computerworld.com and the respective logos are trademarks of International Data Group Inc. |
