BACSTEL-IP Automated Payments Clearing Security Using SafeSign™ Technology, Set to Become One of the Biggest Public Key Infrastructure Systems in Operation.

eema, the independent, European not-for-profit association for e-Business, announced the winner of the eema Award for Excellence in Secure Electronic Business at ISSE/ICCC 2004 last night. The award was presented at the Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony of the sixth annual Information Security Solutions Europe in Berlin, Germany.

This award was presented to the user and vendor partnership that has worked together to deliver a successful and groundbreaking European e-business security solution - offering significant practical benefits gained over a period of at least 12 months. An independent judging panel elected the BACSTEL-IP Automated Payments Clearing Security, using Thales' SafeSign™ technology as the winning user and vendor collaboration.

"This solution takes a very interesting approach to solve the interoperability problem between the different PKI solutions and trust schemes. This greatly impressed the eema Award for Excellence Jury, as PKI interoperability was the key objective of the 'PKI Challenge', one of eema's leading projects in the past. Whereas as a result of the project, PKI interoperability was demonstrated only in a test lab environment, BACSTEL-IP today shows this technology and connected challenges working in the real world," said John Hermans, boardmember of eema, chair of ECAF, and member of the Award for Excellence Jury. He continued, "what's more, BACSTEL-IP has set new standards in the use of digital signatures and smartcards in B2B financial services, as well as positioning UK financial institutions to offer new, innovative payment services for UK businesses in the future, which will substantially improve the competitiveness of the UK economy."

BACS is a leading provider of world class, secure transaction services . It processes over 60 million Direct Debit and Direct Credit payments on a peak day, on behalf of over 100,000 UK businesses. BACSTEL is the access mechanism used for submission of all of these payment instructions. In order to maintain security standards, offer Internet access and support future volumes and functionality BACS committed itself to a technology renewal programme. As the first phase of that programme BACSTEL-IP is an innovative solution, using state of the art security technology to deliver a platform for dramatic improvements in the services offered to business users, provides substantial cost savings and the delivery of advanced new payment services.
By the end of 2005, all UK businesses that make use of BACS services will have migrated to BACSTEL-IP, over 100,000 businesses in the UK, making BACSTEL-IP one of the biggest Public Key Infrastructure systems in operation anywhere in the world.

Thales' SafeSign Authentication Server is at the centre of the BACSTEL-IP project, allowing BACS users to authenticate themselves using credentials submitted by their banks. The server reconciles PKI certificates and identities from twelve banks using seven different PKI schemes, five different smartcard suppliers and 16 software vendors.

"Working with Thales we have delivered a platform that is not only the future of all BACS operations, but has the potential to become the de-facto standard for securing business transactions around the world," comments Tim Lambertstock, Technology Strategy Manager at BACS. "The recognition from eema is a credit to the efforts of all involved in the project and we gladly accept the award."

David Goodman, chairman of eema, said, "The BACSTEL-IP project is a world-leading secure payment project that has delivered a robust, flexible and cost effective payment initiation platform to the UK's financial services industry. The judges recognised the impact of this successful venture and we are delighted to proclaim BACS and Thales the winners of the 2004 eema award for excellence in secure electronic business. Furthermore, the success of this project strengthens eema's belief in the increasing deployment of public key infrastructures, highlighting the transition of PKI from niche technology to line of business applications."

About Thales
Thales is an international electronics and systems group, serving defence, aerospace, services and security markets. The group employs 61,500 people worldwide and generated revenues of 10.6 billion in 2003.

Operating in three main markets covering e-security, card payment and network security, Thales’ e-security activities address the business, government and finance industries’ need for cryptographic security products and solutions. Over half of the world’s banks, together with the majority of the busiest exchanges, currently use Thales technology. For more than 20 years the company has been at the forefront of security and payment technology, co-operating and contributing to set the industry standards used for financial transactions and e-commerce globally. Thales’ e-security business offers a wide range of security solutions to protect Government and Defence critical information infrastructures, thereby positioning the company as a leading worldwide supplier of certified network security products.