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Support > FAQ Library
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When is identity trust an issue?
When trading partners are putting millions of dollars, pounds, Deutschemarks, euro, francs, etc., at stake, they need to be certain that an e-mail message truly originated from the ostensible sender. For instance, when an Italian automaker wants to order $1 million of Japanese steel over the Internet, the automaker's purchasing agent needs to be absolutely certain he or she is communicating with the steel manufacturer's agent. With IdenTrust, trading partners can conclusively identify one another online, manage the risk that an electronic identity is faulty, and lay down a bulletproof audit trail so they're covered in case something goes awry.
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Who can use IdenTrust services?
Anyone engaged in any kind of commerce between individuals, businesses, and governments. Its single, open scheme ensures seamless interoperability among financial institutions and trading partners around the world.
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What do you mean by interoperability?
IdenTrust strives to achieve interoperability across multiple areas: policy, technology, legal and business. It is working with major e-commerce technology providers to ensure compatibility of all IdenTrust electronic identities across all platforms. All IdenTrust Certificate Authorities and trading partners are contractually bound to the enterprise by a minimum core set of terms. By subscribing to these terms, each participant is bound to a common set of system rules, practices and procedures for e-commerce.
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How does IdenTrust differ from competing organizations?
IdenTrust is the only global e-commerce trust organization initially built by world-class financial institutions for authentication and risk management across a broad range of industries and Internet applications, including payments. IdenTrust is working with numerous standards groups to continue to expand the universe of Internet commerce and present more opportunities for interoperability.
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What business functions does IdenTrust secure?
IdenTrust security spans all industries and applications. These applications include, but are not limited to, sourcing, negotiation, contract signing, purchasing, supply-chain collaboration, securities trading, insurance, government filings, payments and transactions. IdenTrust handles all the complexity of digital signatures and digital certificate validation.
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Will IdenTrust require users and/or IdenTrust Certification Authorities to obtain special proprietary technology?
No, proprietary technology is unnecessary. IdenTrust is committed to using open, standard technology wherever possible to make it easy for new participants to take part in the system. Any new approaches necessary for implementing identity risk management will be documented and available for any vendor to review. This open, inclusive approach fosters interoperability, a central component of IdenTrust.
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How will users know that IdenTrust credentials are valid at the precise time they are relying on them?
The IdenTrust system provides real-time, online checking of IdenTrust Global IDs to ensure they are valid at the time of the transaction. This is the fundamental risk mitigation component that IdenTrust brings to the marketplace.
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What are the main components of the IdenTrust offering?
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Trusted third party. The Internet needs trusted third parties to identify buyers and sellers in the same way that governments act as the third parties issuing passports and driver's licenses. More than 50 global financial institutions, including ABN AMRO Bank, Barclays Bank PLC, The Chase Manhattan Bank, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo, are stepping forward to take that third-party role and to identify trading partners on the Internet. Global financial institutions are experts in knowing their customers and are well suited to assert their identities online. |
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Secure identities. An electronic identity is only as reliable as the technology that created it. A public key infrastructure, managed by the financial institutions providing the electronic identities, uses strong cryptography to generate unique electronic identities that can be validated at the time of a transaction. Buyers and sellers carry their IdenTrust Global IDs on smart cards, making it much harder for identity thieves to succeed. |
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Open standards. Like the telephone system, a global trust system is only as valuable as the number of people who plug into the system. And just as any phone can dial any other, any IdenTrust trading partner can identify any counterpart regardless of their local software or which IdenTrust financial institution is sponsoring them. By the same token, open standards make it easy for application vendors to secure any business application - including payments software - with IdenTrust identity trust capabilities. |
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Legal provisions. The closed contractual legal structure assures global uniformity of the rules governing digital signatures and the use of digital certificates throughout the IdenTrust System. Different jurisdictions around the world have different laws governing the recognition of digital signatures and the use of digital certificates. Many others have yet to enact such laws. Within the IdenTrust System, these international differences are irrelevant: IdenTrust uses the private law-making of a global contract instead. This global uniformity is further enhanced by the offering of a private forum to arbitrate disputes as to whether a given digital signature is genuine. |
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With these provisions in place, businesses are able to take an important first step in preparing for the unexpected. They can identify who - exactly - is buying something from them, selling something to them, purporting to pay them or trying to access their business systems. This new level of security helps companies manage Internet risks amid new business realities. And it creates a trusted environment where global business-to-business commerce can thrive. |
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How else can companies use IdenTrust?
The world's most prominent financial institutions and technology companies are deploying a growing number of applications for secure e-mail, e-marketplaces, international trade, contract signing, online payments, commercial banking and more on the open IdenTrust infrastructure.
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E-mail - Companies use IdenTrust digital certificates to communicate and collaborate with new buyers and suppliers anywhere in the world. Each trading partner can trust in the other's identity and the integrity of the message. Trading partners can encrypt their sensitive messages so that only designated recipients can read them. |
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Document signing - Companies use IdenTrust digital certificates to digitally sign documents and initiate each step in a workflow. A purchase order, for instance, might need three signatures. As each employee signs it, the document moves on to the next signer, then out the door to the supplier. |
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Contract negotiation - Parties use IdenTrust digital certificates to introduce, present, edit and sign binding contracts online. Trading partners can be certain that a digitally signed contract's language hasn't changed after a signature, or if it has, that the attempted fraud will be detected. |
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E-marketplaces - Buyers and suppliers easily and automatically join/register at e-Marketplaces with IdenTrust digital certificates. This way they avoid the time, effort and expense of proprietary or paper-based registration. Buyers and sellers also use IdenTrust digital certificates to prove their identities to one another through every phase of an e-marketplace transaction, including auctions, negotiation, purchase order, credit checks, financing, online payment shipment insurance, settlement and more. |
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International trade - Companies use IdenTrust digital certificates to prove their identities as they electronically exchange data, documents and even ownership of goods over the Internet. |
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Foreign exchange - Financial institutions and their customers use IdenTrust digital certificates to prove their identities over the Internet and access international foreign exchange risk management systems, such as the Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) Bank. CLS enables quick, easy, reliable currency conversion, and IdenTrust helps safeguard transactions. |
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Hosted services - Companies use IdenTrust digital certificates to access and "rent" hosted business services on the Internet. These include business tools that application service providers (ASPs) offer on the Internet to minimize the time and cost of owning applications and systems. |
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Software updates - Customers acquire frequent updates for their enterprise applications directly over the Internet by using IdenTrust digital certificates to prove their identities as licensees. This saves both the vendor and customer the time, trouble and expense of updating software with CD-ROMs. |
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Government filings - Companies use IdenTrust digital certificates to digitally sign required compliance reports, bids, tax forms and other important documents. The government will also. |
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