GMO GlobalSign Joins Kantara Initiative as Internet of Everything (IoE) Demands Trusted Identities

Newly-Acquired Ubisecure Has Actively Participated Since Founding of Kantara Initiative and Its Predecessor; GlobalSign to Further Drive Innovation in Digital Identity Solutions


BOSTON, MA--(Marketwired - Nov 19, 2014) - GMO GlobalSign (www.globalsign.com), the security division of Tokyo-based GMO Internet Group (TSE: 9449) and a leading provider of identity services for online transactions, announced it has joined the Kantara Initiative, a business acceleration group and independent non-profit organization addressing the need for digital identity solutions to support and simplify consumers' connected lives. A program of the IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization (IEEE-ISTO), the Kantara Initiative works to address the most significant technical and policy interoperability challenges facing the computing industry, including those presented by the Internet of Everything (IoE) and the estimated 50 billion "things" that will be connected to the Internet by 20201. Members include Symantec, CA, Experian, T-Mobile and over 30 other industry leaders.

Ubisecure, recently acquired by GlobalSign and a recognized leader in identity and access management (IAM) and federation in Europe, has actively participated in the program since the Kantara Initiative's inception in 2009 and before that with its predecessor, the Liberty Alliance. Ubisecure has held leadership roles in the Kantara Initiative's telecommunications identity and eGovernment working groups, and currently participates in the Identity of Things (IDoT) discussion group. Ubisecure's access control, single sign-on (SSO), federation, identity management and delegation solutions support industry standards and massive scalability, and enable consumers to gain an additional layer of security over their devices, systems and processes. The company has participated in testing programs now coordinated by Kantara Initiative to ensure interoperability and standards compliance.

Now, by combining Ubisecure's leadership with GlobalSign's expertise as one of the leading trusted third-party Certificate Authorities in the world, securing billions of online transactions and with millions of its digital certificates embedded in OEM devices, GlobalSign looks forward to contributing its perspectives and helping to develop standards for creating highly-scalable identity services for the IoE. 

"As we connect more devices in our homes and businesses, store more data in the cloud, and conduct more transactions over the web, the need for creating trusted identities and processes for sharing those identities will require innovative solutions from many vendors," said Joan Lockhart, CMO at GlobalSign. "We heartily endorse the work of the Kantara Initiative and are eager to devote more of our resources to the group in support of the exciting, and challenging issues that we all face." 

"We're pleased to welcome GlobalSign as a Kantara Initiative member who will join us in addressing the challenges in the identity space collaboratively," said Joni Brennan, Executive Director, Kantara Initiative.

About Kantara Initiative
Kantara Initiative accelerates identity services markets by developing innovations and programs to support trusted on-line transactions. The membership of Kantara Initiative includes international communities, industry, research & education, and government stakeholders. Join. Innovate. Trust. http://kantarainitiative.org

About GMO GlobalSign
GlobalSign has been a trust service provider since 1996. Its focus has been, and always will be, on providing convenient and highly productive PKI solutions for organizations of all sizes. Its core Digital Certificate solutions allow its thousands of authenticated customers to conduct SSL secured transactions, data transfer, distribution of tamper-proof code, and protection of online identities for secure email and access control. Vision and commitment to innovation led to GlobalSign being recognized by Frost & Sullivan for the 2011 Product Line Strategy Award. The company has local offices in the US, Europe and throughout Asia. For the latest news on GlobalSign visit www.globalsign.com or follow GlobalSign on Twitter (@globalsign).

About GMO Internet Group
GMO Internet Group is a comprehensive provider of industry-leading Internet solutions including domain name registration, cloud-based and traditional hosting, ecommerce, security, and payment processing services that each hold the top share of their respective markets in Japan. Other key business areas for the Group include online securities/FX trading, Internet advertising, search engine marketing and online research, and smartphone game development and publishing. GMO Internet, Inc. (TSE: 9449) is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. For more information please visit http://www.gmo.jp/en.

1 http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/innov/IoE_Economy.pdf