GeoTrust Acquires Equifax Digital Certificate Business

Leader in Trust Solutions for the Internet Changes the Playing Field

September 25, 2001 - BOSTON, MA. - GeoTrust, Inc.(www.geotrust.com), a leader in trust solutions for the Internet security infrastructure, has acquired the digital certificate business of Equifax Secure Inc., the e-commerce division of Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX), a $1.1 billion worldwide leader in enabling and securing global commerce.

The acquisition significantly strengthens GeoTrust's position in the 3As - authentication, authorization, and administration - sector of the Security Market, which IDC projects to grow to $9.5 billion by 2005.

"The unique combination of the Equifax SSL transaction security solution with the new True Site Seal identity trust solution from GeoTrust, rearranges the competitive landscape and provides new revenue opportunities for the combined company, while delivering a more meaningful return on investment for the customer," said Peter Kuper, Vice President of SG Cowen. "At the same time, tapping the Equifax customer base and channel partners should give GeoTrust tremendous traction in expanding on a healthy and growing SSL business with the new identity trust solution."

"We are very excited to be able to integrate this best-in-class SSL certificate technology with our patent-pending True Site Seal identity trust technology, while deepening our existing relationship with Equifax," said GeoTrust CEO Neal Creighton. "The Equifax Secure SSL product is proven technology, backed by a world-class operational infrastructure, already deployed in a large world-wide customer base."

"Focusing the Equifax Secure business on our authentication services core competence while strengthening our relationship with GeoTrust is a win-win," said Ron Garmon, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Equifax Secure. "Our new strategic partnership leverages the synergies between True Site Seal and SSL and between our authentication services and GeoTrust's Internet trust solutions."

Current Equifax Secure customers can immediately benefit from the addition of the True Site Seal identity trust solution to their existing SSL implementations. As part of the acquisition, GeoTrust is retaining the world-class operations infrastructure from Equifax Secure and enhancing customer support services, so customers should experience the same or better services levels as well. Current GeoTrust customers will benefit from better integration in future products and better operations support, such as faster SSL provisioning times, as the Equifax Secure digital certificate operational infrastructure is combined with GeoTrust.

Current Equifax Secure channel partners can join the ranks of GeoTrust partners who offer True Site Seal, a significant new capability that addresses a critical simmering issue in the market, to their existing SSL customers. They can begin offering True Site immediately, with minimal incremental cost. Since the initial launch of True Site in June, advanced Equifax Secure channel partners have already started becoming GeoTrust partners independent of the acquisition.

"True Site is a great value and an easy-to-implement enhancement for SSL customers," said Nick Matina, CEO of Website Monster, one of the top five Web hosting service providers. "In the first three months since we began offering True Site, our customers have purchased over fifty new packages and it has been a total success."

"Customers have been asking for site validation for the last two years," said Tianna Thomas, Director of North American Sales for Hitsites/Intelex. "We have had 100% take up by customers we have approached so far."

"True Site provides great value and easier administration," said Greg Way, Cofounder of Infodial. "It's a no-brainer for our customers."

Digital certificates enable safe Internet transactions via encrypted communication protocols, such as the secure sockets layer (SSL) protocol. SSL encryption solutions have built a solid foundation of Transaction Trust that fueled the commercialization and growth of the Internet. Transaction Trust ensures safe transmission of sensitive information such as, credit card data, business collaboration information, and private medical records. While SSL continues to play a critical role for Transaction Trust, it has failed to provide Identity Trust - verification of a site's identity before establishing a secure transaction.

True Site, GeoTrust's flagship solution set, utilizes patent-pending Identity Trust technology that enables transparent verification of site identities. By coupling industry-standard SSL certificates with smart seals, True Site offers the World's first second-generation Internet trust solution addressing both Identity and Transaction Trust.

About Equifax Secure

Equifax Secure (www.equifaxsecure.com), the e-commerce division of Equifax Inc, provides security, privacy and transaction management solutions that protect consumers and enterprises from the risk of identity theft and fraudulent transactions. Equifax Secure authenticates online consumer identity, secures business applications and manages digital certificates and directories for highly secure, private e-commerce over the Internet and other networks.

About Equifax

Equifax enables and secures global commerce through its information management, consumer credit, marketing services, business information, authentication and e-commerce businesses. As the leader in information services, Equifax adds value wherever customers do business, including the financial services, retail, telecommunications/utilities, information technology, brokerage, insurance and business lending industries and government. Equifax also enlightens, enables and empowers consumers to manage and protect their financial health with services offered at www.equifax.com. The company ranked in the top five in return on equity among Business Week's Best Performers for 2001. Equifax employs 6,600 in 13 countries and has $1.1 billion in revenue.

About GeoTrust, Inc.

GeoTrust, Inc.(www.geotrust.com), a leader in trust solutions for the Internet security infrastructure, is paving the way to a new world of trust and business opportunity. GeoTrust's second-generation Internet trust solutions, based on breakthrough identity trust and world-class digital certificate technologies, enable Web sites, enterprises and individuals to safely exploit the Internet.