From: William Knowles (wkC4I.ORG)
Date: Wed Apr 19 2000 - 10:33:46 CDT

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(Forwarded by: Marjorie Simmons <lawyerusit.net> )

Intel Plans to Give Away Security Software Via Web
By DAVID P. HAMILTON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Monday April 10, 2000

Intel Corp. Monday will announce plans to freely distribute an "open
source" version of advanced security software, a move designed to
bolster both its growing support for the free Linux operating system
and its ambitions to supply crucial "building blocks" for
Internet-based e-commerce.

The new Intel software implements a set of security functions known as
the Common Data Security Architecture, an industry-wide security
standard first established just over two years ago.

CDSA encompasses features such as high-level encryption, used to
encode e-mail messages and other data in order to ensure privacy, and
ways of assigning and managing digital certificates, which guarantee
the identity of users and corporations across the Internet and
corporate networks.

Such security features are already supported in a piecemeal fashion by
a variety of major hardware and software companies, who have typically
written their own programs to implement such functions and then
integrated them into their server operating systems.

Intel, however, hopes to make CDSA features far more accessible to
software developers world-wide in the most direct way possible -- by
giving away its software over the Internet. For the past several
years, Intel engineers have worked on a "reference implementation" of
CDSA functions, an effort to build working CDSA software that Intel
estimates cost more than $20 million. Monday, Intel plans to announce
that it will begin offering that software -- and its underlying
program code -- for download by May 15.

By offering the security software to the world for free, Intel hopes
to make it far easier for software developers to use security
functions on a variety of computer hardware and operating systems.
Since e-commerce depends heavily on the ability to both protect
transactions and sensitive information from interception, "this kind
of cross-platform security infrastructure is a vital enabler to make
e-business a reality," says Terry Smith, an Intel marketing manager
for the CDSA initiative.

In addition, many security experts argue that open-source security
programs tend to offer better protection than programs developed by a
single company, since their inner workings are open to scrutiny,
criticism and improvement. U.S. export controls, which for years have
hampered the international sale of many security programs, now exempt
open-source programs as well.

Intel, of course, stands to benefit from anything that makes
encryption and other computation-intensive security technology more
widespread, since such activities tend to drive demand for Intel's
high-end microprocessors. Indeed, the first CDSA programs it plans to
release on May 15 will run on Linux-and will be optimized to run on
Intel processors.

The Intel effort also reflects its growing support for Linux and an
increasing divergence in its longtime partnership with Microsoft,
which also offers encryption and similar security functions-but only
used with its Windows operating system.

Separately, Intel said it plans to make a multimillion-dollar
investment in e-business centers in Europe to provide facilities and
resources for creating and validating e-business applications running
on Intel architecture. The exact amount of the investment wasn't
disclosed.

The company said the first centers, in Stockholm, Munich, and Reading,
United Kingdom, will open during the next six months. The company
plans additional centers in Amsterdam and Paris. Clients will be able
to use the centers to experiment with e-business applications before
launching them in the market.

So far, Agency.com Ltd. and IXL Enterprises Inc., Icon Medialab AB
Europe unit, DDB Interactive and Matra Grolier Network, France, have
joined the program, among others.

Write to David P. Hamilton at david.hamiltonwsj.com

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