U S West feels secure with VeriSign

With security in mind, U S West has decided to use a certificate issuance and management system from VeriSign Inc. for its corporate customers. The OnSite system combines VeriSign-managed back-office hardware with encrypted software, enabling U S West customers to access-and employees to verify-secured information related to on-line billing and services.

"It allows us to build on our electronic commerce site and solves a lot of security problems," said Jim Mohrhauser, director of U S West's retail markets organization.

Unlike other certificate authorization systems that consist only of software, the OnSite system requires VeriSign to do the back-office management, thus taking a lot of work away from the carrier.

"We help them secure the process and the back end," said Bob Pratt, product line manager for enterprise solutions at VeriSign.

Pratt said that management option made U S West select VeriSign.

Mohrhauser agreed that VeriSign will "save us a whole lot of development time." VeriSign will provide the expertise so U S West can brand and run its own digitized software for use within the company, effectively becoming a certificate authority.

Once a certificate authority authorizes a customer or employee with a certificate, that information will be verified to allow a user to gain access to e-commerce applications within intranets and extranets.