TeliaSonera takes over Swedish Post Office's electronic ID operations

TeliaSonera takes over Swedish Post Office's electronic ID operations TeliaSonera has signed an agreement with the Swedish Post Office (Posten) to take over Posten's CA business - the Posten unit that issues certificates for electronic identity. With this agreement, TeliaSonera is now the market leader in Sweden when it comes to services and products in the e-security area. Communicating via the Internet and other public networks requires a high level of security. Today, there are mainly three basic e-security services - identification, trusted form signing (digital signatures) and encryption. TeliaSonera and Posten have been important players in the e-security market for a number of years, both as a service provider and issuer of certificates. When a company issues certificates, it provides the holder with a public key, meaning that a person is given an electronic identity to carry out different types of transactions over the Web. By taking over Posten's CA operations, TeliaSonera is now the leading issuer of electronic identities in Sweden. "In strategic terms, this is a particularly important agreement for TeliaSonera because we believe that the need for electronic identification will increase as authorities eventually become open on a 24-hour basis," says Anders Gylder, head of TeliaSonera Sweden's Large Corporate Customers segment. "By taking over this business, we are taking yet another step towards standardising security solutions. This is especially important for customers who are about to make substantial investments in the e- security area, who have also been waiting to see how industry solutions would develop," adds Anders Gylder. According to Anders Gylder, customers who are using Posten's electronic identification services can continue to use these services backed by effective support from TeliaSonera. "TeliaSonera and Posten are more or less utilising the same technical platform and we have the same regulations and security requirements for managing these operations," says Anders Gylder. The ID card approved by the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS), Posten's best-known product for electronic identification, contains a chip with an electronic ID. Today, Posten sells this chip to the general public through the Swedish Cashier Service (Svensk Kassaservice) and on the service's home page. It will continue to be sold through these channels in the future. For further information journalists can contact: Christer Urde, Business Manager, TeliaSonera Sweden, phone +46 70 557 15 89. Torbjörn Larsson, Press Manager, TeliaSonera Sweden, phone +46 70 527 20 33. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/09/10/20030910BIT00960/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2003/09/10/20030910BIT00960/wkr0002.pdf