by Forest Linton
Digital certificates prove your identity in cyberspace
As more and more people get online, and the digital highways fill with motorists,
the Internet begins to contain a representative sampling of the population,
replete with the good and the bad -- and a fair share of used-car salesmen
to boot. As we navigate the Internet, it is wise to remember that we do
so as a bunch of digital bits, and (as hackers have proven) it is easy to
hijack those bits to misrepresent them or eliminate them entirely.
As we attempt to transact business with others whom we have only met on
the Internet, the obvious question is, "How do I know you really are
who you say you are?" Digital IDs, commonly referred to as digital
certificates, use strong cryptographic schemes to provide a secure and trusted
means of verifying the identity of each party in an electronic transaction.
A process called "authentication" uses a third-party "certificate
authority" (CA) to verify the sender's identity, acting as a kind of
cyberspace notary public.
In the same way that conventional identification (a driver's license or
passport) is only issued by specially appointed agencies, digital certificates
will rely on a CA for issuing and checking digital IDs. A CA-issued digital
certificate assures both parties that no outsider looked at or altered a
communication and ensures non-repudiation (meaning that once a deal is done
in cyberspace, neither side can claim it didn't happen).
Some CA's will be in operation by this summer to verify the identities of
Web surfers on the Net. VeriSign, a spin-off of RSA Data Security Inc.,
already has a Digital ID center on the Web for users to register and check
ID's (see http://DigitalID.verisign.com/).
And GTE has launched CyberTrust, which will offer a range of services (based
on the SET protocol) from personal to corporate (see http://www.cybertrust.gte.com/).
Japanese consumers won't have long to wait before they, too, are surfing
securely. As previously reported in Computing Japan, VeriSign recently
completed an agreement with NTT to begin authentication services in Japan.
Softbank to rule the world?
Softbank made waves last year when it spent $800 million to buy Comdex,
the trade-show arm of Ziff-Davis. Those waves turned into a raging surf
a few months later when Softbank bought the Ziff-Davis publishing empire
for a cool $1.2 billion. Then late last year, Softbank dazzled the online
world by investing over $100 million in Yahoo Inc. and, a few months later,
launched Yahoo Japan. Yes, Softbank has been busy -- but this is only the
tip of the iceberg.
In the past 12 months, Softbank (led by Masayoshi Son) has invested in more
than 10 Internet-related technology companies and made at least 5 major
Internet infrastructure deals. Softbank's current holdings includes over
30 major magazine titles, several large book publishing divisions (both
English and Japanese), 50% market share of Japan's hardware and software
distribution channels, and the world's largest computer trade shows.
I've been thinking a bit about Softbank, and how Son is positioning it perfectly
to leverage the maximum results from all of its endeavors. His brand of
synergy is rare and very exciting to learn from.
Softbank is investing heavily in the Internet, and Son has shown exceptional
shrewdness in choosing his technology partners. For example, the recent
10% purchase of Cybercash instantly propels Softbank to the lead in implementing
electronic payment systems. As a huge content provider, Softbank has a vested
interest in developing ways to sell content and receive payment electronically
over the Internet. Internet Profiles Corp., meanwhile, provides the valuable
Web-site traffic and demographic data that Softbank's huge advertising sales
divisions will use to place advertisers, and help in conducting elaborate
cross-media deals between the various print and online holdings. And inquiry.com
brings the networking and sales-lead functionality of a typical trade show
to the Web, so Softbank may soon be the largest virtual-event organizer
as well.
It all makes perfect sense. While simultaneously creating and buying a huge
library of content, Son is also creating the distribution and transaction
mechanisms to sell that content. If he can make money on the distribution
and transaction mechanisms as well, all the better. It's a great business
model, one no different from Sony Corp., which creates fantastic hardware
(TVs, VCRs, Walkmans) and then runs out and buys a big content provider,
Columbia, to feed the hardware engine.
But then again, $45-billion-in-sales Sony isn't your average company. And
Softbank is quickly propelling itself to the top of its own industry --
as well as creating some new ones along the way.
Forest Linton, living, learning, and working hard (at Koyosha Graphics)
in Tokyo. Visit The Japan Web Guide at http://www.gol.com/jguide/
or The Digital Forest at http://www.twics.com/~forest/.
SIDEBAR
Recent Softbank investments in Net-related companies
Yahoo! Inc. (Web search service)
www.yahoo.com
CyberCash Inc.(Electronic payment schemes)
www.cybercash.com
Internet Profiles Corp.
(Web site-traffic auditing)
www.ipro.com
Agents Inc. (Smart agent technology)
www.ffly.com
USWeb Corp. (Web site franchiser)
www.usweb.com
FreeLoader Inc. (Offline Web browsing)
www.freeloader.com
inquiry.com Inc.
(Sales contact referral service)
www.inquiry.com
(c) Copyright 1996 Computing Japan magazine. All rights reserved. May
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