CyberTrust was a security services company formed in Virginia in November 2004 from the merger of TruSecure and Betrusted. Betrusted previously acquired GTE Cybertrust. Cybertrust acquired a large stake in Ubizen, a European security services firm based in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, to become one of the largest

information security Information security, sometimes shortened to InfoSec, is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorize ...

firms in the world. It was acquired by

Verizon Business Verizon Business (formerly known as Verizon Enterprise Solutions) is a division of Verizon Communications based in Basking Ridge, New Jersey that provides services and products for Verizon's business and government clients around the world. I ...

in 2007. In 2015, the CyberTrust root certificates were acquired by DigiCert, Inc., a leading global Certificate Authority (CA) and provider of trusted identity and authentication services.

History

CyberTrust was founded as a subsidiary of

GTE Corporation GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing furt ...

's Government Systems Information Security Directorate. It focused on security services for

electronic commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

. These included

authentication Authentication (from ''authentikos'', "real, genuine", from αὐθέντης ''authentes'', "author") is the act of proving an assertion, such as the identity of a computer system user. In contrast with identification, the act of indicati ...

, privacy, integrity and

non-repudiation Non-repudiation refers to a situation where a statement's author cannot successfully dispute its authorship or the validity of an associated contract. The term is often seen in a legal setting when the authenticity of a signature is being challenged ...

using

Public Key Encryption Public-key cryptography, or asymmetric cryptography, is the field of cryptographic systems that use pairs of related keys. Each key pair consists of a public key and a corresponding private key. Key pairs are generated with cryptographic al ...

technology. In 2000,

GTE GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing furth ...

sold CyberTrust to Ireland-based security company

Baltimore Technologies Baltimore Technologies was a leading Irish internet security firm, with its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was briefly part of the FTSE 100 Index during 2000. Fran Rooney was the CEO for a period ...

for $150 million. In 2003, Baltimore Technologies divested its operating companies, including all digital certificate operations to BeTrusted Holdings, Inc. A year later in September 2004, BeTrusted announced its intention to merge with former competitor TruSecure Corporation and in November the resulting company was incorporated in Virginia as CyberTrust.

then acquired Cybertrust in 2007, reuniting it with its former parent (Verizon was created by the merger of

and

Bell Atlantic Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...

). Financial terms were not disclosed. In 2015, the CyberTrust root certificates were acquired by DigiCert, Inc., a leading global Certificate Authority (CA) and provider of trusted identity and authentication services. The financial terms were not disclosed. Cybertrust used its majority shareholding to dilute the remaining Ubizen shares, forcing it to acquire the remaining shares and delist Ubizen in 2005. Betrusted was originally created by PWC and sold to One Equity Partners, a division of Bank 1. One Equity Partners also purchased 90 East and SecureNet (who bought the PKI component of Baltimore and the gateway operations of iSecure).

Present

The acquisition of the CyberTrust root certificates makes DigiCert the second-largest Certificate Authority (CA) for high-assurance SSL Certificates. As part of the deal, DigiCert will assume management of the CyberTrust/Verizon trusted roots and intermediate certificates. Verizon will continue to offer SSL Certificates as a reseller of DigiCert. Pursuant to DigiCert's acquiring Verizon Enterprise SSL business, DigiCert announces its partnership wit
Cybertrust Japan
to expand its market presence in Asia. Under this new partnership, DigiCert and Cybertrust Japan also announce

Cyber Secure Asia Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventi ...

, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cybertrust Japan, which will market DigiCert's certificate technology to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

from a regional headquarters in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

References

External links

Verizon EnterpriseDigiCert, Inc.Cybertrust JapanCyber Secure Asia
Technology companies established in 2004 Companies based in Fairfax County, Virginia Computer security companies 2004 establishments in Virginia American companies established in 2004 {{ict-company-stub