Bringing together technology components from Adobe, Geotrust and nCipher, the appliance significantly simplifies the roll-out of strong document security. The appliance provides central signing, time stamping and encryption capabilities whilst allowing any recipient to validate a document's authenticity and be assured its contents are unaltered, all without any manual intervention or software plug-ins.

Increasingly organisations seek to provide consumers with information and documentation in electronic format such as utility bills, invoices or bank statements. But as a result of high profile phishing attacks, spam and other spoof emails there is a natural concern by recipients that the document really does come from a trusted source, that the information has been kept secret and has not been changed en-route. While the concept of document assurance is nothing new, until now it has been complex to set up and costly to deploy, often making it prohibitive where the number of recipients are counted in millions.

The nCipher Classified Document Security Appliance is a convenient and cost effective, standalone appliance that incorporates Adobe LiveCycle Document Security Server and GeoTrust's True Credentials for Adobe Acrobat with nCipher's tamper-resistant hardware security module to enable large volumes of Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) files to be quickly signed on behalf of an organisation or an individual user and protected prior to electronic distribution - typically via email.

The primary components of the system are as follows

• Adobe LiveCycle Document Security Server - provides digital signature capabilities and encryption in a server environment.
• GeoTrust True Credentials for Adobe Acrobat - Allows authors to create Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) documents that clearly certify to recipients that the author's identity has been verified by a trusted organisation and that the document has not been altered.
• nCipher Hardware Security Module (HSM) - tamper resistant and FIPS 140-2 validated device to protect cryptographic keys, provide a trusted time source and secure and accelerate the document signing processes within the appliance

"Organisations are increasingly automating business processes to communicate critical information to broad audiences, yet they must deliver these electronic documents in a more secure manner," said John Landwehr, director of Security Solutions and Strategy at Adobe. "By working with nCipher and GeoTrust, we are delivering a tightly integrated solution that will enable organisations to leverage the inherent document security capabilities in PDF for conveying the authenticity and reliability of their electronic communications, resulting in greater customer confidence while realizing the increased operational efficiencies of electronic communications."

"The nCipher Classified Document Security Appliance simplifies the deployment of the Certified Document Services solution in high-volume document production environments," stated Chris Bailey, chief technology officer, GeoTrust. "Ease of use is a critical component to implementing successful security solutions, and through our partnerships we have accomplished this goal. GeoTrust's True Credentials for Adobe Acrobat technology ensures that a document is from a trusted source and has not been altered in transit. Because it is embedded within existing Adobe applications it is truly seamless and easy to use - Adobe makes the solution simple by displaying the certified document information to the recipient automatically, using the ubiquitous Adobe PDF reader; and, nCipher ensures that organizations can easily and cost-effectively implement the hardware platform required for a secure signing solution."

"In many circumstances the information being conveyed will be highly sensitive and fall under the scrutiny of various regulatory and compliance mandates that relate to privacy and other issues. As such it is important that organizations adopt industry best practices in deploying cryptographic security techniques, such as the use of HSMs," says Brain Spector, Business Development Director at nCipher. "We are pleased to combine nCipher's hardware security technology together with that of Adobe and GeoTrust to deliver a solution that allows organizations and consumers to engage in secure and reliable electronic document exchange which is truly seamless and easy-to-use."