Free smart card evaluation kit for Microsoft Certificate Lifecycle Manager Beta 1 release now available

AUSTIN, Texas, March 21, 2006–Raak Technologies today announced the release of new products that support Microsoft’s recently introduced Certificate Lifecycle Manager.

Microsoft Certificate Lifecycle Manager is a policy and workflow-driven solution that helps organizations manage the lifecycle of digital certificates and smart cards. Certificate Lifecycle Manager streamlines the provisioning, deprovisioning, configuration, and auditing of digital certificates and smart cards, while increasing security through strong multi-factor authentication technology.

Raak Technologies enhances the Microsoft solution with a smart card provider that enables the secure storage of digital certificates and keys on a smart card or USB token. Unlike other single vendor solutions, Raak’s software enables support for a wide variety of smart cards from all major manufacturers including Axalto, Gemplus, Oberthur, Sagem-Orga, HID, IBM, and Keycorp, as well as a variety of USB tokens and other authentication devices.

A free smart card evaluation kit for the Beta 1 version of Microsoft Certificate Lifecycle Manager is now available on Raak Technologies’ web site. The kit includes the Raak smart card provider software and a choice of smart cards, as well as optional USB tokens and smart card readers. Microsoft will release a second Beta in the second half of 2006 and expects to release Microsoft Certificate Lifecycle Manager to the market in the first half of 2007.

“The release of Microsoft Certificate Lifecycle Manager is a major leap forward for enterprise security,” commented Dan Cunningham, president and CEO of Raak. “Certificate Lifecycle Manager is designed to lower the complexity and cost associated with deploying and managing smart cards in the enterprise.” He added, “The combination of Raak smart card products with Microsoft solutions provides customers an end-to-end smart card solution.”

“Multi-factor, strong authentication is a growing requirement for a secure and well managed infrastructure,” said Michael Atalla, group product manager, Identity and Access Division at Microsoft Corp. “Microsoft Certificate Lifecycle Manager will enable customers to effectively deploy and maintain solutions for strong authentication. Partners such as Raak are extending the capabilities of Microsoft Windows and Certificate Lifecycle Manager with software and hardware that gives customers the freedom to choose authentication devices that best meets their needs and budget.”

For more information, or to request the evaluation kit, go to: http://www.raaktechnologies.com/microsoft/

About Raak Technologies

Based in Austin, Texas, Raak Technologies, Inc provides products and services that make it easy for Enterprises to deploy strong authentication solutions to their employees, customers and business partners. Raak’s products include RaakSign, the AET SafeSign Identity Client and Raak C7 smart cards and T8 tokens. On the web at: http://www.raaktechnologies.com.

About Microsoft Certificate Lifecycle Manager

For more information visit: http://www.microsoft.com/clm.

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