August 7, 2000

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Commerce One Improves Marketplace Security

E-marketplace software provider adopts encryption and authentication technology

By Alorie Gilbert

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n an Internet marketplace, nobody knows if your check is good. As online marketplaces focus on attracting a critical mass of buyers and sellers, the authentication of participants and the security of transactions hasn't been their top priority. But that's changing.

Commerce One Inc., a leading E-marketplace software provider, moved to address that concern last week when it adopted electronic encryption and authentication technology from Baltimore Technologies plc. Commerce One plans to integrate Baltimore's digital-certificate management system into its marketplace network, the Global Trading Web, as well as its E-marketplace applications, called MarketSite Portal Solution. The goal is to ensure the confidentiality, authenticity, and integrity of information passed between buyers and sellers on marketplaces powered by Commerce One.

Most online marketplaces issue user IDs and passwords to identify their members. Ventro Corp., which operates five online marketplaces for life sciences, relies on that method. While that model has been effective, Ventro CEO David Perry says the Mountain View, Calif., company is also planning to adopt digital certificates sometime next year.

While user IDs and passwords may work fine for consumer Web sites, the stakes are higher in business-to-business commerce. "Instead of a $50 credit-card problem, you could have a million-dollar fraudulent bank wire," says Vernon Keenan, an analyst at research firm Keenan Vision.

Analysts say digital certificates can be difficult to implement and use. A simplified mechanism to maintain, store, and issue them doesn't yet exist, so IT managers and users are forced to do more work than they want. Says Robert Lonadier, a security analyst at Dataquest, "There's still work to be done to make this easy."

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