After years of creating systems that protect financial and other sensitive transactions on the Internet, security vendors are targeting the wireless world. Digital certificates provider ValiCert Inc. is no different. ValiCert has unveiled an alliance with European wireless services group CMG that combines both companies' products to extend digital certificates to wireless networks.

The ValiCert m-Commerce Express initiative integrates ValiCert's Validation Authority system, which authenticates users, and the ValiCert Digital Receipt Solutions, which tracks users' accounts, with CMG's Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) server for mobile devices.

ValiCert also formed an alliance with Covigo Inc. to integrate the ValiCert Digital Receipt Solutions system into the Covigo wireless server.

ValiCert offers security software and services for E-business, and expects companies to start conducting transactions using wireless devices. Digital certificates, which verify the identity of the sender, place a tamper-resistant seal on a message and provide proof that a transaction occurred. These certificates could provide the necessary security for wireless transactions.

"We have a lot of people in financial markets that just want to get their customers used to using wireless devices," says Dion Lisle, director of solutions marketing for ValiCert. Wireless has made a lot of progress, but it needs to be made more secure for high-value transmissions, Lisle says.

Some analysts say ValiCert's efforts to build security into wireless devices are necessary, but it may be getting ahead of demand.

"The ValiCert solution is, to some degree, based on high-risk transactions through wireless devices, and right now those environments are fairly immature," says Chris Christiansen, an analyst with International Data Corp. Still, Christiansen says, it's only a matter of time before demand picks up. "We're sure that it will rise, just not when."

Available now, m-Commerce Express runs on Windows NT and Solaris and starts at about $100,000, with additional charges based on the number of transactions per second. CMG also offers it as an option to its WAP server.