Entrust Explained

Entrust, Corp.
Former Name:Entrust Datacard
Type:Private
Location Country:United States
Location:Shakopee, Minnesota[1]
Area Served:Worldwide
Key People:Todd Wilkinson (CEO)[2]
Industry:Digital Security and Credential Issuance
Num Employees:2,500+ (2020)

Entrust Corp., formerly Entrust Datacard, provides software and hardware used to issue financial cards, e-passport production, user authentication for those looking to access secure networks or conduct financial transactions, trust certificated for websites, mobile credentials, and connected devices. The privately-held company is based in Shakopee, Minnesota and employs more than 2,500 people globally.

History

Entrust Inc

In 1994, Entrust built and sold the first commercially available public key infrastructure. In 1997, Nortel (formerly Northern Telecom) spun off Entrust when it became incorporated in Maryland as a part of a tax strategy.[3]

Entrust originally entered the public SSL market by chaining to the Thawte Root in 1999 creating Entrust.net.[4]

In May 2000, Entrust acquired enCommerce, a provider of authentication and authorization technologies.[5]

In April 2002, Entrust's public key infrastructure technology served as the foundation for the prototype of what is now the United States Federal Bridge Certification Authority. The authority is an element of the trust infrastructure that provides the basis for intergovernmental and cross-governmental secure communications.[6]

In mid-2004, Entrust acquired AmikaNow! Corporation's content scanning, analysis and compliance technology.[7] The technology is designed to automatically analyze and categorize email message and document content based on the contextual meaning, rather than pre-defined word lists.

Entrust acquired Orion Security Solutions, a supplier of public key infrastructure services, in June 2006.[8]

In July 2006, Entrust acquired Business Signatures Corporation,[9] a supplier of non-invasive fraud detection solutions, for US$50 million. From a GAAP accounting perspective, the total purchase price was approximately $55.0 million, including assumed stock options, transaction expenses and net asset value. Business Signatures was founded in 2001 in Redwood City, California, by former executives from Oracle, HP and Cisco. It originally was funded by the Texas Pacific Group, Walden International, Ram Shriram of Google and Dave Roux of Silver Lake Partners.

Prior to it becoming a private-equity company, Entrust was included on the Russell 3000 Index in July 2008.[10] In July 2007, Entrust contributed public key infrastructure technology to the open-source community through Sun Microsystems, Inc. and the Mozilla Foundation. Specifically, Entrust supplied certificate revocation list distribution points (CRL-DP), Patent 5,699,431, to Sun under a royalty-free license for incorporation of that capability into the Mozilla open-source libraries.[11]

In July 2009, Entrust was acquired by Thoma Bravo, a U.S.-based private equity firm, for $124 million.[12]

Datacard Group

The company was established in 1969 as Data Card Addressograph after Willis K. Drake acquired a Minnesota-based firm that produced credit card imprinters. Company founder Willis K. Drake led a team of engineers that invented machines that enabled secure and productive personalization of credit cards beyond the imprinters that Addressograph had offered.[13] Datacard Group's high-volume card issuance systems allowed banks and retailers to personalize 1,500 cards per hour with great precision and security. Until the company launched its technologies, the process was slow and riddled with quality problems.[14]

In 2000, Datacard Group acquired Platform Seven (P7), the smart card technology arm of National Westminster Bank.[15]

A rapidly growing portion of the company's portfolio is focused on instant issuance of credit, debit and prepaid cards. Banks, retailers, credit unions and other organizations issuing cards used for financial transactions are rapidly deploying systems used to issue cards on-demand in branch or store locations.[16] These instant issuance systems are often used for issuing emergency replacements when cards are lost, stolen or compromised by breaches. Most often, they complement centralized operations that focus on mass issuance aspects of a card program.[17]

In 2013 the company acquired Entrust Inc.[18] [19]

Entrust Datacard

In 2014, Datacard Group rebranded as Entrust Datacard.[20] [21]

In June 2019 it acquired general-purpose Hardware Security Module vendor nCipher from Thales Group.[22]

Entrust Corp

On September 14, 2020, the company announced that it has re-branded from Entrust Datacard to Entrust[23] and changed its legal entity name to Entrust Corporation.[24] The rebranding recognized the company's emphasis on secure identity, payments and data protection.[25]

In January 2021, Entrust acquired HyTrust, Inc., a provider of virtualized and multi-cloud data encryption, key management, and cloud security posture management.[26]

Today, the company offers a wide variety of digital security and credential issuance like crossing borders, making purchases, accessing e-government services or logging into corporate networks. The organization has expanded its offerings through a series of acquisitions, including:

Distrust

In June 2024, Google announced that due to long-standing issues with compliance, Entrust would be removed as a trusted Certificate Authority in the Chrome browser, and PKI certificates issued by Entrust would no longer be trusted in the browser after October 2024.[30] In July 2024, Mozilla announced that they also due the long-standing issues will remove Entrust as a trusted Certificate Authority in their Firefox Browser. Still will affect all certificates granted after 30 November 2024. [31]

References

  1. Web site: Entrust Corporate Headquarters . Google Maps . 5 September 2023.
  2. News: Wyant. Carissa. 2008-06-28. Datacard names new CEO. 2015-03-01.
  3. Web site: 2009-04-14 . Nortel spin-off Entrust in $114-M merger deal with Thoma Bravo IT World Canada News . 2022-03-16 . www.itworldcanada.com . en-US.
  4. Web site: 27 December 1999 – 3 January 2000. InfoWorld.
  5. News: 2000-04-18. Entrust to Acquire enCommerce In Deal Valued at $586 Million. en-US. Wall Street Journal. 2021-04-21. 0099-9660.
  6. Web site: Jackson. William. May 15, 2002. Federal bridge opens to two-way traffic. 2021-04-21. GCN. en.
  7. Web site: "Entrust buys up AmikaNow!," Ottawa Business Journal, May 19, 2004 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120215102748/http://www.canadait.com/cfm/index.cfm?It=106&Id=19998&Se=2&Sv=Company&Lo=2 . dead . 2012-02-15 . Canadait.com . 2013-01-15 . 2013-01-21 .
  8. Web site: Welsh . William . "Entrust buys Orion Security Solutions," Washington Technology, June 15, 2006 . https://archive.today/20130209080556/http://www.washingtontechnology.com/online/1_1/28767-1.html . dead . 2013-02-09 . Washingtontechnology.com . 2006-06-15 . 2013-01-21 .
  9. Web site: Ellen. Messmer. "Entrust acquires Business Signatures for $50M," Computer World, July 20, 2006 . Computerworld.com . 2006-07-20 . 2013-01-21 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090329002914/http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Intellectual_Property_and_DRM&articleId=9001907&taxonomyId=144&intsrc=kc_li_story . 2009-03-29 .
  10. News: "Entrust added to Russell 3000 Index," Dallas Business Journal, July 3, 2008 . Bizjournals.com . 2008-07-03 . 2013-01-21.
  11. Web site: "Entrust offers certificate technology to Mozilla," ComputerWorld Canada, July 25, 2007. Itworldcanada.com. 2013-01-21.
  12. Web site: Thoma Bravo Completes $124M Acquisition Of Entrust. 2021-04-21. www.thomabravo.com. en.
  13. An Interview with Willis K. Drake, OH 46. Ross. James. 3 February 1983. University of Minnesota.
  14. News: CR80 News. 17 September 2007. New Datacard Group printer add-on allows for expanded card printing options.
  15. News: Datacard buys Platform Seven . 26 March 2000 . 6 March 2015 . Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.
  16. News: PYMNTS.com. 17 February 2015. "Trusted Identity" – On Demand.
  17. News: InformationWeek. 11 April 2013. Instant Issuance: A Game-Changer for Banks. 6 March 2015. 2 April 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150402120245/http://www.banktech.com/payments/instant-issuance-a-game-changer-for-banks/a/d-id/1296297. dead.
  18. News: StarTribune. December 17, 2013.
  19. News: Security Document World. April 4, 2014.
  20. Web site: Entrust Datacard reveals new brand, partnerships and products. 2021-01-19. SecureIDNews. en-US.
  21. News: Secure ID News. November 18, 2014.
  22. Web site: Entrust Datacard drops the Datacard as part of rebrand. 2021-10-13. www.bizjournals.com.
  23. Web site: Shakopee-based Entrust rebrands to emphasize its growing data security business. 2020-09-14. Star Tribune.
  24. Web site: Entrust name and identity reflect the critical need for trust at the heart of the digital transformation – and the centrality of Entrust's innovation to secure a rapidly changing world. 2020-09-14. www.entrust.com.
  25. Web site: September 14, 2020. Shakopee-based Entrust rebrands to emphasize its growing data security business. 2021-01-19. Star Tribune.
  26. Web site: 2021-01-14. Entrust acquires HyTrust to offer identity, encryption and security policy control for cloud environments. 2021-01-19. Help Net Security. en-US.
  27. Web site: Entrust Datacard completes purchase of market-leading general purpose hardware security business, nCipher Security, from Thales. 2021-04-20. www.helpnetsecurity.com. 25 February 2019 . en.
  28. Web site: ID verification powerhouse Entrust acquires Ottawa-based WorldReach. 2021-04-20. Ottawa Business Journal. en. 2021-04-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20210419220533/https://obj.ca/article/techopia/id-verification-powerhouse-entrust-acquires-ottawa-based-worldreach. dead.
  29. Web site: Entrust Completes Acquisition of Onfido, Creating a New Era of Identity-Centric Security. Kadet. Ken. 9 April 2024. Entrust Corporation.
  30. Web site: Sustaining Digital Certificate Security - Entrust Certificate Distrust . 2024-06-27 . Google Online Security Blog . en.
  31. Web site: Mozilla's Decision on Entrust's Root CA Certificates used for TLS . 2024-07-31 . Google Groups . en.