HERNDON, Virginia and TOULOUSE, France, September 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- Proven Ability to Meet Highest Standards for Identity Assurance
Delivers Access and Efficiency

EADS today became the first European-based aerospace and defense (A&D)
company to become cross-certified with the CertiPath PKI Bridge, giving the
global giant new ability to directly link with partners and customers who are
also members of the trust community created by CertiPath.

The announcement comes after 12 months of extensive policy, procedure and
infrastructure development by EADS. By demonstrating its commitment to
meeting standards for the highest levels of identity assurance, EADS joins
the CertiPath community, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Northrop Grumman and
Raytheon, who can now transact business with one another and government
agencies in the U.S. federal government.

"This is a major milestone for us, as we continue to expand the global
network in which we do business," said Philippe Laflandre, Head of the Secure
Information Management program at EADS. "With the cross-certification, we can
now share information critical to getting our work done -- around the world,
with partners and customers -- with significantly diminished risk of fraud
and loss."

As a member of the CertiPath community, employees of EADS, the parent of
Airbus, can now use their digital credentials outside of their internal
systems. The cross-certified credentials eliminate the need for EADS
employees to have multiple digital credentials, reducing costs and risks to
the company. As a result, EADS gains access to several cutting-edge U.S. and
U.K. government programs that accept company-issued credentials for sending
and receiving secured email as well as accessing government-owned web-based
applications and websites.

"EADS has massive interests across both defense and commercial aviation
and these are the exact industries where CertiPath enables secure identity
management," said Jeff Nigriny, president and COO of CertiPath. "We are
exceptionally pleased to have this leading A&D organization join the
CertiPath security trust fabric."

CertiPath is the A&D industry's de facto standard for PKI policy and
verification of adherence to stringent requirements for medium- and
high-assurance certification for identity assurance. Using trusted
digital signatures, it secures document and e-mail exchanges and any
transactions requiring a high assurance of someone's identity, enabling
industry and government-wide single sign-on and secure collaboration.

About CertiPath

CertiPath is a partnership of ARINC, Exostar and SITA, dedicated to
providing the A&D industry with a trusted mechanism to use digital (PKI)
credentials globally. CertiPath directly links commercial enterprises with
one another and more than 500,000 colleagues at key government agencies,
including the Departments of Homeland Security, Treasury and State.

CertiPath enables secure trusted identity assurance between
organizations, partners, and customers through the first commercially managed
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)-based bridging mechanism. Initially designed
for the international aerospace and defense community, the CertiPath PKI
Bridge enables the transfer of secured and authenticated data globally
between participating companies and domestic and foreign government agencies.
This shared trust network drives down the cost of using PKI globally, as well
as the cost associated with maintaining secured customer and supplier
relationships on a one-on-one basis. For more information visit:
http://www.certipath.com.

Web site: http://www.certipath.com