SAFE-BIOPHARMA ROAMING DIGITAL ID IS FIRST TO BE ACCEPTED BY FEDERAL BRIDGE

Ft. Lee, N.J. (June 23, 2008) – SAFE-BioPharma’s roaming digital ID is now accepted by the Federal entity that provides a trusted electronic link across and into many of the U.S. government’s major agencies. It is the first roaming digital identity implementation to receive this acceptance. 

The highly portable roaming digital ID is one of three digital signing options available to the SAFE-BioPharma community for conducting electronic business transactions between businesses and between government agencies and the private sector. The others are 1) through software downloaded onto a specific computer or computers and 2) with a USB token or smartcard.

The roaming digital ID will allow a variety of healthcare professionals, among others, to verify their identity and sign documents electronically at Level 3 assurance without being tethered to a specific computer. Level 3 assurance requires strong authentication using at least two independent authenticating factors and represents a high level of trust. In the United States, this assurance level is required to remotely apply a digital signature and prevent legal repudiation.

This new capability for using the SAFE-BioPharma digital identity and signature standard will be supported with strong authentication and portable credential technology from TriCipher, Inc.

The SAFE-BioPharma Bridge cross-certified with the U.S. Federal Bridge at the Commercial Best Practice (CBP) Medium and Medium-Hardware policy levels in March 2008. The decision to accept the SAFE-BioPharma roaming digital ID was made on June 10 by the Federal Public Key Infrastructure Policy Authority (FPKIPA). The SAFE-BioPharma roaming ID implementation aligns with the guidance in National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) Special Publications 800-63-1 for Level 3 remote authentication; leverages a central hardware cryptographic module certified at a Level 2 per the requirements of Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 140-2; and meets the requirements for a Federal Medium Assurance identity credential.

The SAFE-BioPharma standard was established by the biopharmaceutical industry to help it transform to a fully electronic environment from inefficient paper-based business and regulatory processes. SAFE-BioPharma provides a high level of trust assurance for digital identities, which are uniquely bound to corresponding digital signatures. 

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About SAFE-BioPharma Association
SAFE-BioPharma Association is the non-profit association that created and manages the SAFE-BioPharma™ digital identity and signature standard for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. The SAFE-BioPharma industry standard is used to mitigate legal, regulatory and other business risk associated with business-to-business and business-to-regulator electronic transactions. It facilitates interoperability by providing a secure, enforceable, and regulatory-compliant way to verify identities of parties involved in electronic transactions. SAFE-BioPharma’s vision is to be a catalyst in transforming the biopharmaceutical and healthcare communities to a fully electronic business environment by 2012. The Association’s members include Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN), AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN), Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY), Genzyme (NASDAQ: GENZ), GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Merck (NYSE:MRK), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Roche and Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:SNY). For more information, visit www.safe-biopharma.org. 

SAFE-BioPharma™ is a trademark of SAFE-BioPharma Association. Any use of this trademark requires approval from SAFE-BioPharma Association.

About TriCipher
TriCipher, Inc. provides a unified authentication infrastructure to protect web and enterprise portals, the people that use them and the business process that flows through them against fraud and identity theft. The TriCipher Armored Credential System™ (TACS) is the first authentication system that enables companies to deploy and manage multiple types of credentials from a single infrastructure. Through this flexible “Authentication Ladder,” TriCipher protects customer investment by adjusting authentication strength to defeat new threats and to meet regulatory changes without the need to implement a new infrastructure. Founded in 2000, TriCipher is headquartered in Los Gatos, Calif. The company is funded by ArrowPath Venture Capital, Intel Capital, RBC Technology Ventures, Trident Capital, and Wasatch Venture Fund. For more information, visit TriCipher on the web at www.tricipher.com