Technology Pioneers Dr. Vinton G. Cerf and Dr. Martin E. Hellman Join VeriSign Scientific Advisory Board

Technology Pioneers Dr. Vinton G. Cerf and Dr. Martin E. Hellman Join VeriSign Scientific Advisory Board


Internet and Encryption Visionaries to Help Guide Company Into the Future

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - VeriSign, Inc., the leading provider of Internet infrastructure for the networked world, today announced that two of technology's most accomplished and recognized innovators have agreed to serve on its newly formed Scientific Advisory Board.

Vint Cerf is often called "one of the fathers of the Internet." While an assistant professor at Stanford University, he, along with Robert Kahn, invented the TCP-IP protocol suite, which is the foundation of the operational Internet. Dr. Cerf followed up that work with decades of innovation and leadership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and respectively as a vice-president (1982-1986) and senior vice-president (1994-2005) at MCI, and also as Chairman of both the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and ICANN. He has received much recognition for his contributions, including the Turing Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He earned his Ph.D. at UCLA and has been awarded over a dozen honorary degrees from universities around the world. He has worked as Google's vice-president and Chief Internet Evangelist since 2005.

In the 1980s Dr. Cerf and VeriSign founder Jim Bidzos worked together - Bidzos as then Chief Executive of RSA Data Security, Inc., and Dr. Cerf as Chairman of IAB – to develop Internet standards for design and use of digital certificates, employing public-key encryption and digital signatures.

Dr. Cerf said, "Security and trust are increasingly important attributes needed in the Internet environment. VeriSign also operates some of the largest domain name systems on the Internet as well as two of its root server systems. 2008 will see the introduction of the new IP version 6 protocols and internationalized domain names on the Internet - two of the biggest changes in the Internet's architecture in the last 25 years. I look forward to helping VeriSign identify opportunities to contribute to these and other areas of the Internet's feature space."

Dr. Martin Hellman is Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, where he also received a master's degree and Ph.D. in electrical engineering. He was also an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is, along with Ralph Merkle and Whitfield Diffie, the co-inventor of public-key cryptography while on the faculty of Stanford University in the mid-1970s. He has made numerous contributions to the field of cryptography and has received many awards for his work, including the Marconi International Fellow Award, the National Computer Systems Security Award, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award.

Dr. Hellman said, "I'll never forget visiting Jim back in 1991, when he was president of RSA Data Security, and his telling me how he'd managed to get a root certificate built into a variety of systems, including Microsoft Windows. He then told me about his idea for a new company that would finally implement the brilliant concept of digital certificates. That idea was the genesis of VeriSign. It was nice to be in on the birth of the company, and I look forward to helping nurture its further growth."

VeriSign founder and Chairman Jim Bidzos said, "The Internet is no longer an experiment or a research and educational tool. The secure global network envisioned by these scientists is here; using Dr. Cerf's protocol, VeriSign links users with domains billions of times per day, and using technology co-invented by Dr. Hellman, secures those links over 100 million times per day. VeriSign is now in the process of scaling up these capabilities to the next level. I've known both of these distinguished technology pioneers for over 20 years and have worked with them on the standards and technology that contributed so much to the creation of this company. It's exciting to be working with them again."

Bill Roper, VeriSign CEO, said, "We are focused entirely on products and services that drive the global Internet infrastructure, so we could not be more pleased to be associated with these accomplished, recognized innovators. As VeriSign grows with the Internet, the guidance of these visionaries will be invaluable."