News for and about the Internet2 community

[Dean Woodbeck <>]

InCommon Introduces Certificate Service

Unlimited server and personal certificates at one fixed fee; New service 
offered, in partnership with Comodo, as part of expanding InCommon Trust 
Service Portfolio

ANN ARBOR, Mich -  June 7, 2010 – The InCommon Federation has today announced 
the launch of a new trust service that will offer unlimited server and 
personal certificates to U.S. colleges and universities. As the first 
certificate service of its kind in the U.S., Internet2, which operates 
InCommon, is introducing this offering to provide the U.S. higher education 
community with a cost-effective means of deploying and operating a more 
secure and authenticated online environment for their campus constituencies.  
Details are available at www.incommon.org/cert.

“This new service provides tangible value to the U.S. research and education 
community and extends a pathway for innovation on campus,” said John Krienke, 
chief operating officer of InCommon. “By offering unlimited SSL certificates, 
we’re providing the potential for campuses to significantly reduce their 
certificate-related expenses. But at least as important, later this year we 
will include unlimited personal certificates, setting the stage for campuses 
to more easily adopt important services like signed email and second-factor 
authentication. Economics are no longer a limitation for certificate 
possibilities."

InCommon is offering this service through a partnership with Comodo CA Ltd., 
a major certification authority and Internet2 industry member. Through the 
agreement, U.S. institutions of higher education can purchase unlimited 
numbers of certificates for SSL, personal signing, encryption, and code 
signing. InCommon partnered with Comodo, in part, because of the successful 
implementation of a similar program the company developed with TERENA (the 
Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association). The program 
launched last year has enabled its NREN members in over 30 European countries 
and international public sector organizations to offer certificates powered 
by Comodo to all education institutions throughout Europe.  

“We are excited about the opportunity to join InCommon in helping millions of 
students in colleges and universities across the U.S. to secure their online 
experience and communications,” said Melih Abdulhayoglu, chief executive 
officer of Comodo. “Enabling students and faculty members with the personal 
secure certificate and second factor authentication, whether for email 
encryption or for secure access to the university’s internal network, will 
prevent security breaches and leak of digital information.”

Any higher education institution with its primary location in the U.S., and 
qualifying for an “edu” domain name, is eligible for the program. Internet2 
member institutions will receive a 25 percent discount on the Certificate 
Service. Institutions must also participate in or join InCommon to take 
advantage of the Certificate Service. The service fee schedule is based on an 
institution’s classification under the Carnegie Foundation for the 
Advancement of Teaching and requires an initial three-year commitment. 

The InCommon Certificate Service is testing the program with a small number 
of institutions during June 2010. A full rollout of the service is expected 
in late summer of 2010. Institutions with expiring certificate agreements 
will receive priority, allowing them to avoid service interruptions. The 
roots of InCommon's SSL and personal Certificate Authorities are in all of 
the major Internet web browsers and devices.

More information is available at www.incommon.org/cert or by emailing 
.

ABOUT INCOMMON
InCommon facilitates collaboration through the sharing of protected 
network-accessible resources by means of an agreed-upon community trust 
fabric. The InCommon Federation, operated by Internet2, provides a 
privacy-preserving, secure method for higher education institutions and their 
partners to offer single sign-on convenience and standards-based security to 
their faculty, researchers, students and staff. Through InCommon, individuals 
no longer need to maintain multiple passwords and usernames and online 
service providers no longer need to maintain user accounts. The educational 
institution manages the level of privacy and security for its constituents. 
For more information, see www.incommon.org.

ABOUT INTERNET2
Internet2 is an advanced networking consortium led by the research and 
education community. An exceptional partnership spanning U.S. and 
international institutions who are leaders in the worlds of research, 
academia, industry and government, Internet2 is developing breakthrough 
cyberinfrastructure technologies that support the most exacting applications 
of today—and spark the most essential innovations of tomorrow. Led by its 
members and focused on their current and future networking needs since 1996, 
Internet2 blends its human, IP and optical networks to develop and deploy 
revolutionary Internet technologies.  For more information see 
www.internet2.edu.

ABOUT COMODO
Comodo® is a leading brand in Internet security.  With United States 
headquarters in New Jersey and global resources in the United Kingdom, China, 
India, Ukraine, and Romania, Comodo provides businesses and consumers 
worldwide with security and trust services, including digital certificates, 
PCI scanning, desktop security, and remote PC support. Securing online 
transactions for over 200,000 businesses, and with more than 25 million 
desktop security software installations, including an award-winning firewall 
and antivirus software, Comodo is Creating Trust Online®. For more 
information, visit www.comodo.com 

Media Contacts:

For InCommon/Internet2                  For Comodo
Lauren Rotman                                   Robin Carley

                               

    
+1-202-331-5345                         +1-201-963-0004 x4073