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

Kaus Phaltanker of CertiPath, +1-703-332-9966, kaus@certipath.com; or Media, Michael Italiano of Corporate Ink for CertiPath, +1-617-969-9192, mitaliano@corporateink.com