The work force of TrustBearer Labs has continued its development of identity authentication systems in Fort Wayne under the direction of its founder, David Corcoran, following its purchase by VeriSign.
Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign, a leading provider of online security and other Internet infrastructure products and services, said it completed the acquisition for an undisclosed price on April 1, following a yearlong collaboration with TrustBearer.
Corcoran founded the Fort Wayne business in 2004 and moved it into the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center the next year. After outgrowing space there, it moved a few years later to the Graphic Arts Building downtown.
It employed a dozen workers and its customers included the U.S. Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration and Social Security Administration.
Corcoran has said his authentication system relies on two things: something the user knows, such as a password or personal identification number, and something the user has, such as a smart card, USB stick or cell phone.
When used together via a Web browser, a virtual token is generated that is protected by encryption, and TrustBearer servers authenticate the token.
An announcement on VeriSign’s Web site about the acquisition said TrustBearer software components were integrated into VeriSign managed public key infrastructure solutions during the yearlong collaboration.
“This acquisition will combine VeriSign’s expertise as a leading PKI provider with TrustBearer’s solutions for easy, rapid deployment of PKI applications and strong authentication across all major Web browsers and platforms,” the announcement said.
“In the near future, we plan to embed the TrustBearer technology into our next generation authentication solutions.”