WetStone Offers New Sovereign Time Services

June 22, 2001 – Cortland, NY – WetStone Technologies, Inc. today announced the opening of their new Sovereign Timeâ„? division, providing their customers in the DoD, commercial, and private communities with a source of trusted, auditable, and verifiable time.

We are all aware that daily business is becoming increasingly reliant on the Internet and other electronic media, and clearly the ability to prove the when of an electronic transaction, contract or agreement is becoming critical. It is imperative, however, that the time source referenced in a legally binding e-transaction or e-contract be accurate and irrefutable. With their partner, Datum (NASDAQ:DATM), and sponsorship from the US Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, NY, WetStone offers Sovereign Time, a combined hardware/software verification solution guaranteeing customers a source of secure and trusted time for any application.

In addition to having an accurate and official source of time, customers must have confidence in the integrity of the actual time source and its transmission route. To ensure this, communications among all devices in the Trusted Timeâ„? model are secured using Datum’s Secure Network Time Protocol, or DSNTPâ„?. Additional security is provided through Sovereign Time digital signatures on all certifications and audit logs, ensuring that the records of these synchronization events have not been altered. Finally, Sovereign Time operates out of a physically secure facility that is monitored 24/7/365, and has fully redundant systems to ensure fail-safe operations at all times. With this approach, a consumer having little or no security background can begin generating time stamps for those critical transactions immediately.

“Digital documents are beginning to replace paper documents”, stated Chet Hosmer, President & CEO of WetStone, “and those digital contracts, purchase offers, insurance forms, stock transactions, and currency exchange documents require validation of their signature and date/time just like any paper document. Sovereign Time, a Trusted Time authority, provides this validation and authentication,” he continued, “first by supplying a system that allows our customers to offer trusted time stamps to their e-customers; and second to provide the stamp authentication service by being here, being secure, and attesting to – legally if necessary – that the date/time stamp on the document in question, is valid.”

A recent Pew Internet Project study estimated that a greater than 50% increase in Web use occurred from the end of 2000 to the beginning of 2001. WetStone believes that in addition to their growing number of DoD and large commercial customers, smaller e-based companies and agencies including law firms, realtors, auto dealers, state auto registration agencies, and banks will be offering e-contracts and forms to the growing e-community, and have a continuing need for Sovereign Time services. Sovereign Time also offers a full range of integration and training services based on a customer’s individual needs ensuring a smooth transition to secure time stamping. For more information please contact WetStone’s corporate offices at 607-756-6086.

WetStone is a creator of enabling technologies for developing and deploying security applications into Internet and intranet environments. These technologies include Information Assurance, Intrusion Detection solutions, Time Stamping solutions, Security Policy tools and Computer & Network Forensic applications. WetStone performs advanced research and development for a broad range of government, law enforcement and private sector organizations, and has offices in Cortland, New York, and Clearwater, Florida.

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