EDIGuys.net becomes first CAcert “assurer” in Minnesota
for free X509 digital certificates

From first notification at the Advanced Computing Systems Association USENIX Annual Tech 2004 Conference in Boston, MA on June 30, 2004, the EDIGuys, who are always on the “leading edge” of EDI, E-commerce, and B2B IT technologies, completed the process to become a “Community-Oriented Certificate Authority” (CA) - the first CAcert assurer in Minnesota.

With reference to the Boston Tea Party, Larry Boatman, Emeritus EDIGuys Managing Partner for Internet Information and Networking Services says, “Yet another unnecessary business tax is ripe for the chopping block!”  And, Dean Stynsberg, EDIGuys Managing Partner for Mapping and Forms, chimes in, “Before CAcert, there was no alternative to commercial CAs, who in exploiting their de facto oligopoly over the digital certificates market, charged thousands of dollars for simple text files that cost essentially nothing to create!”

Digital certificates are required by almost every modern network / Internet security technology.   Certificates are used to encrypt and decrypt data, digitally “sign” documents, and much more.  Every popular web retailer - from Amazon to Toys'R'Us - uses the certificate-based Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol to enable customers to safely transmit sensitive information (e.g. credit card numbers, SSNs, bank account IDs) across the Internet.

Without certificate-driven technologies such as the deprecated Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and today's TLS, today’s Internet would never exist.  The 90’s Internet retailing boom would never have occurred - not to mention services like online banking, electronic bill payment, web-based tax services, and more.  All of this is possible only because digital certificates are constantly at work behind the scenes, keeping information safe from identity thieves and other prying eyes.

CAcert's Public Relations Director Adam Butler said, “It’s great fun to explain Internet security to end users and then tell them, ‘Oh, by the way . . . they're free.’  They always want to know what the catch is.”  There is none!

EDIGuys.net, LLC is based in the Twin Cities and delivers EDI, E-Commerce, and B2B technology solutions aimed at improving business process efficiency by facilitating the exchange of critical business data between business entities and their trading partners.  The EDIGuys can be reached by phone at 1-877-EDI-GUYS, by email at mail@ediguys.net, or on the ‘Net at http://www.ediguys.net.

CAcert, Inc is a non-profit, community-oriented certificate authority based in Sydney, Australia.  CAcert Public Relations Director Adam Butler can be reached by phone at 1-205-586-4281, by email at adam@cacert.org, or on the ‘Net at http://www.cacert.org.

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