Electronic Commerce: Data Security Vendors Banking on Alliances

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By JEFFREY KUTLER It did not take Equifax Inc.'s information security subsidiary long to get into the swing of the teamwork that has come to rule the public key infrastructure market.

Equifax Secure Inc., which officially introduced its digital certificate service Jan. 5, was back about a month later to announce the formation of the Equifax Secure E-Commerce Partners Program.

In the group at the outset were nine companies active in various aspects of on-line commerce and network security. Along with Equifax's previously announced alliance with International Business Machines Corp.-which is providing the VaultRegistry certificate issuance and management system and including Equifax in its own formidable lineup of "Integrated Security Solutions" allies-Equifax Secure is signaling its intent to be a major mover in this emerging business.

The Atlanta-based credit information company's new business unit is also asserting support for the seemingly universal principle that when it comes to securing the wide-open digital spaces of the Internet, no one company can do everything.

Equifax, IBM, and digital certificate specialists like Entrust Technologies Inc. and Verisign Inc. are increasingly trying to communicate that they can put …