Baltimore Technologies has won a $2.8 million contract to provide the public key infrastructure (PKI) for a new trusted e-payments network for the Saudi Arabian banking community.
Under the contract, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (Sama) is to use Baltimore's UniCert product to assure the integrity and authenticity of all transactions passed through the system. In addition, Baltimore's PKI technology will be used to create the Root Certificate Authority for the financial services industry within the Kingdom.
UniCert provides Sama with a platform for the creation and management of certificate-based digital identities and signatures for secure transacting over insecure public networks. Baltimore has partnered with Mohammed M. Al Rumaih Co in Saudi Arabia to provide local support and services for the creation of an eTrust Centre, enabling Sama to issue digital certificates to banks and their corporate customers throughout the Kingdom.
Shares in Dublin-based Baltimore dropped 20% to 20 pence this morning as it reported a halving in revenues to £35 million for the year-ending December 2002. The struggling company, which has fired two-thirds of its workforce during the year, narrowed net losses to £64.7 million, compared with £652.8 million the previous year.
Bijan Khezri, Baltimore CEO says: "The overall market environment remains uncertain, difficult to predict and slow-moving causing a lengthening of the sales cycle."