CSIMarket
 



Verisign Inc  (VRSN)
Other Ticker:  
 


 

Verisign Inc

Business Segments Description





Internet Services Group

The Internet Services Group consists of the Security Services business and Information Services business. The Security Services business provides products and services to enterprises and organizations that want to establish and deliver secure Internet-based services for their customers and business partners. The following types of services are included in the Security Services business: network and applications security services, including our managed security and global security consulting services, authentication services, including our public key infrastructure (“PKI”) and unified authentication services, and digital certificate services, including our commerce site. The Information Services business provides registry services as the exclusive registry of domain names in the .com and .net gTLDs and certain ccTLDs, as well as providing other services, including intelligent supply chain services, real-time publisher services, and digital brand management services.


Security Services

Network and Application Security Services

Our network and application security services include managed security services, iDefense security intelligence services and global security consulting services for enterprises.

Managed Security Services (“MSS”). Our MSS services enable enterprises to effectively monitor and manage their network security infrastructure on a 24x7 basis while reducing the associated time, expense, and personnel commitments by relying on VeriSign’s security platform and experienced security staff. Our MSS services include:

• Firewall Management Service. Our Firewall Management Service provides enterprises with management and monitoring of firewalls. Our security engineers and program managers stage the firewall devices and test them prior to deployment; once deployed, devices are monitored for health and security events 24x7. Ongoing device management services include rule changes, software patches and upgrades.

• Intrusion Detection/Prevention Management Service. Our Intrusion Detection/Prevention Management Service provides management and monitoring of intrusion detection/prevention sensors, designed to identify and counter malicious security events or potential attacks against an organization’s network.

• Vulnerability Management Service. Our Vulnerability Management Service provides customized identification of exploitable vulnerabilities and helps prioritize remediation by providing up-front risk assessment and recurring vulnerability scanning, vulnerability testing and penetration testing.

iDefense Security Intelligence Services. Our iDefense Security Intelligence Services provide information regarding network-based threats, vulnerabilities and malicious code to customers to aid them in making decisions in response to threats on a real-time basis. Our network of research contributors in over 30 countries provides information about the cyber underground and software vulnerabilities.

Global Security Consulting Services and Other Services. Our Global Security Consulting Services help enterprises assess, design, and deploy cost-effective and scalable network security solutions. Key offerings include Payment Card Industry security assessments, application security assessments, enterprise risk assessments, and security program development in support of compliance regulations and industry best practices in both the public and private sectors. Our consulting services are also available to help enterprises integrate our unified authentication and PKI services with existing applications and databases and advise on policies and procedures related to the management and deployment of digital certificates. Our Messaging Security and Compliance Services, which include Email Security Service, Message Continuity Service and Message Archive Service, provide enterprises the ability to secure their email system from unwanted messages and virus attacks; loss of email and email disruption due to disasters or system failure; and retain messages for extended periods of time to address compliance requirements. Using our Email Security Service, an enterprise’s in-bound email can be checked for spam and malicious code, such as viruses and worms. Legitimate email is passed through to employees while suspicious emails are quarantined. Periodic digests of quarantined emails are sent to employees to review and accept or reject as appropriate. In addition, outbound email can be checked for malicious code to protect itself and outside recipients from risk. Our Message Continuity Service makes identical copies of messages and retains them for thirty days, giving enterprises the ability to recover messages lost in the event of a disaster or accidental deletion. Our Message Archive Service stores identical copies of messages and retains them for extended periods defined by the enterprise to address compliance or internal audit requirements. Our Anti-Phishing Solution provides enterprises effective strategies for mitigating and eliminating “phishing” attempts by providing services for the prevention, detection, and response to, identity theft attacks.

Authentication Services. Our Authentication Services include our Managed PKI Services and Unified Authentication Services that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of enterprises that wish to issue digital certificates to employees, customers or trading partners.

• Managed PKI Services. The Managed PKI Service is a managed service that allows an organization to use our trusted data processing infrastructure to develop and deploy customized digital certificate services for its user communities. The Managed PKI Service can be used by our customers to provide digital certificates for a variety of applications, such as: controlling access to sensitive data and account information, enabling digitally-signed email, encryption of email, or Secure Socket Layer (“SSL”) sessions. The Managed PKI Service can help customers create an online electronic trading community, manage supply chain interaction, facilitate and protect online credit card transactions or enable access to virtual private networks.


• Unified Authentication Services. Unified Authentication provides a single, integrated platform for provisioning and managing all types of strong, two-factor authentication credentials used to validate users, devices or applications for a variety of purposes, such as remote access, windows logon, and Wi-Fi access. Unified Authentication supports strong authentication using smart cards, device-generated one-time passwords and digital certificates, as well as PKI-based encryption, digital signing and non-repudiation. Unified Authentication can be run at the enterprise or through VeriSign’s infrastructure.

• VeriSign Affiliate PKI Software and Services. VeriSign Affiliate PKI Software and Services are sold to a wide variety of entities that provide electronic commerce and communications services over wired and wireless Internet Protocol, or IP, networks. We designate these types of organizations as “VeriSign Affiliates” and provide them with a combination of technology, support and marketing services to facilitate their initial deployment and ongoing delivery of digital certificate services. In some instances, we have invested in VeriSign Affiliates and hold a minority interest of less than 20%.

VeriSign Affiliates typically enter into a multi-year technology licensing agreement with us whereby we receive up-front licensing fees for the Service Center or Processing Center technology, as well as ongoing royalties from each digital certificate or the Managed PKI Service sold by the VeriSign Affiliate.

Digital Certificate Services

Digital certificate services include our SSL digital certificate services and code signing digital certificate services. SSL certificate services enable Internet merchants to implement and operate secure Web sites that utilize SSL protocol. These services provide Internet merchants with the means to authenticate themselves to consumers and to encrypt communications between consumers and the merchant websites. Our code signing digital certificate services provide software developers the means to identify themselves and the authenticity of their software to consumers and relying software applications.

We currently offer the following SSL and code signing digital certificate services.

• Secure Site and Secure Site Pro. Both our Secure Site and Secure Site Pro certificates enable up to 256-bit SSL encryption when both the web server and the client browser support such sessions. Secure Site Pro, our premium certificate offering, implements Server Gated Cryptography, a technology which automatically steps-up encryption levels to 128-bit in certain client/browser configurations. Secure Site Pro also includes a third party site availability monitoring evaluation, a network security monitoring trial, a site performance monitoring evaluation, and additional warranty protection.

• Code Signing Certificates. We offer several code signing certificates based on the platform for which customers wish to sign the code. Platforms include Microsoft Authenticode, Microsoft Office and VBA, Symbian, Sun Java, Netscape, Microsoft Smartphone, Macromedia Shockwave and Marimba Castanet.

• Thawte Branded Digital Certificates. We offer SSL and code signing certificates under the Thawte brand. These services use the same underlying infrastructure, and are targeted at small businesses and independent software developers.

Information Services

VeriSign’s Information Services business includes our domain name registry services for the .com and .net gTLDs and certain ccTLDs, managed domain name services, intelligent supply chain services, real-time publisher services and digital brand management services.


Domain Name Registry Services. We are the exclusive registry of domain names within the .com and .net gTLDs under agreements with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, and the Department of Commerce, or DOC. As a registry, we maintain the master directory of all second-level domain names in these top-level domains. We own and maintain the shared registration system that allows all registrars to enter new second-level domain names into the master directory and to submit modifications, transfers, re-registrations and deletions for existing second-level domain names.

We are also the exclusive registry for domain names within the .tv and .cc ccTLDs. These top-level domains are supported by our global name server constellation and shared registration system. In addition, we have made .bz domain name registration services available through our outsourced hosting environment, which enables domain name registrars and resellers to simultaneously access .bz registries. We also provide internationalized domain name, or IDN, services that enable Internet users to access Web sites in their local language characters. Currently, IDNs are available in more than 350 languages such as Chinese, Greek, Korean and Russian.

Intelligent Supply Chain Services. We offer supply chain information for retail, pharmaceutical and consumer goods customers for marketing and operations purposes. Our point-of-sale data service is a hosted, Web-based solution for accessing and managing daily updates of point-of-sale data from multiple key retailer partners. An electronic product code is a unique number that corresponds with an individual product (or container of products). Radio frequency identification (“RFID”) tags are small chips with antennas that contain an electronic product code (“EPC”). We have been selected by EPCglobal, a not-for-profit joint-venture formed by The Uniform Code Council, Inc. and EAN International, to operate the authoritative root directory for the EPCglobal Network, the authoritative directory of information sources that are available to describe products assigned EPCs. The EPCglobal Network is a concept that if proven will enable users to find and share information about products in the supply chain using the Internet infrastructure. For example, by using an EPC in conjunction with the EPCglobal Network, a manufacturer or retailer would be able to look up detailed information about a product or package, such as its manufacture date, location and expiration date. Additionally, we offer managed services that are designed to work in conjunction with RFID and bar code technology and the EPC root directory to facilitate the secure sharing of product data across diverse supply chains.

Real-Time Publisher Services. We offer a suite of intelligent infrastructure services that allow organizations to collect and organize large amounts of constantly updated content, and distribute it, in real time, to enterprises, web-portal developers, application developers, and consumers. The real-time publisher services also make it easier for publishers of all sizes to distribute and track their content feeds, which may improve the reliability and quality of their real-time content.

Digital Brand Management Services. We offer a range of services that we refer to as digital brand management services to help enterprises, legal professionals, information technology professionals and brand marketers monitor, protect and build digital brand equity. These services include domain name registration services for both gTLDs such as .com and ccTLDs, such as .de and .jp, and our brand monitoring services.

Communications Services Group

The Communications Services Group provides managed solutions to fixed line, broadband, mobile operators and enterprise customers through our integrated communications, content and commerce platform. Our communications services offerings include network connectivity and interoperability services and intelligent database services; our content services offerings include content and application services and messaging services; and our commerce services offerings include clearing and settlement services, and billing and payment services.

Communications Services

Network Connectivity and Interoperability Services

Through our network connectivity and interoperability services, we provide connections and services that signal and route information within and between telecommunication carrier networks.

• SS7 Connectivity and Signaling Services. Our Signaling System 7, or SS7, network, is an industry-standard system of protocols and procedures that is used to control telephone communications and provide routing information in association with vertical calling features, such as calling card validation, local number portability, toll-free number database access and caller identification. Our SS7 trunk signaling service reduces post-dial delay, allowing call connection almost as soon as dialing is completed which enables telecommunications carriers to deploy a full range of intelligent database services more quickly and cost effectively. By using our trunk-signaling service, carriers simplify SS7 link provisioning, and reach local exchange carriers and wireless carriers’ networks through our direct access to hundreds of carriers.

• Wireless Roaming Services. We offer wireless carriers seamless roaming services using the ANSI-41 and GSM signaling protocols that allow carriers to provide support for roamers visiting their service area and for their customers when they roam outside their service area. This service also allows number validation inside and outside carriers’ service areas by accessing our SS7 network. Our Interstandard Roaming service manages signaling conversion across protocols to provide activation processing, international customer care, end-user billing, and fraud protection, while our Wireless Data Roaming service enables carriers to offer wireless data roaming to their subscribers over Wi-Fi, CDMA2000 and GSM/GPRS networks.

• Voice Over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) Services. Our Wireless IP Connect service is a managed service that allows wireless operators to provide full VoIP-to-wireless roaming to their subscribers, while our IP Connect Suite allows VoIP providers, cable operators and MSOs to extend VoIP services across multiple access methods to enterprise customers. VeriSign SIP-7 Service integrates SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)-based VoIP platforms with the existing SS7 network, allowing seamless interconnection between IP networks and the Public Switch Telephone Network (“PSTN”).

• Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (“CALEA”). Our NetDiscovery services enable telecommunications carriers to meet the requirements of CALEA through provisioning, access and delivery of call information from carriers to law enforcement agencies.

Intelligent Database Services

We enable carriers to find and interact with network databases and conduct database queries that are essential for many advanced services, including the following:

• Number Portability. Local Number Portability (“LNP”) and Wireless Number Portability (“WNP”) allow telephone subscribers to switch local service providers while keeping the same telephone number.

• Calling Name (“CNAM”) Delivery. Our CNAM Delivery service enables carriers to query regional Bell operating companies and major independent carriers and provide customers with caller identification services.

• Line Information Database (“LIDB”). LIDB provides subscriber information (such as the subscriber’s service profile and billing specifications) to other carriers enabling them to respond to calls (e.g. whether to block certain calls, allow collect calls, etc.).

• Toll-free Database Services. Leveraging VeriSign’s SS7 network, our toll-free services allow customers to complete 8xx calls throughout the U.S. and Canada.

• TeleBlock Do Not Call (“DNC”). TeleBlock DNC provides telemarketers with a DNC management tool that automatically screens and blocks outgoing calls to national, state, third-party and in-house DNC lists.


Content Services

Application and Content Services

Our application services enable providers to deliver content through secure customized, branded content acquisition portals and allow for the exchange of pictures, videos, alerts and other forms of multimedia content across a wide range of connected devices and networks. Our content services manage content aggregation, formatting, mediation, digital rights management and delivery through these services. We have a library of over 150,000 items, including ringtones, graphics, games and applications that we offer in over two dozen countries around the world. In the U.S., U.K., and Australia we operate under our Jamster brand, in the U.K. under our Ringtoneking brand, and in Europe under our Jamba! brand.

Messaging Services

Our Multi-Media Messaging services (“MMS”) allow subscribers to send pictures, audio and video between different service providers and devices and is provided on a service bureau basis that connects to wireless service providers’ multimedia messaging centers and routes MMS messages between service providers. Through our hosted services we also facilitate the sharing, distribution and storage of multimedia messages for our customers in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Mexico. Our Inter-Carrier Messaging services allow wireless subscribers to send text and multi-media messages between different service providers and devices. Through our MetcalfTM Global Messaging services, we enable wireless carriers to offer short messaging services (“SMS”) between carrier systems and devices, and across disparate networks and technologies so that customers can exchange messages outside the carrier’s network.

Commerce Services

Clearing and Settlement Services

Through our Wireline Clearinghouse Services, we serve as a distribution and collection point for billing information and payment collection for services provided by one carrier to customers billed by another.

Our Wireless Clearinghouse Services enable wireless carriers to clear and settle telephone traffic charges with their roaming partners domestically and internationally. We also provide wireless carriers with fraud management, SS7 monitoring, and other services.

Billing and Payment Services

We offer advanced billing, payment and customer care services to mobile operators. Through our speedSUITETM, SmartPayTM and PrePayINTM services, we provide wireless carriers with an end-to-end customer relationship management system that supports advance pay, prepaid and post-paid wireless services. Carriers have access to a real-time account management platform, administered via a Web interface, designed to make prepaid wireless plans flexible and convenient.

Operations Infrastructure

Our operations infrastructure consists of secure data centers in Mountain View, California; Dulles, Virginia; Lacey, Washington; Providence, Rhode Island; Overland Park, Kansas; Melbourne, Australia; and Kawasaki, Japan. Most of these secure data centers operate on a 24-hour a day, 7 days per week, 365 days a year basis, supporting our business units and services. Key features of our operations infrastructure include:

• Distributed Servers. We deploy a large number of high-speed servers to support capacity and availability demands that in conjunction with our proprietary software offers automatic failover, global and local load balancing and threshold monitoring on critical servers.

• Advanced Telecommunications. We deploy and maintain redundant telecommunications and routing hardware and maintain high-speed connections to multiple Internet service providers (“ISPs”) to ensure that our mission critical services are readily accessible to customers at all times.

• Network Security. We incorporate architectural concepts such as protected domains, restricted nodes and distributed access control in our system architecture. We have also developed proprietary communications protocols within and between software modules that are designed to prevent most known forms of electronic attacks. In addition, we employ firewalls and intrusion detection software, and contract with security consultants who perform periodic attacks to test our systems and security risk assessments.

As part of our operations infrastructure for our domain name registry services, we operate all domain name servers that answer domain name lookups for the .com and .net zones. We also operate two of the thirteen externally visible root zone server addresses, including the “A” root, which is considered to be the authoritative root zone server of the Internet’s domain name system (“DNS”). The domain name servers provide the associated name server and IP address for every .com and .net domain name on the Internet and a large number of other top-level domain queries, resulting in an average of over 15 billion responses per day during 2005. These name servers are located around the world, providing local domain name service throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Each server facility is a controlled and monitored environment, incorporating security and system maintenance features. This network of name servers is one of the cornerstones of the Internet’s DNS infrastructure.

To provide our communications services, we operate a SS7 network composed of specialized switches, computers and databases strategically located across the United States. These elements interconnect our customers and U.S. telecommunications carriers through leased lines. Our network currently consists of 16 mated pairs of SS7 signal transfer points (“STPs”) that are specialized switches that route SS7 signaling messages, and into which our customers connect. We own ten pairs of STPs and lease capacity on six pairs of STPs from regional providers. Our SS7 network control center, located in Overland Park, Kansas, is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Call Centers and Help Desk. We provide customer support services through our phone-based call centers, email help desks and Web-based self-help systems. Our California call center is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and employs an automated call directory system to support our Security Services business. Our Georgia call center is staffed from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time and our Washington state call center is staffed from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time and employs an automated call directory system to support our Communications Services business. Our Virginia call center is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to support our Information Services business. All call centers have a staff of trained customer support agents and provide Web-based support services that are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, utilizing customized automatic response systems to provide self-help recommendations.

Operations Support and Monitoring. We have an extensive monitoring capability that enables us to track the status and performance of our critical database systems and our global resolution systems. Our distributed Network Operations Centers are staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Disaster Recovery Plans. We have disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities that are designed to deal with the loss of entire data centers and other facilities. Our Information Services business maintains dual mirrored data centers that allow rapid failover with no data loss and no loss of function or capacity. Our PKI business is similarly protected by having service capabilities that exist in both of our East and West Coast data center facilities. Our critical data services (including digital certificates, domain name registration, telecommunications services and global resolution) use advanced storage systems that provide data protection through techniques such as mirroring and remote replication.


   

Business Segments Results Competition By Business Segments Company Profile


Help

About us

Advertise

CSIMarket Company, Sector, Industry, Market Analysis, Stock Quotes, Earnings, Economy, News and Research. 
   Copyright © 2024 CSIMarket, Inc. All rights reserved. This site uses cookies to make your browsing experince better. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy - UPDATED (Read about our Privacy Policy)

Intraday data delayed per exchange requirements. All quotes are in local exchange time. Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and other exchanges. Fundamental and financial data for Stocks, Sector, Industry, and Economic Indicators provided by CSIMarket.com