BANGALORE, INDIA: VeriSign, Inc. announced that it has partnered with IP communication services and solutions provider Net4 to provide businesses in India with comprehensive secure e-commerce solutions.

Under the terms of the agreement, Net4 will now provide customers across India with all VeriSign Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) solutions, including standard and extended validation SSL certificates. These solutions enable secure e-commerce, communications and interactions for web sites, intranets and extranets.

VeriSign (including VeriSign's subsidiaries, affiliates and resellers) secures over 1 million servers, including over 95 percent of the Fortune 500 companies, over 90 percent of the Internet retailer 500 and 96 of the world's 100 largest SSL-using banks.

Desi Valli, Executive Director & COO, Net4, said: "Whether businesses accept orders and credit card details online, give business partners access to an extranet or share information with employees on an intranet, they will need to protect these interactions with SSL encryption to protect confidential information and build trust."

VeriSign's SSL solutions complement Net4's broad range of services, particularly its web hosting, enterprise messaging, domain name and security services. With 14 offices throughout India and STM8 connectivity to the Internet backbone, Net4 services 600 corporate data centre customers, 2,500 business VoIP customers, 75,000 hosted web sites, 1 million corporate email accounts and 2.5 lac registered domain names. It has the reach and expertise to successfully extend VeriSign's SSL business in India.

Shekhar Kirani, vice president for VeriSign India, said: "We expect to see significant growth in the Indian market over the next few years through our partnership with Net4. We have a partner who shares our security vision and has the capability to deliver to the market."