By Borzou Daragahi Thanks to lawmakers, the president and busy lobbyists, companies and individuals will increasingly be able to go online to do such things as close real estate deals, open brokerage accounts and authorize the release medical files. Digital signature technologies attach unique digital certificates to documents. You don't actually see the certificates at work.
Computers automatically check each other's identities behind the scenes.
The need for security will guarantee a place for public-key infrastructure firms such as Verisign and smaller players like RSA Security , Baltimore Technologies , Entrust and Certicom . Verisign, which has already sold 215,000 digital certificates to companies like Cisco, Microsoft, Netscape and VISA and issued 3.9 million to individuals, has particularly attracted Wall Street plaudits. Companies essentially farm out their public-key infrastructure needs to Verisign. Instead, it rents out the application and collects an annual fee for each encrypted certificate. That's important because it provides a strong base for recurring revenue.