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VeriSign Post-Holiday Analysis: Online Sales Soar Despite Worst Retail Season in 30 Years

Company's 80,000+ Online Merchants' Sales Explode During Holiday Season; Fraud Concerns Still Cited as Most Important Long-term Challenge

Mountain View, CA January 14, 2003 - Despite a 30 year record low holiday retail sales period, online merchants' business exploded and achieved new records, an analysis of VeriSign's more than 80,000 payments merchants revealed. VeriSign is currently the largest payment service provider on the Internet, processing more than 25 percent of all online merchants' Internet transactions.

The post-holiday season analysis revealed that VeriSign merchants' total online payments transactions increased more than 75% in 2002. Overall for 2002, consumers spent nearly $13.7 billion on the Internet, according to Nielsen NetRatings.

High-volume VeriSign merchants also saw substantial increases in transactions processed. The average dollar amount per transaction for the top 50 VeriSign online merchants nearly tripled in 2002 increasing from $43.91 in December 2001 to $123.85 in December 2002.

"In a year when overall holiday spending was off because of macro economic conditions, our average merchant saw sales increases of approximately 5 percent, which demonstrates clearly that consumers trust the Internet as a secure method of purchasing products and services," said Barry McCarthy, Vice President, VeriSign Payment Services.

"Consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet as a regular source for commercial transactions. The Internet is an easy-to-use medium for consumers and it allows them to comparative shop and most importantly save time and money in traveling to the mall," said Vincent Baker, analyst for Current Analysis. "A significant barrier to consumer adoption, however, still remains online fraud. Security that's built into the process, like VeriSign's, enables consumers to concentrate on their personal objectives and not spend their time browsing the Internet for safe Web sites."

VeriSign conducted a small sample survey of online merchants in early January 2003 that found 59 percent of respondents were still concerned, however, that fraud will continue to be a challenge for continued Internet growth. "The payments industry needs to ensure that Internet merchants and consumers each have the best tools possible to protect themselves against fraud, and as the industry leader we are committed to leading the way," said Barry McCarthy, Vice President, VeriSign Payment Services. More than 80,000 online merchants, the largest number of online merchants using any single Internet payment gateway, rely on VeriSign's payment gateway services to process online transactions.

According to the final Nielsen/NetRatings report of 2002, shoppers devoted as much as 16 percent of their total holiday shopping budget to online purchases during 2002. Consumers spent more that $3.1 billion on books, music, videos and DVDs, $2.7 billion on clothing and apparel, and $2 billion on travel. However, the fastest growing categories for the season were toys and consumer electronics, where online spending accounted for nearly $4 billion in online sales, according to the Nielsen survey.

VeriSign is hosting an industry-wide payments summit today in Palo Alto, California bringing together payment processors, gateway providers, credit card providers, security experts, merchant banks, industry analysts and other payment industry specialists to discuss important industry trends and ways to improve online transactions. Discussion panels include topics on: The Future of Alternative Payments and Billing; Authentication and the Shifting Liability of the Merchant; Fraud and Risk Management; and The Payments Industry - What's Next?

About VeriSign 
VeriSign, Inc. is the leading provider of digital trust services that enable everyone, everywhere to engage in commerce and communications with confidence. VeriSign's digital trust services create a trusted environment through four core offerings - Web presence services, telecommunications services, security services and payment services - powered by a global infrastructure that manages billions of network connections and transactions a day. Additional news and information about the company is available at http://www.verisign.com

Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause VeriSign's actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others: VeriSign's limited operating history under its current business structure; uncertainty of future revenue and profitability and potential fluctuations in quarterly operating results; failure of the company to retain and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees; ; failure of the company to successfully manage relationships with customers, suppliers and strategic customers; network outages, network capacity constraints or security breaches; failure of the company's customers to accept new services or to continue using the products and services of the company; and competition in the various markets serviced by the company. More information about potential factors that could affect the company's business and financial results is included in VeriSign's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, especially in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. VeriSign undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release.

VeriSign is a registered trademark of VeriSign, Inc. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contacts: 
Media Relations: Patrick Burns, pburns@verisign.com, 703-948-4471 
Investor Relations: Steven Gatoff, sgatoff@verisign.com, 650-426-4560