Verisign History

Verisign's Origin

Verisign’s founding mission in 1995 was to provide critical Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI) products and services to the large base of technology partners of RSA Data Security, the company that pioneered public-key cryptography. But these services began years before, inside of RSA. Beginning in the mid-1980s, RSA began forming strategic partnerships with technology industry leaders, which, by 1991, included Lotus, Microsoft, Apple, Sun, DEC, Novell, and many others. RSA’s software security modules were integrated by these partners, which included the full suite of PKI technology and ensured broad-based interoperability.

RSA Data Security was founded by three MIT professors — Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman — who invented the RSA algorithm, which would become the most widely used public-key cryptosystem in the world. Current Verisign CEO Jim Bidzos was CEO of RSA Data Security in 1986, and led the effort to begin providing PKI-based products and services. That year, RSA began launching toolkits and incubating what would become Verisign, offering public key certificate services. As RSA’s many strategic partners began to deploy products in the 1990s, the need for these services grew.

In 1994, Netscape partnered with RSA to fully integrate RSA’s full suite of PKI software into the very first version of their browser, Netscape Navigator. Verisign was spun out in April 1995 to be an independent, transparent company focused on PKI certificate services — issuance, identity verification, and revocation — at global scale. The closing padlock, along with the Verisign checkmark logo, became iconic in the 1990s, providing visual confirmation to millions of Netscape Navigator users that two parties with no prior relationship — a user with a browser and a merchant with an e-commerce website — could establish trust and exchange payment and other information via PKI-enabled secure socket layer (SSL) technology. Microsoft followed quickly in 1995 with Internet Explorer, using the same RSA technology, ensuring both browsers would support the security features. The era of secure e-commerce at global scale began and experienced exponential growth. 

In 2000, Verisign acquired Network Solutions, which focused exclusively on the operation of critical Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure. The exponential growth in demand for and dependencies on the DNS in the years that followed — along with the assumption of needed expansion of critical Internet infrastructure, all while the cyberthreat landscape grew and evolved — led Verisign to focus on its infrastructure services mission and the security of those services, divesting businesses that were not core to that focus. In that process, Verisign’s pioneering history in cybersecurity proved to be a critical contributor to maintaining an unparalleled record of security, stability, and reliability.  

The relationship between Verisign and Network Solutions began indirectly in 1997, when RSA Data Security announced free-use software to secure the DNS and related components. In the years following the acquisition, the combined technical teams continued to make numerous innovations related to security, stability, and resiliency. More recently, Verisign has developed important innovations in post-quantum cryptography for use in Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), proposed for standardization and free use for efficient use of quantum-resistant cryptography that can operate with the efficiency and security required by today’s DNS.

Today, Verisign includes many original members of RSA and Network Solutions teams, integrating a rich foundation of experience across cryptography, digital certificate security, and the DNS. This foundation of knowledge and expertise enables the company to foresee and respond to the internet’s ever-evolving global commercial and security landscape.