VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN), the leading provider of critical infrastructure services for the Internet and telecommunications networks, today announced that it has been selected by Accenture (NYSE:ACN) to provide hosting, security consulting, authentication services and Managed Public Key Infrastructure (MPKI) services for the Department of Defense's Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE.) Upon full deployment, SERVE will enable absentee uniformed services members and overseas United States citizens from eight participating states to cast absentee ballots via the Internet for the 2004 primary and general elections.

VeriSign's Managed PKI services are used by thousands of commercial enterprises and government agencies to secure their applications and network infrastructure. By utilizing VeriSign's Managed PKI services, companies and agencies maintain control of their own security policies, procedures and personnel, but can flexibly offload back-end operations of a PKI infrastructure, such as digital certificate generation, validation, renewal and revocation. SERVE will be delivered to citizens through VeriSign's military-grade public key infrastructure and Network Operations Centers, achieving non-stop monitoring, management and escalation across the globe with full disaster recovery.

"Accenture chose VeriSign for the SERVE project because of the company's experience and success securing other digital government systems and applications," said Meg T. McLaughlin, chief executive of Accenture eDemocracy Services. "VeriSign's Managed PKI services will allow us to secure SERVE at lower cost and on a more efficient time-table than a proprietary system. Additionally, VeriSign's Managed PKI service will allow us to easily scale to the numbers of states, elections and citizens that will be participating in the project."

The SERVE voting system will accept voter registration applications and absentee ballot requests over the Internet for the 2004 election season. Eligible citizens of selected counties in Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Washington, will be issued a digital certificate that maps to their name and credentials and that they will use to sign their ballot, thus allowing them to vote for their candidate of choice with the knowledge that their vote and information is secure.

"VeriSign is pleased to be participating in SERVE, which will be the largest test to date of the feasibility and benefits of using the internet to enhance voting access for more Americans," said Barry Leffew, vice president, VeriSign Public Sector. "As the Federal government mandates new eGovernment applications, the need to secure those applications will become paramount. At VeriSign, we have the unique role of securely running the critical infrastructure for the Internet, which gives us insight on security threats and trends as they occur. For SERVE, we will leverage that information, along with our Managed PKI solution, to provide advanced security measures that maintain the integrity of each citizen's vote. We look forward to our continuing work with Accenture and the DoD to successfully implement and operate SERVE for the 2004 elections."

Additional information on SERVE is available at http://www.serveusa.gov/ .

VeriSign Public Sector Group delivers the highest level of digital trust and information assurance to help government customers build highly secure infrastructures cost effectively, in days rather than weeks. VeriSign solutions are Federal Bridge compatible.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record. With more than 80,000 people in 47 countries, the company generated net revenues of $11.6 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2002. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc. delivers critical infrastructure services that make the Internet and telecommunications networks more intelligent, reliable and secure. Every day VeriSign helps thousands of businesses and millions of consumers connect, communicate, and transact with confidence. Additional news and information about the company is available at http://www.verisign.com/ .