Partners with Citigroup, FirstUSA to Create Secure ID Solutions for the Net

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, BrainShare® '99 - March 22, 1999 - Accelerating its leadership in directory-enabled networking, Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) today announced its digitalme™ technology. Leveraging Novell® Directory Services® (NDS™), digitalme™ addresses the need for better control and use of personal information, or "digital identity" on the Internet. In conjunction with the preview release of digitalme™, Novell announced agreements with financial service leaders Citigroup and FirstUSA, who will test new services, collaborate with Novell to refine digitalme™ features and functionality and create open standards for Internet identity.

Managing digital identity has become a critical issue for both consumers and businesses on the Internet. Consumers are looking for ways to manage and protect their personal information such as bookmarks, cookies, preferences, user IDs, credit card and contact information that defines what they can do, where they can go, and who they are on the Internet. Companies doing business on the Internet are looking for opportunities to differentiate their businesses by creating secure, personalized services that are beneficial to customers.

Leveraging NDS, Novell's digitalme™ enables consumers to take control of their personal information. In addition, organizations of all kinds can use digitalme™ to extend their businesses to the Internet, establishing customer confidence and strong brand identities by providing customers with personalized channels and interfaces to their services.

"Novell views directory and identity as two sides of the same Internet coin," said Dr. Eric Schmidt, Novell Chairman and CEO, in a keynote address delivered today at BrainShare '99. "Managing identity is the key to creating networked communities and establishing trusted relationships among the myriad people, applications, services and devices that now populate the Net. NDS is the key enabling technology for managing identity. With digitalme™, Novell demonstrates its leadership as a provider of an intelligent infrastructure for identity and community on the Internet."

"We look forward to working with Novell to implement high data collection and privacy standards for digitalme™," said Susan Scott, executive director of TRUSTe, Inc., a nonprofit industry-wide organization dedicated to protecting privacy on the Internet. "By providing technology that enables consumers to control and track the distribution of their personal information on the Internet, Novell is empowering them to be in more control."

BrainShare Demonstration

Novell's digitalme™ features a flexible software architecture that enables consumers, businesses and developers to use an appealing "card" metaphor to manage identity. These virtual "meCards" include a set of tools that enable consumers to create, personalize and manage their digital identities. digitalme™ turns the traditional network management paradigm upside down by giving users the ability to administer their personal information. Since the user controls what information they share, they know when and by whom their identity information is being used.

In this week's preview at BrainShare '99, Novell will invite attendees to build and trade meCards integrated with the Novell Connecting Points conference messaging system. Participants have the opportunity to store their digital identity information on their cards and use the Connecting Points system to specify and control which information they want kept private or made available to other attendees. BrainShare guests can exchange identity cards as a way of establishing business contacts and channels of communication with people of similar interests. Instant chat, messaging and document sharing are all supported through the digitalme™ suite of services.

Also demonstrated at BrainShare are auto-register and Internet sign-on capabilities of digitalme™ that fill in the forms used to register and establish access privileges on many Web sites. A personal proxy system intercepts the forms, automatically fills them in for the user, and provides a completed form for review. The next time the user accesses the Web site, digitalme™ automatically handles the sign in. In addition, digitalme™ helps users develop better "privacy awareness" by creating a log of which Web sites have been passed the user's personal information.

The digitalme™ technology architecture demonstrated at BrainShare '99 builds on NDS as the underlying technology that enables the storage and management of meCards, as well as control of access and creation of policies. The demonstration will include both a Win32 version of the client portion of the software and a Java version that works within an Internet browser. The demonstration architecture utilizes advanced Internet technologies such as XML and standard technologies such as LDAP and HTTP for communication of complex documents and information over the Internet.

Novell is requesting feedback from thousands of BrainShare users and is actively recruiting and working with partners to refine digitalme™ features and functionality. Novell expects to make digitalme™ available free over the Internet in open source format, with a moving rollout of features in the next three to six months.

About NDS

digitalme™ represents a natural expansion of Novell's leadership in managing user identity and access to resources within businesses and other organizations. Over 50 million users rely on digital profiles stored in NDS to manage network security, to control access to applications and other resources, and to provide policy-based management of network equipment such as switches and routers. Along with thousands of directory-enabled applications from Novell and third parties, NDS ensures users of secure, manageable access to the information resources they need, regardless of the user's physical location.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) is the world's leading provider of directory-enabled networking software. Novell solutions give businesses total control of their private networks and the Internet, simplifying the management of user access and identity. Novell's worldwide channel, consulting, developer, education and technical support programs are the most extensive in the network computing industry.

For information on Novell's complete range of products and services, contact Novell's Customer Response Center at (888) 321-4CRC (4272), or visit Novell's Web site at http://www.novell.com. Press may access Novell announcements and company information on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com/pressroom.

Novell, BrainShare and Novell Directory Services are registered trademarks/service marks and digitalme and NDS are trademarks of Novell, Inc., in the United States and other countries. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Press Contact:
Shannon Shupe
Novell, Inc.
Phone: (801) 228-5126
Internet: sshupe@novell.com