TRADECARD RECEIVES FIRST AICPA WEBTRUST CONFIDENTIALITY SEAL IN
THE U.S. FROM ERNST & YOUNG
NEW YORK, November 14, 2001 -- TradeCard, Inc., whose network enables businesses to automate their
financial supply chains, announced today that it is the first U.S. company to receive the American Institute of
Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) WebTrust Confidentiality Seal after professional services firm Ernst & Young,
LLP thoroughly examined its online policies and controls relating to confidentiality of information. In addition,
TradeCard has earned the AICPA's SysTrust certification for system reliability, covering the SysTrust principles of
security, availability, integrity and maintainability of a system following a separate Ernst & Young evaluation.
As a result of these certifications, TradeCard is entitled to feature the AICPA's WebTrust Confidentiality Seal and
the Ernst & Young CyberProcess Certification Seal on their Website, www.tradecard.com. Site visitors can click on
the respective seals and link to the opinions rendered by the auditors.
Kurt Cavano, TradeCard chairman and CEO, said, "Our customers and business partners are entitled to a system
that is reliable, secure, and protects their confidential information. By conforming to the SysTrust system
reliability standards and earning the first WebTrust Confidentiality Seal in the country, TradeCard has demonstrated
that it safeguards all confidential information, and that we actually do what we promise."
"The amount of sensitive information flowing across the Internet today is staggering," said John Doherty,
Partner with Ernst & Young. "Businesses like TradeCard need solutions that not only protect confidential
customer information, but that also set a benchmark against which all businesses can be measured. The WebTrust
Confidentiality Program sets the standard for confidentiality best practices on the Internet and helps businesses
prove to their customers that they're doing what they say they're doing with confidential information."
"SysTrust helps minimize risk to business partners and users of a particular system by assuring them that the
system is reliable - that it is capable of operating without material errors or failures during a particular
timeframe in a specified environment," said Anthony Pugliese, Vice President of Member Innovation of the AICPA.
"Users of TradeCard services have the same concerns. They want to know that the TradeCard system is secure,
reliable and available as promised. Their livelihoods depend upon information systems and the data contained in ]
them, and SysTrust responds to the critical need for assurance on the reliability of systems."
Added Pugliese, "Unlike personally identifiable information, which is being defined by regulation in a number
of countries worldwide, there is no widely recognized definition of confidential information. As a result, it is
important for those engaged in business relationships to understand and to accept what information is to be
maintained on a confidential basis and what, if any, rights of access or other expectations that a company might have
to update that information to ensure its accuracy and completeness."
The WebTrust Confidentiality Program focuses on whether confidential information from e-commerce activities is
protected from unauthorized access and use. SysTrust is an assurance service that, when delivered by a licensed CPA
firm, independently verifies the reliability of a particular system against a framework of standards. Providing a
freely available benchmark for what makes a system reliable, SysTrust is designed to increase the comfort of
management, customers and business partners with the systems that support a business or a particular activity. The
boundaries of the system are defined by the system owner and must include the following key components:
Infrastructure, Software, People, Procedures and Data. The SysTrust framework is applicable to any size and type of
system.
About TradeCard, Inc.
TradeCard is a financial supply chain service provider. TradeCard's secure transaction infrastructure greatly reduces
the inefficiencies and uncertainties found in traditional domestic and cross-border trade transaction processes. By
streamlining and enhancing the steps necessary for purchase order approvals, payment decisions and settlement,
TradeCard provides a cost-effective, practical and patented service for financial supply chain management.
TradeCard, Inc. is headquartered in New York City with offices in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Hong Kong, Taipei,
Seoul, Tokyo and London.
TradeCard can support transactions among the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore,
South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
TradeCard is a registered trademark in the United States. TradeCard can be found on the World Wide Web at
http://www.tradecard.com.
About the AICPA
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is the ISO 9001 certified national professional
organization of CPAs in the United States with more than 340,000 members in public practice, business and industry,
government and education. For more information about WebTrust, please visit www.webtrust.org. For more information
about SysTrust, please visit www.aicipa.org/assurance/systrust/index.htm.
*****
This press release contains a number of matters that constitute forward-looking
statements. The presentation reflects the current views of TradeCard's
management with respect to future events and is subject to risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements.
