Identity theft. Viruses. Worms. Phishing. Denial of service attacks.
Is it any wonder that people are getting more concerned about doing their business online? Then again, these threats are opportunities for security firms, such as RSA Security (NASDAQ:RSAS), VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN), and Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC).
Another leader is Entrust, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENTU). The company understands that it needs to constantly develop cutting-edge technology since there are many around the world who want to create online havoc.
So far, Entrust is getting traction. Yesterday, the company announced its third-quarter results. The company posted revenues of $21.3 million, which was a 6% increase from the same period a year ago. Earnings were $0.01 per share, which was up from a loss of $0.14 per share in the same period a year ago. The balance sheet was also solid, with $101 million in cash and no debt.
In fact, the company appears to be experiencing a surge in demand. The company expects to close more product revenue in October than all the product revenue for the second quarter of 2004.
One of the more interesting products from Entrust is IdentityGuard. This allows for strict authentication to help reduce identity theft. True, there are a variety of similar solutions, but they are costly and do not scale effectively.
No doubt, this can have a big impact for e-commerce. After all, according to a study by Greenfield Online (NASDAQ:SRVY), about 72% of users who do not use online banking would do so if they had identity protection.
Fool contributor Tom Taulli does not own shares in the companies mentioned in this article.
