Entrust

Datacard Corporation was founded in 1969 by Willis K. Drake. Early operations focused on systems that enabled banks and retailers to produce plastic payment cards more quickly, later expanding to secure the personalization of ID and passports. It was publicly traded before being acquired in 1987 by the family investment office of Germany’s Quandt family, which retains long-term ownership.^[1]

In April 2000, Datacard acquired Platform Seven (P7), a smart‑card technology unit created by National Westminster Bank (NatWest).^[2][3]

In 2013, Datacard acquired Entrust Inc. from Thoma Bravo. A year later, the combined company adopted the name Entrust Datacard.^[4][1]

Entrust’s public key infrastructure (PKI) software was first released in January 1994 within Northern Telecom’s (Nortel) “Secure Networks” group, which Nortel created to develop and sell PKI products.^[5]

In December 1996, Nortel spun off its Secure Networks group as a separate company, Entrust Technologies Inc., to continue to develop and sell PKI software while retaining a majority stake in the new firm.^[5][6]

The company acquired enCommerce, an authentication and authorization software vendor, in April 2000 for a reported $470–$586 million.^[7][8]

In 2004, Entrust acquired content‑scanning and compliance technology from Ottawa‑based AmikaNow!.^[9][10]

Orion Security Solutions, a PKI services provider, was purchased in June 2006 for a reported $8 million.^[11] The following month, it acquired Business Signatures Corporation, a California‑based fraud‑detection software firm, for $50 million in cash.^[12][13]

Entrust was taken private by Thoma Bravo in July 2009.^[14]

Datacard Group acquired Entrust in 2013; the combined company rebranded as Entrust Datacard in 2014.^[4][1][15]

In February 2019, Entrust Datacard agreed to acquire Thales’s general‑purpose hardware security module (HSM) business, nCipher Security; the divestiture was required by the European Commission as a condition of approving Thales’s acquisition of Gemalto.^{[16][17][18][19]}

On September 14, 2020, the company rebranded from Entrust Datacard to Entrust and changed its legal entity name to Entrust Corporation.^[1]

In April 2021, Entrust acquired Ottawa‑based WorldReach Software, which developed digital identity and travel‑document solutions for governments and border programs.^[20][21]

On April 9, 2024, Entrust completed the acquisition of UK identity‑verification firm Onfido.^[22][23]

On June 27, 2024, the Google Chrome Security Team and Chrome Root Program announced that Chrome would stop trusting newly issued TLS server certificates chaining to Entrust and its AffirmTrust roots. After an update to align enforcement with a major release, the change began in Chrome 131 on November 12, 2024, and applied to certificates whose earliest Signed Certificate Timestamp (SCT) was dated after November 11, 2024, 11:59:59 PM UTC; previously issued certificates were not affected by default trust changes.^[24][25]

El 31 de julio de 2024, Ben Wilson, gerente del almacén de certificados raíz de Mozilla, anunció que Mozilla establecería una fecha límite de desconfianza del 30 de noviembre de 2024 para los certificados TLS que se encadenan a las raíces Entrust y AffirmTrust, lo que significa que Firefox no confiaría en los certificados emitidos después de esa fecha; las emisiones anteriores no se verían afectadas. ^{[ 26 ]}

Tras la venta a Sectigo en enero de 2025, Sectigo completó la migración de los clientes de certificados públicos de Entrust a su plataforma el 29 de septiembre de 2025. ^{[ 27 ]} Entrust continúa ofreciendo PKI privada y gestionada, así como software. ^{[ 28 ]}

El 29 de enero de 2025, Entrust vendió su negocio de autoridad de certificación pública a Sectigo. ^{[ 28 ]}

En julio de 2025, Entrust anunció que Tony Ball sucedería a Todd Wilkinson como director ejecutivo, y que la transición se haría efectiva el 31 de marzo de 2026. ^{[ 29 ]}