Digital security provider QuoVadis is branching out in Europe with an affiliate office just opened in Switzerland.

The company ? which says it has already been working in Europe for some time as a provider to the international offices of Bermuda-based re/insurance companies ? has put two dedicated sales staff in the Swiss affiliate office, QuoVadis Trustlink Schweiz A, while working with a partner that has a dozen professionals.

"Underlying security services and technologies will be provided from the Bermuda operation," said head of development, Stephen Davidson.

Why Switzerland? Group CEO Roman Brunner, himself a Swiss national who has long been based in Bermuda, said: "Like Switzerland, Bermuda is a hub for international business. QuoVadis has expanded rapidly to serve our clients' global networks of customers and affiliates, following the demand for secure electronic transactions. We now have the critical mass in Europe to justify setting up a dedicated operation in Switzerland."

QuoVadis operates the Trustlink digital certificate authority, which is accredited to international standards and is widely enabled in popular software from providers including Microsoft, Apple, BlackBerry, and the Mozilla Foundation. Digital certificates are used to reliably identify users working online and to protect their privacy using encryption. Digital certificates may also be used to create electronic signatures, which have had the same legal value as the handwritten equivalent since the first of the year.

In addition, electronic signatures and timestamps are used to create tamperproof records for government filings or data retention.

Carl Rosenast, president of QuoVadis Schweiz, "Information security continues to be at the top of the corporate executive agenda. Trustlink provides the ability for companies to rapidly deploy internationally recognised security for a reasonable cost."

Mr. Davidson said: "We are leveraging the track record of our Bermuda operation (which includes several difficult international security accreditations and global distribution in most commonly used software) as well as the growth of regulations in both the US and Europe directing the use of better security to identify users online and to protect data integrity. In Europe, many forms of electronic data submitted for Government purposes (such as tax or records retention) must be digitally signed."

Languages spoken by the QuoVadis team include English, French, German, and Italian. The Trust/Link service delivery software (the primary point of interaction with most customers) can support multiple languages.

QuoVadis was formed in Bermuda in 1999, with initial backing from a unit of Zurich Financial Services Group, to provide information security services to the insurance and finance sectors associated with the Island.