Large enterprises are opening their operations to customers and field employees--which means that, sometimes, sensitive account data and other documents need to be shared over the Web. When companies put this information in PDF format, SSL certificate provider GeoTrust gets a boost in its business more often than not, because of a partner deal with Adobe to provide a certified signing solution via Acrobat.

The Adobe deal, among other factors, has propelled GeoTrust to the number-one worldwide provider of SSL certificates, according to an October 2004 Netcraft Secure Server Survey that shows GeoTrust on about half of the world’s Web sites using SSL certificates, which total about 320,000.

"GeoTrust continues to see unprecedented growth for its SSL and client certificates in all of our markets," says Neal Creighton, co-founder and CEO of GeoTrust. "The Netcraft survey shows that, for the first time, we have surpassed all SSL providers worldwide."