11.   Merchants would use the server software to create data bases of goods, publish electronic catalogues, handle secure transactions and keep customer records.

12.   Netscape announces Secure Courier, the first software to create secure financial transactions.

13.   Netscape makes software that allows businesses and their customers to communicate and make secure financial transactions on a rapidly growing Internet service called the World Wide Web.

14.   On-line analyst Gary Arlen of Bethesda, Md., said competition had been put aside to assure secure transactions on the Internet.

15.   Prodigy says that public-key encryption will be employed to help ensure secure transactions.

16.   Secure monetary transactions are only now becoming possible on the Net, and standards are still in contention.

17.   So the main Opera site, www.operasoftware.com, has a link off to the secure transaction server, lexiconn.com.

18.   Spry, Microsoft and Netscape, he added, are also supporting different network security standards -- encryption technology being developed to allow secure financial transactions on the Internet.

19.   Such software could lift the Internet to a new level, letting businesses conduct secure transactions with trading partners, suppliers and corporate customers.

20.   The core of its strategy, Sidgmore said, is to help businesses use the Internet to market and sell products, offer services and perform secure financial transactions.