Reston, Virginia - October 14, 2002 - Today, the Internet Society (ISOC) announced that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has selected its proposal to operate the .ORG registry. ISOC has established a new not-for-profit organization -- the Public Interest Registry (PIR) -- which will succeed VeriSign Global Registry Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) as the registry operator for .ORG when its contract with ICANN expires on December 31, 2002.