Certicom Extends Security Platform, Enabling Developers to Address Government Market

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/12-06-2004/0002584252&EDATE=>

Certicom Extends Security Platform, Enabling Developers to Address
Government Market
                         
    Certicom Security Architecture for Government provides integrated suite
    of security toolkits that ensure critical FIPS 140-2 and ECC compliance

    MISSISSAUGA, ON, Dec. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Certicom Corp.
(TSX: CIC), the authority for strong, efficient cryptography, has extended
its Certicom Security Architecture(TM), enabling developers to embed a
FIPS 140-2-validated cryptographic module into their products and be
eligible for sale into the federal government market. The Certicom Security
Architecture also provides developers with an efficient way to enhance new
and existing applications with elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) and meet
the field-of-use guidelines set out by the National Security Agency (NSA)
to protect mission-critical national security information.
    The adoption of ECC within the U.S. federal government is proceeding
rapidly, and Certicom is taking a leadership role in enabling agencies and
government contractors to integrate the strongest security technology into
their products. The comprehensive Certicom Security Architecture provides a
bridge between legacy crypto systems and ECC, and gives developers the
flexibility to standardize code among different security environments and
platforms - maximizing code re-use and portability. This flexibility also
means developers will not need to redesign their solutions to meet future
government crypto requirements.
    "Hardware and software developers are increasingly realizing that
compliance with regulatory requirements for security is a pressing concern,"
said Dr. Jerry Krasner, vice president and chief analyst at Embedded Market
Forecasters (http://www.embeddedforecast.com ), the premier market
intelligence and
advisory firm in the embedded technology industry. "A cost-effective approach
is to use a tool that ensures compliance with FIPS 140-2 requirements and
eliminates the potentially costly step of third-party FIPS validation of a
device or application."
    Strong security is a key requirement across all networked applications
and devices. The Certicom Security Architecture allows developers who may have
little security expertise to add FIPS 140-2 validated security to their
solutions while avoiding the time and expense of the FIPS 140-2 validation
process. A common application programming interface (API) unifies Certicom's
proven developer toolkits to create a plug-and-play security architecture that
includes higher level protocol functionality that can operate in FIPS mode,
such as SSL and PKI.
    "Certicom Security Architecture for Government makes it easy for OEMs,
ISVs and integrators to sell products into the government sector that meet
strict government security requirements, including FIPS 140-2 and ECC," said
Roy Pereira, vice-president, marketing and product management at Certicom.
"The National Security Agency is committed to making elliptic curve
cryptography the most widely used public-key cryptosystem for securing U.S.
government information. Certicom is committed to providing the technology and
tools to make that possible."

    The Security Builder developer toolkits integrated into the Certicom
Security Architecture for Government include:
    -  Security Builder(R) GSE(TM), a FIPS 140-2-validated cryptographic
       toolkit;
    -  Security Builder(R) NSE(TM), a cryptographic toolkit for national
       security information;
    -  Security Builder(R) Crypto(TM), a cross-platform cryptographic
       toolkit;
    -  Security Builder(R) PKI(TM), a digital certificate management toolkit;
    -  Security Builder(R) SSL(TM), a complete Secure Sockets Layer toolkit;
       and
    -  Security Builder(R) IPSec(TM), a client-side virtual private network
       toolkit.

    Certicom Security Architecture for Government is available immediately,
except for Security Builder NSE which is available in Q1 2005. For more
information, visit http://www.certicom.com/gov .

    About Certicom
    Certicom Corp. (TSX:CIC) is the authority for strong, efficient
cryptography required by software vendors and device manufacturers to embed
security into their products. Adopted by the U.S. government's National
Security Agency (NSA), Certicom technologies for Elliptic Curve Cryptography
(ECC) provide the most security per bit of any known public-key scheme, making
it ideal for resource-constrained environments. Certicom products and services
are currently licensed to more than 300 customers including Motorola, Oracle,
Research In Motion, Terayon, Texas Instruments and Unisys. Founded in 1985,
Certicom is headquartered in Mississauga, ON, Canada, with offices in Ottawa,
ON; Reston, VA; San Mateo, CA; and London, England. Visit
http://www.certicom.com .

    Certicom, Certicom Security Architecture, Certicom CodeSign, Security
Builder, Security Builder Middleware, Security Builder API, Security Builder
Crypto, Security Builder SSL, Security Builder PKI, and Security Builder GSE
are trademarks or registered trademarks of Certicom Corp. Intel is registered
trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and
other countries. All other companies and products listed herein are trademarks
or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
    Except for historical information contained herein, this news release
contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties.
Actual results may differ materially. Factors that might cause a difference
include, but are not limited to, those relating to the acceptance of mobile
and wireless devices and the continued growth of e-commerce and m-commerce,
the increase of the demand for mutual authentication in m-commerce
transactions, the acceptance of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) technology
as an industry standard, the market acceptance of our principal products and
sales of our customer's products, the impact of competitive products and
technologies, the possibility of our products infringing patents and other
intellectual property of fourth parties, and costs of product development.
Certicom will not update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or
circumstances after the date hereof. More detailed information about potential
factors that could affect Certicom's financial results is included in the
documents Certicom files from time to time with the Canadian securities
regulatory authorities.


 SOURCE Certicom Corp.


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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