http://www.newswire.ca/releases/October2003/24/c4428.html
Canada NewsWire
CERTICOM CORP.
Quotes and Charts
CIC. (TSX)
Attention Business Editors:
Certicom Sells Licensing Rights to NSA
MISSISSAUGA, ON, Oct. 24 /CNW/ - Certicom Corp. (TSX: CIC), a leading
provider of wireless security solutions, today announced that the National
Security Agency (NSA) in Maryland has purchased extensive licensing rights to
Certicom's MQV-based Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) intellectual property.
ECC is becoming a crucial technology for protecting national security
information.
This agreement will give the NSA a nonexclusive, worldwide license with
the right to grant sublicenses of MQV-based ECC covered by many of Certicom's
US patents and applications and corresponding foreign rights in a limited
field of use. The field of use is restricted to implementations of ECC that
are over GF(p), where p is a prime greater than 2(256). Outside the field of
use, Certicom will retain all rights to the technology for other industries
that require the same levels of security, including state and local government
agencies. Certicom will continue its policy of making its intellectual
property available to implementers of ECC under normal commercial terms on a
non discriminatory basis.
Researchers have been studying ECC for almost 20 years as the next
generation of public-key technology. ECC is a computationally efficient form
of cryptography that offers equivalent security to other competing
technologies but with much smaller key sizes. This results in faster
computations, lower power consumption, as well as memory and bandwidth
savings.
"Certicom is a pioneer in researching and developing ECC," says Scott
Vanstone, founder and executive vice-president, strategic technology at
Certicom. "Over 15 years ago, Certicom was founded to research and develop the
strongest security possible. This makes us ideally positioned to provide
manufacturers, that build government communications equipment and
applications, with the tools they need to deliver ECC-based security solutions
to the government market. Certicom is committed to work with the commercial
sector in making our intellectual property and technology available to the
security industry at large."
In 1997, Certicom developed the industry's first toolkit to include ECC
which has since been adopted by over 300 organizations. Security Builder
Crypto, a cross-platform cryptographic toolkit, includes standards-based ECC
implementations that are optimized for size and performance on over 30
platforms.
"Certicom is committed to providing technology that meets the U.S.
Government's highest standards to secure and protect its most sensitive
information," said Ian McKinnon, president and CEO of Certicom. "With NSA's
decision to purchase a license from Certicom for MQV-based ECC, Certicom is
well-positioned to drive the adoption of our technologies and intellectual
property in new markets that need strong security. This contract, valued at
US$25 million, has been facilitated through the CCC (Canadian Commercial
Corporation), Canada's export contracting agency."
Companies and Government Departments or Agencies wishing to develop
security products implementing ECC to protect national security related
systems and/or information or other mission critical information related to
national security under this licensing agreement should submit the details of
their requirements to the Director, National Security Agency (Attn: IA
Directorate, V1). NSA will employ established development programs (e.g. NSA
sponsored developments, the Commercial COMSEC Endorsement Program (CCEP), or
User Partnership Programs) to develop and certify ECC for these requirements.
About Certicom
Certicom is a leading provider of wireless security solutions, enabling
developers, governments and enterprises to add strong security to their
devices, networks and applications. Designed for constrained devices,
Certicom's patented technologies are unsurpassed in delivering the strongest
cryptography with the smallest impact on performance and usability. Certicom
products are currently licensed to more than 300 customers including Texas
Instruments, Palm, Research In Motion, Cisco Systems, Oracle and Motorola.
Founded in 1985, Certicom is headquartered in Mississauga, ON, Canada, with
offices in Ottawa, ON; Herndon, VA; San Mateo, CA; and London, England. Visit
www.certicom.com.
About CCC
CCC (Canadian Commercial Corporation) is a Crown Corporation mandated to
facilitate international trade, particularly in government markets. CCC's
approach is based on 'three Cs': credibility, confidence, contracts. CCC
builds confidence in Canadian exports by giving them the credibility of a
government-backed performance guarantee that opens doors and leads to
contracts with improved terms. Normally CCC acts as a Prime Contractor,
signing a contract with the foreign buyer and a matching contract with the
exporter. CCC also assists exporters to increase their pre-shipment working
capital from commercial sources, and offers a range of procurement, pre-
contract, contract advisory and post-contract services on a fee for service
basis. Visit www.ccc.ca.
Certicom, Security Builder, Security Builder Crypto, Security Builder
SSL, Security Builder PKI, Security Builder GSE, movianVPN, movianCrypt and
movianMail are trademarks or registered trademarks of Certicom Corp. 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.
%SEDAR: 00003865E
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For further information: Tim Cox, ZingPR, (650) 369-7784,
tim@zingpr.com; Brendan Ziolo, Certicom Corp., (613) 254-9267,
bziolo@certicom.com
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R. A. Hettinga