ATALLA INKS AGREEMENT WITH RSA DATA SECURITY INC. TO PROVIDE OPEN CRYPTO-API FOR NEW SET INTERNET PAYMENTS TOOLKIT Atalla's PayMaster Internet Security Processor (ISP) will provide enhanced SET performance and secure key management capabilities for new RSA toolkit-based applications SAN JOSE, CA -November 4, 1996- Atalla, a Tandem Company (r), today announced that it has signed an agreement with RSA Data Security Inc., to develop an open Application Programming Interface (API) that will become a key component of RSA's new SET payments toolkit. The suite of tools from RSA is being built to enable developers to deploy secure SET-capable applications quickly, with transparent access to the strongest commercial Internet security functionality. The new API developed by Atalla, will access the command set to Atalla's PayMaster Internet Security Processor (ISP) product to accelerate SET protocol performance and to manage cryptographic keys securely. The new SET Toolkit suite from RSA is designed to provide banks, cardholders, merchants and application providers with the ability to deploy secure SET- based applications without specialized cryptographic expertise. Atalla will be one of seven companies that will support the RSA SET toolkit. The other companies are Open Market Inc., NEC, Netscape, Tandem Computers Inc., Verifone and Verisign. The SET protocol specifies how cardholders, merchants, issuing banks and acquiring banks will interact to ensure secure payment processing over the Internet. SET relies on specially developed encryption technology from RSA Data Security Inc., and has been adopted by Visa and MasterCard to secure credit card transactions, authorization and settlement information over public networks such as the Internet. "The development of the SET protocol was an important milestone in securing commerce over the Internet." said Robert Gargus, president and general manager of Atalla. "We believe that the combination of new, RSA-based SET tools and the strong security functionality and high throughput provided by our Atalla PayMaster Internet Security Processor will now help transform public networks such as the Internet, into a secure, high- performance payments infrastructure that banks, merchants and cardholders will trust." "We consider integration with the Atalla PayMaster ISP a critical feature of the RSA SET developer's suite," said Jim Bidzos, president of RSA Data Security, Inc. "The Atalla PayMaster, in combination with RSA, will now allow for cost-effective, high- volume SET application servers through greatly improved performance for the underlying cryptography and strong physical protection for private keys. We believe this will overcome a major barrier to the adoption of secure electronic commerce on the Internet." Atalla's PayMaster ISP product was designed specifically to manage the cryptographic requirements specified by the SET protocol. The protocol requires multiple public key operations for each SET transaction. The Atalla PayMaster ISP product offloads these computationally-intensive tasks from server CPUs and isolates private information intended solely for merchants from private information intended solely for banks. This ensures that data cannot be altered at any point in the network, and accelerates the required SET -specified public-and-private key operations. Atalla's PayMaster ISP also provides RSA and DES-based cryptography to provide a high-performance bridge from the Internet to private networks such as the Bank Payments network. About Atalla (a Tandem Company) Atalla (a Tandem Company) brings nearly 25 years of experience securing commerce over private networks to the public networks and the Internet/Intranet arena. The company's products include industry-leading hardware-based security processors for the Internet, Intranet and the bank transfer networks, POS/POE (point-of-sale/point-of-entry) credit /debit payment terminals, customer authorization and PIN selection terminals, and secure enrollment products for banking, retailing and government applications. An estimated 70 percent of all ATM transactions in North America (estimated value: $1.4 trillion daily) are secured by Atalla's specialized security processor products. Atalla is headquartered at 2304 Zanker Road, San Jose CA 95131. Phone: (408) 435-8850. Fax (408) 435-1116. The company's website is located at www.atalla.com. Tandem, Atalla, PayMaster, and the Tandem logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Tandem Computers Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. G.C.G. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Geoffrey C. Grabow | Great people talk about ideas. | | Oyster Bay, New York | Average people talk about things. | | gcg@pb.net | Small people talk about people. | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | PGP 2.6.2 public key available at http://home.pb.net/~gcg | | and on a plethora of key servers around the world. | | Key ID = 0E818EC1 | | Fingerprint = A6 7B 67 D7 E9 96 37 7D E7 16 BD 5E F4 5A B2 E4 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | That which does not kill us, makes us stranger. - Trevor Goodchild | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~