Certicom Corp. announced that it has licensed its Elliptic Curve Cryptography technology to IdentiPHI, a provider of enterprise advanced authentication, single sign-on and endpoint management for Suite B compliance.
IdentiPHI will incorporate Certicom's ECC algorithms into a new line of enterprise security products designed for the authentication marketplace.
Suite B is the set of cryptographic algorithms recommended by the National Security Agency (NSA) to secure government communications. The private sector also is beginning to implement Suite B algorithms in a range of products and services.
By adding this level of security into its Enterprise Security Suite of Advanced Authentication products for biometric and smart card devices, IdentiPHI meets the NSA's Suite B Cryptography recommendations. Furthermore, through this licensing agreement, IdentiPHI customers in the authentication market will benefit from Certicom's advanced ECC technology to secure their applications today and for decades to come.
"The authentication market is highly competitive and Certicom's ECC technology allows us to build new products with biometric and smart card capabilities that meet the strict security demands of government agencies as well as businesses around the world," said Mark Norwalk, Chief Technology Officer, IdentiPHI. "Certicom's ECC technology ensures that our customers will have the most efficient and secure implementation of ECC available."
ECC is used in a growing number of sectors ranging from networking, consumer electronics, wireless devices and semiconductors to government and financial services. In 2005, the NSA recommended ECC as the public-key crypto-system to protect classified and unclassified government communications. Known as Suite B, these recommendations are part of an initiative to upgrade the security infrastructure of government communications to meet present and future security needs.
"The need for advanced cryptographic security among government agencies and businesses is driving the demand for Certicom's NSA-approved ECC technology," said Bernard W. Crotty, president and CEO of Certicom. "Organizations today have increasingly stringent security requirements and embedding our ECC security into IdentiPHI's portfolio of enterprise security products will give the highest level of cryptography available to customers that IdentiPHI serves."
