Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Certicom for Its Product Innovation in the Field of Elliptic Curve Cryptography

Business Wire, Sept 10, 2007

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Frost & Sullivan has presented Ontario, Canada-based Certicom, Corp. with the 2007 Product Innovation Award in the field of elliptic curve cryptography (ECC).

The award particularly recognizes Certicom's exemplary efforts in advancing next-generation cryptographic technology, as evidenced by its development of the Certicom Suite B Hardware Security Power Bundle[TM].

A key element of the Suite B hardware power bundle is the Certicom Suite B IP Cores, a drop-in ready solution for field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), which enable rapid hardware implementation with minimal non-recurrent engineering costs and high performance.

The Certicom Configurable Suite B IP Cores also enable application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) to achieve the highest level of performance while meeting precise cryptographic specifications.

IP Cores deliver the same level of performance as RSA with significantly smaller key sizes that ensure performance improvements that can exceed 200%. With the dramatic improvement in efficiency, developers can reduce the number of gates required and lower the cost associated with on-chip security by 50%. Furthermore, the Suite B Hardware Security Power Bundle implements ECC-based algorithms for digital signature and key exchange, in addition to secure hash algorithm for hashing and advanced encryption standard for encryption.

This is particularly significant as government, enterprise, mobility, sensors, radio frequency identification (RFID), and content protection markets are increasingly opting for ECC as a public key cryptosystem solution that delivers the most security per bit as compared to a system that implements other public key algorithms - without any drain in performance.

Frost & Sullivan also recognizes Certicom's Security for Silicon Design Protection solution, which combines a production control core with Certicom's Key Inject product to securely add Suite B-based keys to applications, protect silicon IP, and provide metering and reporting functionality.

"Also worth mentioning is Certicom's intellectual property strength, as the company holds more than 400 patents either issued or pending, in the ECC area," said Vedavalli Rangan, Industry Manager with Frost & Sullivan. "Certicom has been generating around 10-20 patents every year, cutting across various cryptographic protocols and systems, signatures and key exchanges."

With ECC as the base, Certicom has a strong focus on developing innovative security solutions, with a clear vision of what it wants to achieve in the ECC space.

The company's cryptography solutions continue to be a part of products in areas such as government and military communications, mobile communications, RFID and sensor solutions, consumer electronics, content protection, and enterprise software.

"In short, Certicom is helping end users across the world offer industry best practices when it comes to secured and certified systems," notes Rangan.

Each year Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in new products and technologies within its industry. The recipient company has shown innovation by launching a broad line of emerging products and technologies.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Certicom

Certicom protects the value of content, applications and devices with government-approved security. Adopted by the National Security Agency (NSA) for government communications, Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) provides the most security per bit of any known public-key scheme. As the global leader in ECC, Certicom security offerings are currently licensed to more than 300 customers including General Dynamics, Motorola, Oracle, Research In Motion and Unisys. Founded in 1985, Certicom's corporate offices are in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada with worldwide sales and marketing headquarters in Reston, Virginia and offices in the U.S., Canada, Europe and China. Visit www.certicom.com.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit www.awards.frost.com.