Stmicroelectronics And Gemplus Announce Smart Card Security Certification Including Hardware And Software - Company Business and Marketing

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, April 2, 2001

Gemplus, the world's leading smart card solutions provider, and STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a world leader in designing and manufacturing secure smart card microcontrollers, has announced the successful security certification of a smart card solution that combines Gemplus' embedded software and ST's ST19 hardware platform. The certificate was granted under the new ISO15408 standard, also known as the Common Criteria, to a level of EAL4 Augmented. The ST 19 platform and embedded Gemplus secure software will be used in smart cards for telecommunications and banking applications.

For some years, the smart card industry has recognized the pre-eminent importance of formal security evaluation and certification to internationally recognized criteria. ISO15408 security evaluations are performed by independent, accredited Evaluation Facilities licensed by an appropriate Certification Body. In France, where the ST/Gemplus security evaluation was performed, the Certification Body is the DCSSI (Direction Centrale de la Securite des Systemes d'Information), a government organization that reports to the National Defense General Secretary. The evaluation was performed by SERMA Technologies, based at Pessac, near Bordeaux, and the resulting certificate was awarded by DCSSI.

"We are proud of this common achievement with Gemplus, which illustrates the benefits of re-using existing platform certifications," said Maurizio Felici, Group Vice-President and General Manager of ST's smart card division. "Because the ST19 hardware, including its development environment, was already certified to ISO14508, the evaluation and certification process for the new product was faster and less expensive, which benefits both our immediate customers and their end users." The ST19 was the world's first smart card chip platform to gain ISO15408 certification, which was awarded in May 2000.

"Increasingly sophisticated security measures are required to protect businesses from technological attack," said Daniel Bois, Senior Vice-President Technology and R&D of Gemplus. "The certificate is a key achievement for us, since it will enable our customers to implement, on a world-wide basis, fully secure smart card based solutions for all types of electronic transactions."

The ST19 family of microcomputer-based smart card ICs employs state-of-the-art memory management techniques to allow the secure implementation of multiple applications on a single smart card. ST19 devices also have an outstanding resistance to the attack known as DPA (Differential Power Analysis), to which many other designs have proven vulnerable.

Since its creation in 1988, Gemplus International S.A.(Euronext: Sicovam 5768 and NASDAQ:GEMP) has driven the global marketing and deployment of smart card-based applications for telecommunications, financial services and e-business security.

Gemplus is instrumental throughout the value chain - chip design, card management systems, software development, and consulting - delivering integrated custom-made solutions for the security, personalization and privacy management needs of clients and partners worldwide.

Gemplus technology has played a defining role in the development of wireless telephony since the introduction of SIM cards into the GSM standard in 1990. For more than a decade, Gemplus has pioneered applications that enable network operators around the world to answer the changing needs of their customers. Gemplus was first to market with a 3G card and supplies a product range compliant with new and emerging transmission standards - 2.5G, 3G.

STMicroelectronics (formerly SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics) is a global independent semiconductor company, whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, on the ParisBourse and on the Milan Stock Exchange. The Company designs, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) and discrete devices used in a wide variety of microelectronic applications, including telecommunications systems, computer systems, consumer products, automotive products and industrial automation and control systems.