NetManage & Cylink Crypto

[nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)]

NetManage & Cylink In Internet Encryption Deal


Guildford, Surrey, England, Oct 5 -- NetManage, a TCP/IP
specialist company, has signed a licensing deal with
Cylink Corporation. NetManage says the Cylink public key
cryptography technology will be incorporated in future
editions of NetManage's Internet applications software.

The move is significant since it marks the beginnings of
a competitor to the Netscape "secure" Web browsing
software, which has had two security flaws identified in
recent weeks.

Initially, NetManage's Chameleon Enterprise TCP/IP
applications suite will incorporate the Cylink public key
encryption technology, and later will include encryption
facilities in Internet Chameleon, a UKP139 PC-Windows
access suite designed for dial-up access to the Internet.

Both NetManage and Cylink plan to support an open
interface for Internet security which addresses the flaws
found in Netscape. The idea is to establish an open set
of standards to which Internet access packages of all
types will adhere to, and so ensure that companies
developing Internet software do not "re-invent the wheel"
when writing their software, and possibly open their
applications up to flaws.

According to NetManage, establishing a secure Internet
connection requires an Internet application to perform
two functions: authenticating the user, and encrypting
the data flow.

The link with Cylink will allow NetManage to license and
include the Cylink public key encryption technology in
its applications with a variety of ciphering systems to
be used in the NetManage suite, including: DES, Triple
DES, Safer, IDEA, Skipjack, RC-2, and RC-4.

NetManage claims the current implementations of security
proposed as standards by Netscape and RSA Data Security
are flawed, and fail to fully accommodate "open and
interoperable secure communications" between computers
which use different bulk encryption ciphers.

These problems, the company claims, have limited the
adoption of Internet security as a widespread
interoperable feature of all Internet software and
hardware products, including end-user applications,
servers, firewalls, and secure routers.

Later this month, NetManage and Cylink plan to announce
a next-generation "plug and play" Internet encryption
system. The implementation will be open and will not lock
software or hardware developers into the use of
encryption technology from any one vendor, as is the case
with Netscape, say the companies.

The related APIs, key exchange technology, and
encryption, will be made publicly available to other
software and hardware vendors. Licensing will include
source code and no per-copy royalty fees.

Further information can be downloaded from NetManage's
World Wide Web site at <http://www.netmanage.com>.

Contact: NetManage Europe, +44-1483-302333;
NetManage US, 408-973-7171.