NIST on PKI

[jya@pipeline.com (John Young)]

   Business Wire, 9 July 1996: 
 
   Note To Editors: For more information on the NIST 
   initiative, please refer to the NIST press release: "NIST, 
   Industry Partners to Develop Specifications for Public Key 
   Infrastructure," July 9, 1996. 
 
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   Certicom to Partner with NIST to Develop Specifications for 
   a Public Key Infrastructure; Certicom signs agreement with 
   NIST to contribute cryptographic expertise 
 
 
   Toronto -- Certicom Corp. a leading information security 
   company, today announced that it will participate in an 
   initiative by the U.S. Commerce Department's National 
   Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) which will 
   lead to the development of the elements of a public key 
   infrastructure (PKI).  
 
   A PKI will enable individuals and organizations who have 
   never met to electronically send and receive documents 
   which have been digitally signed. 
 
   NIST announced today that it is partnering with several 
   companies who bring specialized experience in providing 
   products or services related to PKI components. 
 
   "Certicom is excited about the establishment of this PKI 
   project. It represents a proactive initiative by the 
   Commerce Department to develop standards based on existing 
   technology and commercial and government requirements by 
   soliciting the active participation of key industry 
   players," said Skip Hirsh, Director of U.S. Government 
   Marketing for Certicom. 
 
   "The strong leadership position taken by NIST will 
   accelerate the deployment of practical public key 
   infrastructures essential for the secure exchange of 
   electronic data." 
 
   "Certicom will contribute significant cryptographic 
   experience to the partnership, particularly with the 
   Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem (ECC) which is the most 
   efficient public key technology available," commented Gary 
   Hughes, president and CEO of Certicom. "ECC is a critical, 
   enabling technology for this NIST project because of its 
   efficiency in the high volume applications that are common  
   in PKIs." ... 
 
   Other partners that NIST has signed cooperative research 
   and development agreements (CRADAs) with include: AT&T 
   Government Markets, BBN Corp., Cylink Corp., DynCorp 
   Information & Technology Inc., Information Resource 
   Engineering Inc., Motorola, Northern Telecom Ltd. (Nortel), 
   SPYRUS, Inc. and VeriSign, Inc. 
 
   The goal of the partnership is to develop a minimum 
   interoperability specification for the technical components 
   of a PKI. The results will be shared with participating 
   companies, the appropriate standards-making bodies, federal 
   government agencies and industry organizations that are 
   working on aspects of PKI development. 
 
   A public key infrastructure relies on public key 
   cryptography in which each user has a key pair consisting 
   of a public and private key. The public key must be 
   digitally signed by a central authority to ensure its 
   authenticity. Digital signatures are cryptographic 
   techniques which are used for data integrity, 
   authentication and nonrepudiation. 
 
   The process of digitally signing public keys is known as 
   certification and is the main purpose of a public key 
   infrastructure. 
  
   Certicom expects to demonstrate the benefits ECC provides 
   to large-scale PKIs in which numerous users are signing and 
   verifying documents. 
 
   Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems have the highest strength per 
   bit of any known public key system, minimizing the 
   requirement for large key sizes. Cryptographic processes 
   based on ECC provide efficient computation techniques which 
   reduce communications and computation time, thereby 
   substantially reducing costs. 
 
   Certicom is a developer of information security products 
   and technologies and is the leader in Elliptic Curve 
   Cryptosystems, the world's most efficient public key 
   technology. The company specializes in applications where 
   the combination of cryptographic strength and high 
   efficiency are critical. Certicom's primary markets are in 
   wireless, smart cards, banking and electronic commerce over 
   the Internet. 
  
   Visit Certicom's home page at www.certicom.ca.  
 
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