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Swiss Consortium Chooses RPK Fast Public Key Cryptosystem forNext Generation Wireless Electronic Transactions
--- begin forwarded text
From: Jack Oswald <[email protected]>
To: "'[email protected]'" <[email protected]>,
"'[email protected]'"
<[email protected]>
Subject: Swiss Consortium Chooses RPK Fast Public Key Cryptosystem for Next
Generation Wireless Electronic Transactions
Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 18:41:20 -0700
MIME-Version: 1.0
Also see recent press coverage in Infoworld:
RPK announces deal for fast crypto with Swiss consortium
http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?97059.wrpk.htm
SET 2.0 on the way
http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayArchive.pl?/97/16/t04-16.1.htm
PRESS RELEASE
For Release May 19, 1997
RPK, Inc.: Jack Oswald, +1 408.479.7874, [email protected],
http://www.rpk.co.nz
ADESA, Inc.: Maurice Jaccard,+41 22.910.29.14, [email protected]
Swiss Consortium Chooses RPK Fast Public Key Cryptosystem for Next
Generation Wireless Electronic Transactions
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) and ADESA, Inc. introduce HAWK
VLSI cryptography-enhanced processor
San Francisco, CA - RPK, Inc. announced today that a consortium of the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) and ADESA, Inc., a Swiss
application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design firm have chosen the
RPK Fast Public Key Cryptosystem to provide strong cryptographic security
in a next generation wireless electronic transactions application. At the
same time, EPFL and ADESA unveiled HAWK a new generation
cryptography-enhanced microprocessor specifically designed for use in high
speed/low power embedded applications.
"The RPK encryption technology won the design review after an extensive
evaluation of all existing cryptosystems based on well known and understood
cryptographic techniques," said Maurice Jaccard, Managing Director of
ADESA, Inc. "With RPK there are no compromises. We get uncompromised
security, high speed and low cost of implementation."
"RPK is a strong encryption technology based on well know and trusted
cryptographic techniques," said Jack Oswald, President and CEO of RPK Inc.
"Having RPK chosen by the Swiss for this breakthrough electronic-commerce
application is the strongest endorsement we could possibly achieve for the
RPK technology."
Wireless Electronic Transactions Application
The collaboration of RPK, EPFL and ADESA has resulted in a prototype
application that promises to become the "wallet of the future". This new
wireless electronic transaction application may take the form of a credit
card, a watch or a key chain and will sport features analogous to the
leather wallets used today by billions of people worldwide. Early designs
of the system allow the user to withdraw and hold cash in multiple
currencies, as well as, purchase and hold vouchers for hotels, planes and
car rentals all through the use of wireless communications technology.
Officials in charge of the project envision that such devices could also
become a personal key chain for gaining access to motor vehicles, offices
and dwellings, in addition to traditional credit card uses.
ADESA concluded that performance of the RPK implementation in the prototype
far exceeded existing smart card implementations based on the RSA and other
algorithms. The RPK technology performs the necessary encryption functions
in less than 10 milliseconds using an 823-bit key compared to the best
performing RSA-based equivalents that require greater than 100 milliseconds
to perform the same type of function using a much weaker 512-bit key. The
application is not limited to 823-bit keys. The design of the system,
based on the new HAWK processor is flexible and can accommodate and process
various sized keys, smaller or larger than 823 bits based on downloadable
parameters. ADESA officials explained that the simplicity of the RPK
algorithm makes it much simpler to implement than the popular RSA approach.
It was RPK's simplicity, offering a much faster and cheaper solution while
providing even higher security, that drove the choice over RSA for this
application.
About the RPK Fast Public Key Cryptosystem
RPK is a relatively new public key cryptosystem that is based on
mathematics widely used in cryptography today. It was designed to be
immediately commercially viable without the years of study that a new area
of mathematics normally requires, such as the Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem
(ECC). The source of the security for RPK is the same as that of
Diffie-Hellman key exchange, a widely used and well studied cryptographic
technique. RPK offers real advantages for high speed networking, SmartCard,
wireless communication applications as well as high volume software
processes such as credit card transactions.
RPK has at its core an invention called a Mixture Generator. In the
preferred implementation, three fairly long linear feedback shift registers
are used. This state machine has two modes of operation. One that uses
the shift registers for exponentiation and the other as a generator of a
random stream of bits used in a combining phase for the actual encryption.
Effectively, RPK allows for the amortization of two "costly"
exponentiations over the entire length of a message because the core engine
is used to initially establish a secure state of the machine and then
switches modes to perform very high speed encryption. This has been
referred to as a paradigm shift where the operation of encryption does not
require the costly calculations that an RSA or even an ECC implementation
would require for each block of data that is about the size of the key.
This mechanism can also be implemented in silicon quite efficiently such
that at high strength it is much cheaper to produce than alternative
technologies. Finally, it is also possible to create a Mixture Generator
that is made up of Elliptic Curve groups which would provide a similarly
speedy and efficient initialization mode that could still produce high
speed encryption as noted above.
About the HAWK VLSI Crypto Processor
The HAWK VLSI cryptography-enhanced processor is the result of more than
three years of research and development conducted at the EPFL in Lausanne,
Switzerland in the area of high speed compression and encryption. The HAWK
processor will benefit most cryptography implementations but is
particularly well suited for use with RPK.
"The HAWK processor is the most innovative approach that we have seen yet
for implementing cryptographic processes in silicon," said Bill Raike,
Chief Technology Officer for RPK Inc. and inventor of the RPK fast public
key cryptosystem. "HAWK breaks the barrier for high speed, low cost, low
power and high strength encryption for embedded systems."
Background
RPK, Inc. is a supplier of next generation fast public key encryption
technology. RPK was invented and originally patented in New Zealand. The
company is therefore unaffected by restrictive U.S. export rules. RPK has
been successfully exported to virtually all countries of the world at high
strength. The company's headquarters are based in San Francisco,
California, USA, with an offshore research and development center located
outside of Auckland, New Zealand. http://www.rpk.co.nz
ADESA, Inc. is a leading ASIC design firm based in Geneva, Switzerland with
expertise in embedded and cryptographic applications.
EPFL is a leading teaching and research technical institute in Lausanne,
Switzerland. The school is known for its work in advanced processor design.
***
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-----------------
Robert Hettinga ([email protected]), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
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