May 14, 2001 08:56 AM
Companies to Provide Industry with PKI Solutions for Physical and Virtual E-Commerce Card-based Payment Systems
CardTech SecurTech, LAS VEGAS, Nevada, May 14, 2001 – Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT; TSE: 6501), and Certicom, (Nasdaq: CERT; TSE: CIC), a leading provider of mobile e-business security, today announced that Hitachi America has selected Certicom as its strategic public key infrastructure (PKI) and security solution partner. The alliance will provide the industry with PKI services and solutions for e-commerce that provide superior user authentication and security to enable safe and secure transactions.
The Certicom alliance is a key example of Hitachi’s strategy to equip its customers with industry leading, secure e-commerce services. As part of the agreement, Certicom will be a preferred supplier of end-to-end security solutions to Hitachi’s customers. Certicom’s cutting edge solutions, including Trustpoint™ PKI products and MobileTrust™ services, extend standard Internet PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) security to mobile devices such as smart cards, mobile phones and handheld computers.
In making the announcement, Sosei Katsumoto, project leader for Hitachi America’s “Commerce Card” Platform said, “We are pleased to have Certicom as a strategic partner in our effort to further develop smart-card solutions for industry and commerce. This partnership gives us the ability to provide a full solution for today’s increasingly security-conscious e-commerce environment.”
Commenting on Hitachi’s technology, Robert Helena, vice president of smart cards for Hitachi America said, “The key enabler of the Hitachi solution is a state-of-the-art, interactive smart card application platform. The Hitachi ‘Commerce Card’ can be used in both the physical and virtual worlds and combines payment, loyalty, and authentication ID/PKI applications. Certicom’s solutions give us the ability to develop ’Fit for Purpose’ security applications. The ’Commerce Card‘ will provide the link between the applications and multiple devices including traditional point-of-sale devices, personal computers, digital set-top boxes, PDAs, and cellular phones.”
As part of the initiative, Hitachi will work with Certicom to ECC-enable its Multos Smart Card Platform. ECC (elliptic curve cryptography), the industry's smallest, fastest, and most efficient security algorithm, is used by leading OEMs such as Motorola, Sony, Palm and RIM to provide advanced security. ECC dramatically reduces the processing power and memory requirements needed to ensure that security operations are executed on a smart card or mobile device in real-time.
"Hitachi’s Commerce Card Platform strategy enables applications in payments, healthcare, finance and set top boxes that will be key in driving the large scale adoption of PKI and smart cards,” said Rick Dalmazzi, president and CEO of Certicom. "Working with Hitachi, a world leader in the electronics industry, provides Certicom a great opportunity to bring our industry leading end-to-end security solutions to applications around the world.”
"Hitachi’s Commerce Card Platform strategy enables applications in payments, healthcare, finance and set top boxes that will be key in driving the large scale adoption of PKI and smart cards,” said Rick Dalmazzi, president and CEO of Certicom. "Working with Hitachi, a world leader in the electronics industry, provides Certicom a great opportunity to bring our industry leading end-to-end security solutions to applications around the world.”
Certicom is a leading provider of information security software and services that address the need for end-to-end security solutions. Certicom's robust suite of products and services include WTLS Plus™ for WAP implementations, Security Builder® cryptographic toolkit, Trustpoint™ PKI products, MobileTrust™ managed certificate service and the movianVPN™ handheld client.
About Hitachi
Hitachi America, Ltd. markets and manufactures a broad range of electronics, computer systems and products, consumer electronics and semiconductors, and provides industrial equipment and services throughout North America. For more information on Hitachi America, visit http://www.hitachi.us/.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2000 (ended March 31, 2001) consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen ($67.9 billion*). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi’s Web site at http://hitachi.com.
* At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar.
About Certicom
Certicom is a leading provider of information security software and services, specializing in solutions for mobile e-business. The company’s products and services are specifically designed to address the challenges imposed by a wireless data environment. Certicom’s solutions incorporate its efficient encryption technology and are based on industry standards for information security that utilize public key cryptography. Certicom’s products are currently licensed to more than 150 customers including Cisco Systems, Inc., Motorola, Inc., Nortel Networks, Openwave Systems, Inc., Palm, Inc., QUALCOMM, Inc., Research In Motion Ltd. and Sony International (Europe) GmbH. Certicom’s headquarters and worldwide sales and marketing operations are based in the Silicon Valley in Hayward. For more information, visit Certicom’s Web site at http://www.certicom.com/.
Certicom, MobileTrust, Security Builder, Trustpoint and WTLS Plus are trademarks or registered trademarks of Certicom Corp. All other companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Except for historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Factors that might cause a difference include, but are not limited to, those relating to the acceptance of mobile and wireless devices and the continued growth of e-commerce and m-commerce (mobile e-commerce), the increase of the demand for mutual authentication in m-commerce transactions, the acceptance of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) technology as an industry standard, the market acceptance of our principle products and sales of our customer’s products, the impact of competitive products and technologies, the possibility of our products infringing patents and other intellectual property of third parties, and costs of product development. Certicom will not update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. More detailed information about potential factors that could affect Certicom’s financial results is included in the documents Certicom files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulatory authorities including Certicom’s current Annual Report on Form 10-K.