Board Establishes Office of the President, Names Senior VP of Operations to Lead Team that Includes Senior VP Sales & Business Development and CFO 

HAYWARD, Calif., October 16, 2001 - Certicom Corporation, (Nasdaq: CERT; TSE: CIC) a leading provider of mobile e-business security, today announced that its Board of Directors has accepted the resignation of Richard P. Dalmazzi, former president and CEO. The Board appointed Robert L. Williams (Senior Vice President, Operations) to lead the Office of the President, which also includes Prakash Panjwani (Senior Vice President, Sales & Business Development) and Gregory M. Capitolo (Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer). The Board further indicated that they intended to commence an executive search for a permanent CEO for the Company. 

"We are very grateful to Rick for his years of service to the Company," said Bernard Crotty, Chairman of Certicom's Board of Directors. "During his tenure, Rick established Certicom as the undisputed leader in wireless security. He also helped us through a very difficult transition to a subscription business model, which continues to track to the targets we communicated at the end of last quarter. Additionally, he helped put the company on the path to profitability by next October. We thank Rick and wish him all the best in the future," Mr. Crotty continued. 

Under the new management structure, the Office of the President will report directly to the Board of Directors. Mr. Williams will lead the new executive team, and continue as head of Operations (including research and development), working from the Company's Mississauga, Ontario development headquarters. Mr. Panjwani and Mr. Capitolo will add executive responsibilities to their on-going roles, while continuing to lead the sales/business development and financial operations (respectively) from their offices in Hayward, California. 

"The need for security in wireless communications has never been greater, and Certicom is the best-positioned vendor to lead this market," noted Robert Williams, Office of the President. "We will continue to innovate our industry-leading technology, products, and services. We are committed to focusing on our successful core offerings. I look forward to working closely with Prakash and Greg to achieve profitability by next October, and to pursue those opportunities that might benefit the long-term interests of our shareholders," Williams concluded. 

Conference Call
Certicom will host a brief conference call to discuss these changes and introduce the new management team. All parties are invited to listen to the call. 

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 200 customers including Cisco Systems, Inc., Handspring Inc., Motorola, Inc., Nortel Networks, Openwave Systems, Inc., Palm, Inc., QUALCOMM, Inc., Research In Motion Ltd., Sony International (Europe) GmbH and Verizon Communications Inc. 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 is a trademark 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, 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 principal 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 fourth 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. 

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