RSA CONFERENCE, SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 11, 2001 - Certicom (Nasdaq: CERT; TSE: CIC), a leading provider of mobile e-business security, today announced that its founder and chief cryptographer has won the RSA 2001 Security Award in Mathematics.

The award recipient is Dr. Scott Vanstone, founder and chief cryptographer at Certicom. Dr. Vanstone is best known for his pioneering work in security analysis, efficient implementation of elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), and the subsequent standardization and commercialization of the technology. In addition to cryptography, he has made significant contributions to many areas of mathematics including authoring over 150 books and research papers on combinatorial design, finite geometries, finite fields and algorithmic number theory. He is the co-author of "Handbook of Applied Cryptography", the industry-wide standard reference book on cryptography.

During his career, Dr. Vanstone has also been a professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Waterloo and St. Jerome's University. He currently serves as the NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) / Pitney Bowes senior research chair in cryptography at the University of Waterloo. In 1998, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Vanstone serves as chief cryptographer for Certicom, a provider of wireless security solutions. From its roots as an ECC technology supplier for leading computing and communications companies, Certicom has quickly grown to be the industry's leading supplier of end to end security solutions.

Dr. Vanstone was presented the award by Jim Bidzos, vice chairman of the board, RSA Security, Inc., at a ceremony which took place during the RSA 2001 conference in San Francisco, California. The award recognizes innovation and ongoing contributions by pioneers in the field of cryptography.

"I am very honored to be the recipient of this prestigious award," said Dr. Scott Vanstone, founder and chief cryptographer of Certicom. "With technology moving at such a rapid pace, each day brings about new possibilities and allows mathematics to play an integral part in the emerging new world."

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 ePocrates, Inc., Motorola, Inc., NeoPoint, Inc., Nortel Networks, Openwave Systems, Palm, Inc., Pixo, 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 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 (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.


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