Certicom recognized for Elliptic Curve Cryptography-based products and intellectual property

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario –(June 23, 2004)– Certicom Corp. (TSX: CIC), the authority for strong, efficient cryptography, today announced that it has won the 2004 Award for Excellence in Technology from Frost & Sullivan, an international market analysis and consulting firm. Certicom is being recognized for its work with Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC).

Certicom is a pioneer in researching and developing ECC, a strong and computationally efficient form of public key cryptography. In 1997, Certicom developed the industry’s first toolkit to include ECC, which has since been adopted by the world’s leading device manufacturers, software vendors and government organizations, including, among others, Motorola, Research in Motion and Unisys. Certicom also has an extensive portfolio of ECC-based patents and pending patents. Last year, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) licensed Certicom’s ECC-based intellectual property to protect mission-critical government communications

To choose a winner, analysts conduct extensive primary and secondary research. They then create a shortlist based on a company’s overall technical excellence, its commitment towards innovation and its contribution to the marketplace through its technology.

“Certicom, with its proven solutions for today’s security needs, was the clear winner. And, it is a notable achievement that the NSA had turned to Certicom and its ECC-based intellectual property,” said Michael Valenti, research analyst, Frost & Sullivan. “The NSA, who had been researching ECC for many years, chose ECC for its strength and Certicom for its expertise and proven implementations. The NSA’s choice of public key technology could represent a major step towards worldwide adoption of ECC technology.”

The underlying mathematics of ECC is more sophisticated than that of competing public-key schemes. This means users can get the desired security level with significantly smaller keys – at least 10 times smaller than traditional public-key schemes. This feature is particularly important for handheld computers, digital consumer electronics, and other devices where resources such as network bandwidth, memory, power, and local storage are constrained. Manufacturers do not have the luxury of adding more computing resources for inefficient security where profit margins are already slim. Certicom's security technology has particular relevance for both financial and government scenarios, where long-term, strong security is required.

“This award validates ECC as the next generation public key cryptography, and is available today. Our customers have known this for some time and we are very pleased that Frost and Sullivan has formally recognized it,” said Ian McKinnon, Certicom’s president and CEO. “As information becomes more valuable and devices smaller, Certicom and its efficient ECC implementations will continue to be regarded as the cryptographic provider of choice”

About Frost & Sullivan
Founded in 1961, Frost & Sullivan is recognized as a global leader in growth consulting. Frost & Sullivan Awards are presented to companies that demonstrate excellence in their industry, commending the diligence, commitment, and innovative business strategies required to advance in the global marketplace. Frost & Sullivan rigorously analyzes specific criteria to determine award recipients in a vast variety of market industries and landscapes. For further information, visit www.frost.com.

About Certicom
Certicom Corp. (TSX:CIC) is the authority for strong, efficient cryptography required by software vendors and device manufacturers to embed security in their products. Adopted by the US Government’s National Security Agency (NSA), Certicom technologies for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) provide the most security per bit of any known public key scheme, making it ideal for constrained environments. Certicom products and services are currently licensed to more than 300 customers including Motorola, Oracle, Research In Motion, Terayon, Texas Instruments and XM Radio. Founded in 1985, Certicom is headquartered in Mississauga, ON, Canada, with offices in Ottawa, ON; Reston, VA; San Mateo, CA; and London, England. Visit www.certicom.com.

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Certicom, Security Builder, Security Builder Crypto, Security Builder SSL, Security Builder PKI, Security Builder GSE, movianVPN, movianCrypt and movianMail are trademarks or registered trademarks of Certicom Corp. MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered trademarks in the US Patent & Trademark Office. Java and all other Java-based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. The Bluetooth trademarks are owned by their proprietor and used by Motorola, Inc. under license. All other companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Forward-Looking Statements
Except for historical information contained herein, this news 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 Canadian securities regulatory authorities.

The shares of the company described above have been offered only to qualified institutional buyers in reliance on Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and outside the United States pursuant to Regulation S of the Securities Act. The shares have not been registered under the Securities Act and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to a U.S. Person absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offering would be unlawful.

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