INTELLIGENT RECOGNITION SYSTEMS LICENSES CERTICOM SECURITY ARCHITECTURE FOR GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS

Elliptic Curve Cryptography to secure data for Special Forces and U.S. Army Rangers

Mississauga, Ontario (July 20, 2005) – When Intelligent Recognition Systems, Inc landed a prestigious U.S. government contract that required a high level of security they turned to Certicom® Corp. (TSX: CIC), the authority for strong, efficient cryptography. Certicom announced today that Intelligent Recognition Systems, who is building prototype communications technology for the Special Forces and U.S. Army Rangers, will use the Certicom Security Architecture™ to generate certificates, encrypt data and provide elliptic curve cryptography (ECC)-based authentication.

"The system we're developing includes handheld devices that communicate with remote centers, which could be located anywhere in the world. So not only does the security have to be strong, it has to be small and fast," said Joyce Brykman, president, Intelligent Recognition Systems. "We chose Certicom for the team's security knowledge and expertise in ECC. And by using ECC for authentication, we're supporting NSA Type I (classified) certification."

ECC is used in a growing number of government communication applications because of its strength and efficiency and also because it is included in an increasing number of standards and protocols. Under the National Security Agency's (NSA) cryptographic modernization strategy, the U.S. government has recommended ECC as the exclusive key agreement and digital signature standard to protect sensitive but unclassified information. In 2003, the NSA named ECC as the public-key technology to protect mission critical information.

The characteristics of ECC make it ideal for securing communication today and in the future. It is considerably more efficient than legacy public-key schemes and its strength and size allow it to scale more efficiently, allowing it to remain a strong cryptography algorithm for many decades.

"The approach Intelligent Recognition Systems takes is highly beneficial to its clients. The team rounds out its expertise with best-in-class technologies, like the Certicom Security Architecture. By working with Certicom, Intelligent Recognition Systems can offer its clients a cost-effective, proven and standards-based system that meets specific government requirements," said Ian McKinnon, president and CEO at Certicom. "We expect to see more government suppliers adopt this approach and turn to Certicom as the security provider of choice."

Intelligent Recognition Systems licensed Security Builder® Crypto™, a software-based cryptographic provider that is part of the Certicom Security Architecture. The Certicom Security Architecture is a comprehensive, modular and portable solution designed to allow developers to quickly and cost-effectively embed security into applications, and across multiple families and generations of devices. A common application programming interface (API) unifies Certicom's modules to create a plug-and-play security architecture.

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 U.S. 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 Unisys. 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.

For further information, please contact:

Investors and Analysts Media  
Hervé Séguin Brendan Ziolo  
Chief Financial Officer Director of Marketing  
(905) 501-3827 (613) 254-9267  
hseguin@certicom.com bziolo@certicom.com
Certicom, Certicom Security Architecture, Certicom CodeSign, Security Builder, Security Builder BSP, Security Builder API, Security Builder Crypto, Security Builder IPSec, Security Builder SSL, Security Builder PKI, Security Builder NSE and Security Builder GSE 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 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.