Certicom Brings Advanced Security to Daintree’s ZigBee Smart Energy Products
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario – (August 11, 2008) – Certicom Corp. (TSX: CIC) today announced that Daintree Networks, a leading provider of design verification and operational support tools for wireless embedded networks, has licensed Certicom’s Security Builder® MCE™ and Security Builder® Crypto™ products in order to bring to market secure, low cost and low bandwidth ZigBee Smart Energy networking products.
Under terms of the licensing agreement, Daintree will forge Certicom’s Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) security into its Sensor Network Analyzer (SNA) to provide the industry's most comprehensive and secure solution for testing, analysis and commissioning of IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee systems. Daintree’s standards-based analyzer incorporates the latest ZigBee specifications to help ensure compliance and interoperability of wireless smart metering devices and networks.
“Our relationship with Daintree further validates the importance of driving certified interoperability in the wireless smart metering market and the role that ZigBee Smart Energy plays in it,” said Jim Alfred, director of product management for Certicom. “In the coming months, we will see more utility providers around the world embracing smart metering as they seek more efficient or ‘greener’ energy management schemes. Certicom is working closely with ZigBee Alliance partners like Daintree to ensure the robustness and security of smart metering networks.”
Certicom’s Security Builder MCE toolkit provides the cryptographic algorithms and security protocols for ZigBee devices, allowing devices to authenticate with the network and ensure that sensitive data and commands are properly secured. The Security Builder MCE toolkit is optimized for small code size and resource-constrained environments.
Daintree’s SNA solution has been used to certify 17 ZigBee Smart Energy products so far. These products enable a broad range of services designed to help utility companies worldwide implement systems for managing energy and helping consumers improve their own energy efficiency.
“Daintree is excited to be at the center of the ZigBee Alliance Smart Energy certification process. Utility companies need to ensure that their multi-vendor environments interoperate smoothly and securely,” said Zachary Smith, Daintree’s Chief Technology Officer and the Technical Editor of the ZigBee Smart Energy Test Specification. “Combining our testing expertise with Certicom’s advanced security solutions is an awesome win for utility companies and device manufacturers worldwide.”
Smart metering devices based on ZigBee – the standard for IEEE 802.15.4 wireless devices enabling low-cost, low-bandwidth, mass-market networks – is regulated by the ZigBee Alliance. Alliance members – including Certicom and Daintree – helped to develop the ZigBee Smart Energy public profile to outline the requirements of wireless smart metering devices.
ZigBee: Wireless Control that Simply Works
The ZigBee Alliance is currently more than 260 Alliance Members strong and has a presence in 28 countries spanning six continents. ZigBee is the only standards-based technology designed to address the unique needs of low-cost, low-power, wireless sensor networks for energy management and efficiency, home and commercial building automation, plus embedded network applications in the industrial and consumer markets. Companies who want to have input on developing the ZigBee specification and create ZigBee products can join the Alliance by visiting www.zigbee.org/en/join. The ZigBee specification is available for free download from the ZigBee website.
About Daintree Networks, Inc.
Based in Fremont, California, Daintree Networks is a leading provider of analysis tools and operational platforms for wireless embedded networks. In a rapidly evolving industry, accelerated development and deployment cycles and reliable and scalable management solutions are key to market success. Daintree's professional tools help OEMs, system integrators and installers of wireless embedded networks get their products to market quickly and reliably. As an active member of the ZigBee Alliance, the company is playing a vital role in bringing the first wave of interoperable standards-based sensing and control products to market. For more information, please visit www.daintree.net.
About Certicom
Certicom manages and protects the value of content, applications and devices with government-approved security. Adopted by the National Security Agency (NSA) for government communications, Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) provides the most security per bit of any known public-key scheme. As the global leader in ECC, Certicom’s security offerings are currently licensed to hundreds of multinational technology companies, including IBM, General Dynamics, Motorola, Oracle and Research In Motion. Founded in 1985, Certicom’s corporate offices are in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada with worldwide sales and marketing headquarters in Reston, Virginia and offices in Europe and Asia. Visit www.certicom.com.
Certicom Safe Harbor Statement
Except for historical information contained herein, this news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information includes information concerning Certicom's future financial performance, business strategy, plans, goals and objectives. When used in such documents, the words "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "will", "believes" or variations of such words and phrases often, but not always, identify forward looking statements. Factors which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things: the ability of Certicom to successfully implement its strategic initiatives and whether such strategic initiatives will yield the expected benefits; the ability of Certicom to develop, promote and protect its proprietary technology security breaches or defects in Certicom's products; competitive conditions in the businesses in which Certicom participates; changes in consumer spending; the outcome of legal proceedings as they arise; general economic conditions and normal business uncertainty; consolidation in Certicom's industry and by its customers; customer preferences towards product offerings; the risk that customers may cancel their contracts with Certicom; reliance on a limited number of customers; demand for ECC-based technology; performance of Certicom's management team and Certicom's ability to attract and retain skilled employees; operating Certicom's business profitably; fluctuations in revenue and foreign currency exchange rates; interest rate fluctuations and other changes in borrowing costs; the ability to develop and maintain strategic relationships; and other factors identified under the heading "Risk Factors" in Certicom's annual information form dated July 21, 2008 and filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
For further information, please contact:
John Conrad
Merritt Group, Inc.
703-390-1538
conrad@merrittgrp.com