Prestigious Award Showcases Dr. Scott Vanstone’s Dedication to Development of Elliptic Curve Cryptography for Securing Communications

Mississauga, ON – May 14, 2009 - Dr. Scott A.Vanstone, Founder and Executive Vice President of Strategic Technology at Certicom Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Research In Motion Limited (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM), accepted the Catalyst Award for Lifetime Achievement in Innovation at the Premier's Innovation Awards ceremony on May 12 in Toronto.

The Premier’s Catalyst Awards help build a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in Ontario by recognizing excellence and leadership in innovation. There are five awards of $200,000 each for developing a commercially successful new, or significantly improved, product or service based on a breakthrough technology. Innovations must have the potential to impact Ontario's economy, society and sustainable development.

“Scott is certainly a deserving recipient of this award. His passion for security and innovation allowed him to turn his research at the University of Waterloo into a very successful company,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “Certicom’s technology is world-class and the company has a strong culture of innovation, which made them a perfect fit with the RIM team."

“As this year's winner of the Premier's Catalyst Award for Lifetime Achievement in Innovation, Dr. Vanstone and Certicom are helping build a culture of world-class innovation in Ontario,” said Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson. “We congratulate him on his strong track record of success at bringing innovations like Elliptic Curve Cryptography security technology to the global market.”

As the Executive Vice President of Strategic Technology for Certicom, he oversees all research, which has generated over 400 patents for the company. Dr. Vanstone devotes much of his research to the efficient implementation of ECC for the provision of information security services in handheld computers, smart cards, wireless devices, and integrated circuits. In addition to duties at Certicom, Dr. Vanstone is a Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at the St. Jerome’s University at the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Vanstone has published more than 250 research papers and a number of books on topics such as cryptography, coding theory, finite fields, finite geometry, and combinatorial designs. He is a co-author of the Handbook of Applied Cryptography and A Guide to Elliptic Curve Cryptography. Dr. Vanstone also holds the NSERC/Pitney Bowes Senior Chair of Cryptography at the University of Waterloo. In 1998, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Sciences. Dr. Vanstone has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Waterloo and in 2004 received the University’s prestigious award for Excellence in Research.

“Receiving the Premier’s Catalyst Award is a tremendous honour for me and Certicom, the company I co-founded in 1985,” said Dr. Vanstone. “For nearly 25 years, I have devoted my life to the creation and implementation of ECC to ensure better security of embedded systems. I am truly honoured to be recognized for this work in the field of cryptography.”

About Certicom
Certicom, a wholly owned subsidiary of Research In Motion Limited (RIM), 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 and Oracle. 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 contact:
John Conrad
Merritt Group
703-390-1538
Conrad@merrittgrp.com