For two days in November, cryptography experts, industry leaders and members of the developer community gathered in the elegance of Toronto’s Four Seasons hotel to discuss the science and the business of elliptic curve cryptography (ECC).

Taking a look back over the 20-year history of the discipline and casting a speculative eye forward to the future, the event’s distinguished panel of speakers—comprising the very pioneers of public-key cryptography and ECC—captivated guests with a combination of technical insight and personal reflection on how their discoveries came about. Inspiring listeners with their evident passion for cryptography and the mathematics at its heart, they made a clear case for the advantages of ECC, both for today and over the long term.

The audience of industry professionals, academics and analysts from the United States, Canada and several European and Asian countries, represented a wide range of specializations and industry sectors—proof positive that interest in ECC is widespread and growing.

A Meeting of Minds

One of the primary goals of the conference was simply to bring these people together—to provide a meeting place for the cryptography community where new relationships could form and ideas be exchanged. Many attendees expressed their excitement at the chance to network in such a concentrated way.

Another aim of the conference was to assemble a truly remarkable roster of speakers—individuals with extensive knowledge of ECC and cryptography—giving attendees an opportunity to speak one-on-one with leaders of the industry. Audience members were highly impressed by the caliber of the presentations and the facility with which they could mingle with these luminaries. In this regard, the event was an overwhelming success.

Recognizing Cryptography Leadership

Highlights of the ECC Conference included the recognition of the contributions of several leaders to the field of cryptography. Drs. Neal Koblitz and Victor Miller received the 20 Years of ECC award for their pioneering work in developing elliptic curve cryptography, and Dr. Walt Davis received the ECC Visionary Award.

The Full Spectrum

Variety was a key consideration in designing the conference, in order to lay the foundation for a full understanding of ECC and its capabilities. To that end, speakers’ subjects covered a vast range of topics, from the origins and early days of ECC through to practical implementations of elliptic curve cryptography today and its potential for the future.

RIM speakers David Yach and Herb Little talked about the inclusion of ECC in their company’s highly successful products; Dr. Matt Campagna, standing in for Dr. Leon Pintsov, described how Pitney Bowes is using ECC-based digital signatures to secure the postage applied by postage meters; and Norm Kern explained how Unisys is employing ECC to facilitate check-clearing in the financial services sector.

Dr. Darrel Hankerson examined some of the challenges associated with—and approaches to—implementing cryptography on high-performance hardware; Dr. Robert Lambert looked specifically at embedding the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA) on an ARM processor.

John Stasak of the U.S. National Security Agency offered insight into the rationale behind his organization’s choice of ECC for data protection and walked through the terms of the license by which the NSA acquired use of ECC.

The speakers and their subjects

Dr. Alfred Menezes ( University of Waterloo), The First 29 Years of Public-key Cryptography

Dr. Darrel Hankerson ( Auburn University), Implementing Issues on Modern (Higher-performance) Hardware

Dr. Robert Lambert (Certicom), Embedding ECDSA

David Yach (Research in Motion), Keynote Address

Dr. Scott Vanstone (Certicom), ECC Past, Present and Future

Dr. Neal Koblitz ( University of Washington), The History and Prehistory of ECC

Dr. Victor Miller (Institute for Defense Analyses – Center for Communication Research), The Invention of Elliptic Curve Cryptography

Dr. Ralph Merkle ( Georgia Tech Information Security Center), Public-key Cryptography – The Early Years

Dr. Leon Pintsov (Pitney Bowes Fellow and VP International Standards and Advanced Technology), Elliptic Curve Cryptography in Postal Applications

Herb Little (Research in Motion), The Use of Public-key Cryptography in BlackBerry

John Stasak (National Security Agency), NSA’s Elliptic Curve Licensing Agreement

Norm Kern (Unisys), Securing Check 21 Image Exchange

Dr. Jerry Krasner (Embedded Market Forecasters), The Key Differentiator for Embedded Developers and Vendors

Dr. Walt Davis (Consultant), Musings on the Past and Future of Wireless Security