2002

Contacts:

Cheryl Delgreco (617) 723-4004 delgreco@prstartup.com

Victor Cruz (781) 455-0064 vcruz@mediaone.net

NTRU Granted U.S. Patent For Groundbreaking Wireless and Music Security System

NTRU Solution Protects Communications and Content for Mobile Commerce, Music Distribution and Cell Phones

Burlington, Mass. - July 24, 2000 -- NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc. (www.ntru.com) today announced it has received U.S. Patent No. 6,081,597 for a new public key cryptosystem that delivers security at speeds 100 times faster than previously possible. The NTRU solution requires only a tiny memory footprint, and enables "disposable keys" that open up new security paradigms previously unavailable in the security marketplace. NTRU markets software developer kits for use in building fast and secure applications for wireless data communications, commerce and content delivery to consumer devices such as mobile phones, pagers and media players. These tool kits also enable highly scalable security infrastructures to support the large numbers of users, devices and transactions required for consumer applications. "Wireless devices and media players need the highest levels of security to protect users and content owners from theft," said Scott Crenshaw, NTRU's chief executive officer. "Older security solutions are simply inadequate for today's world; they are too slow, too large, and too costly to implement in consumer devices. As a result, security compromises had to be made. NTRU solves that problem, enabling mobile and media devices with the highest levels of security and performance - all in a small footprint."

NTRU fills today's security gap in wireless applications, delivering high security on constrained devices. Older technologies were designed for resource rich computers, not inexpensive wireless devices, and are too inefficient and resource intensive to be used in a secure fashion for wireless applications.

NTRU enables true end-to-end security and, unlike older technology, with NTRU no intermediate gateway needs be privy to confidential information or authentication messages. NTRU also allows wireless devices to authenticate servers, as well as enabling servers to authenticate devices - a technique known as "mutual authentication."

Disposable Keys

Perhaps most importantly, NTRU enables a new security paradigm known as "disposable keys." This NTRU innovation allows each transaction to be encrypted using a unique transient key. By compromising that one key, a hacker gains access to the contents of perhaps hundreds or thousands of transactions. NTRU's super fast key generation eliminates this risk by enabling disposable keys. Each message or transaction is encrypted with its own unique key, increasing the cost and dramatically reducing the value of compromising a key. With disposable keys, an eavesdropper cannot resend an order to, or transfer money between bank accounts, since each authorization key is only used once. Disposable keys fundamentally change the economics of security for high value applications such as wireless data and digital media.

Older cryptography systems are forced to use the same key for many transactions, often retaining the key for months at a time (or even the lifetime of the wireless device). With older technology, key generation is a costly procedure requiring extensive management and processing resources.

Music and Video Security Applications

For music and video protection applications, NTRU delivers new security paradigms addressing the needs of copyright owners and consumers. Using NTRU's disposable keys, a three-minute digital music file can be encrypted using 180 unique keys - one key for each second of music. A thief would have to compromise 180 keys to steal the clip. NTRU's speed enables encryption on the fly, customized for each user and each player. This enables security architectures, which eliminate the risk of unauthorized music copying.

Disposable keys may be generated by inexpensive player devices and kept on those devices in tamper-resistant packaging. The encryption keys are sent to the server, but the decryption keys never leave the player -- ensuring that music can be decrypted only by that device.

Digital Media On Demand (www.dmod.com), a Boston-based provider of digital rights management technologies, has partnered with NTRU to develop a groundbreaking solution for securely distributing digital media over the Internet.

"NTRU has the most sophisticated encryption technology on the market,' said Curtis Roberts, president and CEO of DMOD. "Their ability to let us encrypt 'on the fly' and encrypt up to one key per second of a digital file, is exactly the level of security of our customers are demanding. Providing both high speed and high security solutions, NTRU is the perfect fit for us."

About NTRU

NTRU delivers the fastest, most secure public key cryptography solutions to secure communications and content for the next generation of Internet connectivity. Applications include securing wireless data communications, digital music and video distribution, mobile e-commerce and Internet applications. Developed by a team of Brown University mathematics professors, NTRU operates more than 100 times faster than competitive systems at equivalent security levels and is easily implemented even in low-cost hardware devices NTRU is pronounced "En' true."

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