2002

Contacts:

Mike Yaffe NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc. (781) 418-2525 myaffe@ntru.com

INSIDE Geraldine Sauniere +33 4-42-39-33-01 gsauniere@insidefr.com

Inside Contactless Announces Partnership with NTRU

The duo enables secure performances based on contactless technology

Aix-en-Provence, France, April 18th 2002 - Inside Contactless formerly known as Inside technology, the fastest growing company in contactless markets, and NTRU, the only provider of strong security that fits everywhere today announced an essential and highly secure technology that anticipates and reduces fraud, while assuring the integrity and validity of data. A demonstration of the offer will be displayed at the upcoming Card Tech Secure Tech show in New Orleans, booth 473 from April 23rd to 25th.

The demonstration will feature ID cards that hold digitally signed pictures and other personal information unique to cardholders. A Handspring™ Visor™ handheld computer, enhanced with Inside's contactless technology, will wirelessly extract the picture from the card in the Visor's Springboard™ expansion slot, and display the image on the handheld, thereby allowing instant validation of the cardholder's identity. NTRU security, which provides comprehensive access control and identification capabilities, ensures that the data has not been changed in any way. The combination of NTRU's sophisticated public key security with Inside's PicoPass 16 KS provides a powerful solution for a wide range of applications, including border control to authenticate vehicles and track border passage and for airport security with travellers' identity checks. The technology is convenient for users, inexpensive to manufacture and does not interfere with current network infrastructure.

In this offer, Inside provides PicoPass®, the first 16K bits contactless chip integrating the dual communication protocol, long range and proximity, and the Hand IT reader technology that will allow the application to run remotely and securely. NTRU provides the security technology that encrypts, decrypts and digitally signs the data. NTRU security brings a new level of trusted information exchange to applications by delivering high-speed, small footprint security that does not require a co-processor. NTRU security also enables authentication capabilities that ensure information such as a picture and a name in the demonstration described above, remains confidential and is not altered in any way. The Handspring Visor with the Hand IT Reader in the Springboard expansion slot provides the end user with a handheld portable device for easier usage.

"Our partnership with NTRU brings a new dimension to contactless cards. It will open up whole new markets where the identity and authentication of people and transactions are now becoming mandatory. The combination of NTRU's public key cryptography and our secure contactless chips allows to implant biometric recognition and to simplify considerably secure keys management. This means that people can benefit from the convenience of contactless operation and the assurance of high level authorization security," said Bruno Charrat, Product Marketing Manager at Inside Contactless.

"Equipped with strong security, smart card and contactless applications can make everyday electronic and wireless transactions safer and easier. The combination of NTRU's innovative security technology and Inside's leading contactless technology is perfectly suited to protect smart card, contactless and Handspring applications, which have demanding performance, size and power consumption requirements," said Jon Karlen, director of product management at NTRU. "We are pleased that the use of NTRU technology has opened new market opportunities for Inside."

"Incorporating NTRU's powerful security and Inside's high-performance technology brings our Visor line of expandable handhelds into exciting new vertical markets," said Rita Sharma, business development manager at Handspring. "The inclusion of strong, fast security that does not compromise the user experience will enable our customers to safely perform sensitive contactless transactions that were previously unthinkable."

PicoPass®, with its cryptographic security, multi-application structure and electronic purse capabilities, has been designed to bridge the gap between the more expensive microprocessor based chips and the lower storage capacity contactless memory chips. This contactless chip integrating the dual communication protocol, long range and proximity offers real multi-application support where each application runs independently from each other and is uniquely protected.

About Inside Contactless
Inside Contactless, leading pioneer in contactless technology is a semiconductor company fully concentrated on the development of contactless products and markets. The company is the leading supplier of contactless chips and readers, and offers various solutions for emerging markets like transport, access control, payment, identity, and electronic identification. Inside acts as a one stop shop for its customers by providing a complete contactless technological platform. Headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, Inside works with a worldwide customer base and sustains very high growth rate. For more information, visit the company's web site at http://www.insidefr.com.

About NTRU
NTRU is the only provider of strong security that fits everywhere. Based on the most fundamental innovation in cryptography in more than 20 years, NTRU eliminates historic price, performance and usability tradeoffs in security. NTRU delivers strong, fast security that operates with minimal power consumption and fits into a tiny footprint, making it easy for customers to build devices that people trust. NTRU security is gaining widespread adoption in the radio frequency identification (RFID), mobile communications, multimedia and embedded markets. Headquartered in Burlington, Mass., NTRU is backed by Texas Instruments, Sony Corporation, Macrovision, Lehman Brothers Venture Capital, Investor AB, Granite Ventures, Greylock, CTT and 3i. For more information, visit www.ntru.com.

###

Return To List Of Press Releases