Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site utcsri.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsri!outer From: outer@utcsri.UUCP (Richard Outerbridge) Newsgroups: sci.crypt Subject: New PubKey System Coming Message-ID: <3859@utcsri.UUCP> Date: Thu, 1-Jan-87 17:35:47 EST Article-I.D.: utcsri.3859 Posted: Thu Jan 1 17:35:47 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 1-Jan-87 20:35:39 EST Distribution: net Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto Lines: 47 From the Report On Business section of the >Globe and Mail<, Thursday, January 1, 1987, page B5: Coding chip devised in Waterloo by David Helwig Special to The Globe and Mail Three professors from the University of Waterloo are preparing to market a microchip that ensures the privacy of digitized information. Gordon Agnew of the university's department of electrical engineering, and mathematicians Ron Mullin and Scot Vanstone, have joined with graduate student Ivan Onyzschuk to form Cryptech Inc. of Waterloo, Ontario. The company's device, known as a public key cryptosystem, has been produced in prototype form and should be ready for marketing by this summer, Mr. Vanstone said. The patented system is designed to secure computer data banks, electronic mail and digital telephone communications. It is simpler and many times faster than rival public key systems expected to become available soon, the company said. Conventional cryptographic systems use an electronic "key" to lock messages so that they can only be read by people who have a matching key. Public key systems have two keys - one for encrypting the message and another for decrypting it. The encrypting key can be made public by publishing it in a directory, but the decryption key is kept on a microchip possessed only by the owner. It is virtually impossible for an outsider to break the decrypting key, which consists of a binary string of more than 1,000 characters, Mr. Vanstone said. "It would take more than a billion years, working with the fastest computers available, to break just one key," he said. Banks could use the technology to ensure the authenticity of messages. It can produce digital "signatures" that cannot be forged and could be used for electronic processing of contracts and financial transactions, the company said. Microchips containing the Cryptech system will be made by Calmos Systems Inc. of Ottawa. Cryptech is being established with assistance from Robert Nally, the University of Waterloo's commercial development officer. The university will get royalties on sales of the chips. --- 30 --- -- Richard Outerbridge(416) 961-4757 Payload Deliveries: N 43 39'36", W 79 23'42", Elev. 106.47m.