Texas Instruments To License Certicom Technology For E-Passports

Texas Instruments will use Certicom's Elliptic Curve Cryptography technology to enhance security on new government-issued electronic identification.

Certicom announced an agreement with Texas Instruments Tuesday to use ECC embedded technology for E-passports and other ID documents. Texas Instruments will license Certicom's advanced low-power ECC/RSA hardware acceleration IP core and cryptographic software for its RF360 smart integrated circuit platform.

The company said the agreement will help position TI as a leader in secure chip technology for the government and build upon an alliance with TI for standards-based RFID authentication and encryption.

Julie England, VP of Texas Instruments, said that coupling her company's FRAM memory and MSP430 processor core with Certicom's ECC technology will increase speed and security for processing government-issued ID cards.

The move also is expected to help meet the National Institute of Standards and Technology key management requirements for Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards, as well as international E-passport requirements.

With more than 20 Suite B-related patents, Certicom also is the primary source of algorithms that the NSA's Cryptographic Modernization Program established to protect sensitive and classified data.

"Cryptographic algorithms are changing," Certicom CTO Bill Lattin said. He explained that as the NIST requires companies to stop using RSA-1024 for PIV key management after 2008, Texas Instruments will offer an e-ID platform with 256-bit ECC that it says is as strong as RSA with 3,072 bits.

"As the market for contactless technologies such as E-passports continues on a path of rapid growth, Certicom is completely committed to ensuring that the cryptographic security of these devices can be made robust well into the foreseeable future," he said.