Cryptographic Appliances Teams with IBM to Develop Linux Port for Secure Hardware
ROSEVILLE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–August 28, 2001–Cryptographic Appliances first demonstrated Linux running on the IBM 4758 secure cryptographic coprocessor in April at the RSA Conference 2001.
“Reaction to the 4758 was astounding,” said Chris Zimman, CTO of Cryptographic Appliances. The 4758, a FIPS 140 level 4 device, utilizes a host side driver developed with Cryptographic Appliances.
Cryptographic Appliances shared a common vision with IBM research in the belief that Linux is a useful operating system for secure coprocessor applications. “Both development teams agreed very early on that this was a good path to pursue,” continued Zimman.
The teams jointly developed the host side driver that runs under Linux. The new driver offers much higher performance and flexibility than the previous version. Cryptographic Appliances continues to build upon the project.
Cryptographic Appliances already has applications running inside the 4758, including a secure timestamp authority, an online certificate status protocol (OCSP) responder and a certificate management protocol (CMP) server. “Previously, anyone wanting to perform these processes could only use secure hardware for the basic crypto operations; this development moves the entire application into secure hardware,” said Cryptographic Appliances’ Chief Scientist, Peter Gutmann.
“We were pleased to be working with IBM on this project and hope that many will benefit from our research,” said Zimman. “IBM Research was a fantastic group to partner with in this project.”
About Cryptographic Appliances
Founded in late 2000, Cryptographic Appliances develops computer security products including cryptographic accelerators, trusted hardware, secure appliances and supporting applications. Its innovative products cater to organizations with such requirements as security-critical Certificate Authority / Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) needs, black-box appliances with verified security models and high-end clustering technologies for distributed cryptographic acceleration. Cryptographic Appliances, Inc. is headquartered in Roseville, Calif., and is a privately held corporation. For more information contact Cryptographic Appliances directly at 916/783-7400 or visit the company Web site at http://www.cryptoapps.com .
Note to Editors: Cryptographic Appliances is a registered trademark of Cryptographic Appliances, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.