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GCN Home > 04/15/03 web stories

NSA develops advanced security technology

By William Jackson, GCN Staff

SAN FRANCISCO—The National Security Agency has awarded a contract to Certicom Corp. for advanced R&D into securing classified data.

The Ontario company announced the project at the RSA 2003 Security Conference. The contract was awarded through the Canadian Commercial Corp., Canada’s export contracting agency.

Through the pilot, NSA wants to develop tools for securing classified networks without compromising network speed or performance. Certicom is the first company to receive a contract under the program. NSA told the company it wants technology that can secure both hardware and software on wired and wireless networks.

The Canadian Communications Security Establishment, Canada's equivalent of NSA, is also expected to make use of the technology in its Cryptographic Modernization Project.

Although initial customers are expected to be the U.S. and Canadian governments, the research could be included in commercial toolkits that suppliers would integrate into communications equipment.



More news on related topics: Acquisition / Contracts, Homeland Security, Procurement, IT Security



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