Burlington, MA March 18, 2002 NTRU, a provider of cryptography solutions for radio frequency identification (RFID) devices, has released what the company is touting as the first practical public key security solution designed for securing RFID and contactless applications of all types.
NTRU said its GenuID solution operates hundreds of times faster than legacy systems while requiring only a fraction of the footprint, which will allow RFID and contactless application vendors and developers to add top-of-the-line security to their solutions without compromising cost or performance.
Deepak Shetty, RFID industry analyst at Frost and Sullivan, said that while RFID and contactless technologies already have been proven in many industries, the lack of affordable, efficient and powerful security has remained a barrier to widespread adoption. "Products like NTRU's GenuID will open up new markets and opportunities for RF and contactless application developers, suppliers and RF device users," Shetty said.
The size and speed advantages of GenuID's public key security allow it to operate under the very constrained size and power consumption requirements demanded by RFID and contactless devices, NTRU said.
Bruce Del Porte, RFID marketing manager at semiconductor supplier Atmel, said that GenuID would create a host of new opportunities for his company. "NTRU's GenuID cryptosystem enables manufacturers and developers to create RFID products that are high-performing, cost-effective and secure," he said.
"NTRU GenuID eliminates the traditional trade-offs between security, cost and performance," said Scott Crenshaw, NTRU CEO. "NTRU GenuID allows strong security to be implemented in the smallest RFID devices, even tokens or tags that cost as little as $0.50. This opens up markets for RFID and contactless applications, bringing the technology to high-value and sensitive transactions that were previously impossible to secure."
NTRU GenuID products are available immediately.
For a look at how Ford Motor Co. is using real-time RFID systems to track vehicles at its truck facility in Wayne, Mich., see "Needle in a Supply Chain Haystack," the Net Best Thing column in the January 2002 issue of iSource Business (http://www.isourceonline.com/article.asp?article_id=2155).
