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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, DC 20549
FORM 6-K
REPORT OF FOREIGN PRIVATE ISSUER
PURSUANT TO RULE 13A-16 OR 15D-16 OF
THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the month of June 5, 2000
CERTICOM CORP.
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(Translation of Registrant's Name Into English)
5520 Explorer Drive, Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5L1 Canada
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(Address of Principal Executive Offices)
(Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual
reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F.)
Form 20-F Form 40-F X
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(Indicate by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the
information contained in this form is also thereby furnishing the information to
the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of
1934.)
Yes No X
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(If "Yes" is marked, indicate below the file number assigned to the
registrant in connection with Rule 12g3-2(b): .)
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SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
CERTICOM CORP.
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(Registrant)
Date: June 5, 2000 By: /s/ Richard D. Brounstein
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(Signature)
[Insert name and title of
signing officer]
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[LOGO CANADA NEWSWIRE]
Give your message. We'll give you the world.
News release via Canada NewsWire, Toronto 416-863-9350
[CERTICOM LOGO]
ATTENTION BUSINESS/TECHNOLOGY EDITORS:
CERTICOM ANNOUNCES FASTEST, MOST FLEXIBLE VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK SECURITY
CLIENT FOR MOBILE AND WIRELESS DEVICES
First Handheld VPN Client to Secure Mobile Access to a Wide Range of
Installed Corporate Intranets Improving Productivity and Functionality for
Mobile Workers
HAYWARD, CA, June 5 /CNW/ - Certicom (Nasdaq: CERT and TSE: CIC), a leading
provider of mobile e-business security, today announced the Certicom VPN
handheld client, a virtual private network (VPN) solution specifically built for
today's mobile and wireless devices. Certicom's new offering will be the first
handheld-device VPN client to interoperate with a wide range of popular VPN
systems, allowing organizations to easily and securely incorporate popular
mobile and wireless devices into sensitive corporate VPNs. Certicom's VPN client
provides major productivity improvements and strategic flexibility to today's
enterprise while expanding Certicom's wide range of mobile security products
designed specifically to meet the bandwidth and footprint constraints of today's
increasingly mobile professional work forces.
"As a leading provider of intelligent broadband VPN solutions, Cisco views
the convergence of VPNs and mobile devices as a critical issue for the
industry," said Richard Palmer, vice president and general manager of VPN and
security solutions at Cisco Systems, Inc. "Just as VPNs extended the classic
WAN, mobile devices will extend VPNs to give remote users secure and reliable
access to the corporate network from almost any location. Certicom's work in
this area will be important as it provides solutions for today's mobile and
wireless devices while ensuring interoperability with Cisco powered networks."
A VPN uses the Internet as the transport backbone to establish secure links
with an increasingly mobile workforce while extending communications to regional
and isolated offices. Serving as an express lane on the information
superhighway, VPNs are specially designed, secured connections between several
points. Communications still travel along the Internet but are encrypted for
security. While VPNs have been popular for several years, until today, there has
been no VPN client for mobile devices compatible with existing VPN installations
in the marketplace.
"We've realized tremendous success delivering secure managed VPN
connections to the wired workforce through our Contivity line of products," said
Scott McFeely, VP & GM of Nortel Networks' Contivity Products. "With Certicom's
client we will be able to implement secure, low-cost VPN connections for
wireless handheld devices. This capability is critical to enterprises seeking
flexible, yet secure, communication to their increasingly far-flung mobile and
wireless workers. We are pleased to be working with Certicom to extend the range
of our Contivity solution to address both wired and wireless users."
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Certicom is targeting interoperability with VPN products from Alcatel,
AXENT Technologies Inc., Check Point, Cisco, Enterasys Networks (formerly
Cabletron), Intel Corp., Nortel Networks and Spring Tide Networks to allow
secure VPN communications for workers on the go. Other interoperability targets
will follow based on market demand. This will allow network administrators to
easily and cost-effectively extend their corporate intranets to their mobile
professional workforce worldwide. In addition, service providers offering VPN
services will be able to extend their offerings to IP- enabled handheld devices.
"Securing the wireless Internet is a key component of our Secure Virtual
Network architecture," said Asheem Chandna, vice-president of business
development and product management for Check Point Software Technologies. "We
are pleased to interoperate with Certicom's VPN client to provide customers with
choice for wireless Internet access."
As predicted by various industry analysts, the rapid growth in deployment
of wireless devices is transforming the way people communicate and conduct
business. According to IDC, 55.7 million Internet appliances will ship in 2002,
with wireless applications representing nearly 1/3 of that number. In addition,
the Boston-based Yankee Group estimates there will be more than 1 billion
Web-enabled mobile devices by 2003, generating as much as 63 percent of
transactions on the Web. As the corporate workforce goes mobile, and increasing
numbers of mobile devices capable of supporting Internet Protocol (IP) and
enterprise applications get deployed, there is a need for the two environments
to converge.
"Virtual Private Networks have contributed significantly to extending
corporate resources into the remote nooks and crannies of numerous
organizations. The next wave of information extension will ride on non-PC mobile
devices that require high levels of security for both user convenience and
integration into the existing VPN infrastructure," said Abner Germanow, Research
Manager of Internet Security at IDC. "Every single corporate device that
maintains even a cursory Internet connection requires a way to deliver high
value information in a secure fashion."
Certicom's initiative addresses the concerns of network administrators who
have restricted the use of handhelds for enterprise remote access because of
security reasons. Certicom's new product delivers a VPN client for the handheld
device that enables secure transmission of corporate mission-critical data to
the mobile user whose company has installed a VPN, unleashing the potential for
large-scale use of mobile devices such as Palm(TM) handhelds to access corporate
intranets.
"As companies adapt their line of business applications for mobility,
security becomes a primary concern," said Chuck Yort, vice president of business
and government at Palm, Inc. "Certicom's handheld VPN client combined with the
Palm OS(R) platform provides an excellent solution for mobile professionals that
want to secure critical corporate data and applications through VPN
connectivity."
"The explosion of mobile applications including email, web surfing, SFA and
ERP and the acceptance of handheld computing devices contribute to the need for
higher bandwidth wireless solutions. QUALCOMM Incorporated High Data Rate (HDR)
technology is a high speed, high capacity and cost effective wireless access
solution which will enable wireless intranet and Internet access," said Jeff
Jacobs, Sr. Vice President of Business Development, QUALCOMM . "As the premiere
provider of mobile and wireless security, Certicom is well-positioned to be at
the forefront of this emerging market need to enable wireless devices to connect
to corporate intranets over HDR."
The Certicom VPN client will be available in the last half of the year
2000, and will support IPSec, the dominant industry standard for secure virtual
private networking. Future versions will be compatible with Certicom's
Trustpoint PKI products and the MobileTrust CA service, as well as smart card
technology, providing the strongest mutual authentication available in the
industry. Certicom's VPN client supports a wide range of encryption algorithms,
enabling interoperability with the current legacy base of enterprise VPN
products, and includes Certicom's elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) for the new
generation of mobility-focused VPN's. ECC is accepted as the standard for mobile
communications due to its ability to minimize power and
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bandwidth requirements to address today's demand for compact, full strength
security for wireless communications. The first computing platform supported
will be the Palm OS version 3.5, with WinCE and EPOC support soon to follow.
"Security is a critical element of mobile application access, and
Certicom's VPN client combined with Aether Software's ScoutWare products will
make mobile application security strong, easy and transparent," said Larry
Roshfeld, senior vice president of products, Aether Software (formerly Riverbed
Technologies). "We are delighted to be working with Certicom and believe that
this signifies a major breakthrough for users of handhelds and wireless
devices."
"Certicom was the logical company to be the first to support VPNs
in mobile devices and this new initiative is Certicom's latest step toward being
the industry's 'one-stop shop' for mobile and wireless security," said Rick
Dalmazzi, president and CEO of Certicom. "Advanced mobile VPN security from
Certicom complements and extends our current security product line to enable the
widespread availability of corporate data to the mobile workforce, especially
through our commitment to partnering with leading communications and computing
companies."
About Certicom
Certicom is an encryption technology company specializing in security
solutions for mobile computing and wireless data markets, including m-commerce.
Major computing and communications companies such as Palm Inc., BellSouth
Wireless Data, Motorola, Pitney Bowes, and QUALCOMM incorporate Certicom's
technology into electronic commerce software, wireless messaging applications,
and smart cards. Certicom is a leading source for a complete range of OEM
security products and services, including cryptographic toolkits, custom
implementations, and security integration services and consulting. Certicom's
worldwide sales and marketing operations are based in Hayward, California, with
cryptographic research and product development in Toronto, Canada. For more
information, visit Certicom's Web site at http://www.certicom.com.
Certicom is a registered trademark of Certicom Corp. All other companies
and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective holders.
Except for historical information contained herein, this press release
contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual
results may differ materially. Factors that might cause a difference include,
but are not limited to, those relating to the acceptance of mobile and wireless
devices and the continued growth of e-commerce and m-commerce (mobile
e-commerce), the increase of the demand for mutual authentication in m-commerce
transactions, the acceptance of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) technology as
an industry standard, the market acceptance of our principle products and sales
of our customer's products, the impact of competitive products and technologies,
the possibility of our products infringing patents and other intellectual
property of third parties, and costs of product development. Certicom will not
update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after
the date hereof. More detailed information about potential factors that could
affect Certicom's financial results is included in the documents Certicom files
from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian
securities regulatory authorities including Certicom's Registration Statement on
Form F-10.
For further information: please contact: Lorraine Kauffman, Public
Relations, Certicom Corp., (510) 780-5417, lkauffman@certicom.com; Jessica
Johannes, Lutchansky Communications for Certicom, (408) 938-9050, x 15,
jessical@lcomm.com; Investor contact: Lillian Armstrong/Kris Otridge
Lippert/Heilshorn & Associates, (415) 433-3777