[ Thanks to BHZ
for this link. ]
“Secure e-business pioneer Cylink Corporation today announced
that its SAFER+ encryption algorithm is being used for user
authentication within Bluetooth, a protocol that is rapidly growing
in use for wireless communications.”
“More than 1,700 companies support the Bluetooth protocol. With
Bluetooth-enabled devices, a wireless personal area network (PAN)
for mobile commerce can easily be created using peripheral devices,
notebooks or handheld computers, smart telephones, and even vending
machines. The SAFER+ algorithm is one section of the Bluetooth
protocol. The algorithm enables one user to send a test message to
a recipient for encryption and compare the returned encrypted
message with his own encryption of the test message. A perfect
match verifies the recipient’s authenticity.”
“‘The strength of Bluetooth-enabled products is that they
automatically sync up with all other Bluetooth devices within 10
yards to provide on-the-fly networking and communications,’ said
Paul Mason, group vice president of Infrastructure Software
Research for IDC. ‘However, this makes all data on the products —
including the most sensitive information — freely available to
other Bluetooth users. The SAFER+ algorithm provides the
authentication critical to keeping this information secure.'”
“The announcement coincides with the expiration of the patent
covering the algorithm popularly known as RSA. That patent
expiration is expected to bring benefits similar to those the
security industry saw when Cylink released its SAFER algorithm into
the public domain in 1993.”