Cryptography Research Granted Patents for Safer Smart Cards

The company developed the technology to help cryptographic device manufacturers, systems integrators, and smart card issuers develop secure, DPA-resistant implementations for use in financial, pay television, mass transit, secure identification and wireless industries. Differential Power Analysis involves measuring the electrical power consumption of smart cards and other cryptographic devices. Statistical methods are then used to extract cryptographic keys and other secrets. Vulnerable devices are at risk for compromises including fraud, cloning, impersonation, counterfeiting, and piracy. Although DPA attacks typically require technical skill to implement, they can be repeated with a few thousand dollars of standard equipment, and can often break a device in a few minutes. DPA and related attacks were originally discovered at Cryptography Research in the 1990s. The Cryptography Research DPA patents broadly cover countermeasures to DPA attacks, and include: -- U.S. Patent #6,654,884: Hardware-level mitigation and DPA countermeasures for cryptographic devices; -- U.S. Patent #6,539,092: Leak-resistant cryptographic indexed key update; -- U.S. Patent #6,510,518: Balanced cryptographic computational method and apparatus for leak minimization in smartcards and other cryptosystems; -- U.S. Patent #6,381,699: Leak-resistant cryptographic method and apparatus; -- U.S. Patent #6,327,661: Using unpredictable information to minimize leakage from smartcards and other cryptosystems; -- U.S. Patent #6,304,658: Leak-resistant cryptographic method and apparatus; -- U.S. Patent #6,298,442: Secure modular exponentiation with leak minimization for smartcards and other cryptosystems; and -- U.S. Patent #6,278,783: DES and other cryptographic, processes with leak minimization for smartcards and other cryptosystems. Other Cryptography Research patents are issued and pending in the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada and other countries.