Inside Contactless and Cryptography Research Sign Agreement to License DPA Patents

Security Strategy for Contactless Semiconductor Products

(18.08.09) - Inside Contactless S.A. (Inside) and Cryptography Research, Inc. (CRI) announced an agreement regarding the use of CRI's patents covering countermeasures to differential power analysis (DPA) and related attacks for Inside's "MicroPass" and other secure semiconductor products.

Under the agreement, Inside may use CRI's patents as part of the security strategy for its contactless semiconductor products which are used around the world in a variety of form factors - including contactless cards, key fobs, mobile payment bridge products, and NFC secure elements for mobile phones - for use in applications such as contactless payment, loyalty, identification, transit and access control. To date, Inside has delivered more than 100M MicroPass chips containing operating system and application software for major brands in the financial services industry. The license also covers third-party software executing on Inside's MicroPass chip products, allowing Inside's customers to develop their own DPA countermeasures without the need for a separate license from CRI.

DPA is a form of attack that involves monitoring the fluctuating electrical power consumption of a target device and then using advanced statistical methods to derive cryptographic keys and other secrets. Strong countermeasures to DPA help protect tamper-resistant chips used in applications such as banking, pay television, mass transit, secure ID, and wireless telecommunications.

Cryptography Research has been awarded a portfolio of approximately 50 patents covering countermeasures to DPA attacks. (Cryptography Research: ra)