From: "Geoffrey C. Grabow" <gcg@pb.net>
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1996 21:50:15 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Press Release: Atalla Agreement with RSA
Message-ID: <3.0b36.32.19961104004902.006b6b10@mail.pb.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


ATALLA INKS AGREEMENT WITH RSA DATA SECURITY INC. TO
PROVIDE OPEN CRYPTO-API FOR NEW SET INTERNET PAYMENTS TOOLKIT

Atalla's PayMaster Internet Security Processor (ISP)
will provide enhanced SET performance and secure key
management capabilities for new RSA toolkit-based applications

SAN JOSE, CA -November 4, 1996- Atalla, a Tandem Company
(r), today announced that it has signed an agreement with RSA
Data Security Inc., to develop an open Application Programming
Interface (API) that will become a key component of RSA's new
SET payments toolkit. The suite of tools from RSA is being built
to enable developers to deploy secure SET-capable applications
quickly, with transparent access to the strongest commercial
Internet security functionality.

The new API developed by Atalla, will access the
command set to Atalla's PayMaster Internet Security Processor
(ISP) product to accelerate SET protocol performance and to
manage cryptographic keys securely. The new SET Toolkit suite
from RSA is designed to provide banks, cardholders, merchants
and application providers with the ability to deploy secure SET-
based applications without specialized cryptographic expertise.
Atalla will be one of seven companies that will support the RSA
SET toolkit. The other companies are Open Market Inc., NEC,
Netscape, Tandem Computers Inc., Verifone and Verisign.

The SET protocol specifies how cardholders, merchants,
issuing banks and acquiring banks will interact to ensure secure
payment processing over the Internet. SET relies on specially
developed encryption technology from RSA Data Security Inc.,
and has been adopted by Visa and MasterCard to secure credit card
transactions, authorization and settlement information over
public networks such as the Internet.

"The development of the SET protocol was an important
milestone in securing commerce over the Internet." said Robert
Gargus, president and general manager of Atalla.  "We believe
that the combination of new, RSA-based SET  tools and the strong
security functionality and high throughput provided by our Atalla
PayMaster Internet Security Processor will now help transform
public networks such as the Internet, into a secure, high-
performance payments infrastructure that banks, merchants and
cardholders will trust."

"We consider integration with the Atalla PayMaster ISP a
critical feature of the RSA SET developer's suite," said Jim Bidzos,
president of RSA Data Security, Inc.  "The Atalla PayMaster, in
combination with RSA,  will now allow for cost-effective, high-
volume SET application servers through greatly improved
performance for the underlying cryptography and strong physical
protection for private keys.  We believe this will overcome a
major barrier to the adoption of secure electronic commerce on
the Internet."

Atalla's PayMaster ISP product was designed specifically to
manage the cryptographic requirements specified by the SET
protocol.  The protocol requires multiple public key operations for
each SET transaction.  The Atalla PayMaster ISP product offloads
these computationally-intensive tasks from server CPUs and
isolates private information intended solely for merchants from
private information intended solely for banks. This ensures that
data cannot be altered at any point in the network, and accelerates
the required SET -specified public-and-private key operations.
Atalla's PayMaster ISP also provides RSA and DES-based
cryptography to provide a high-performance bridge from the
Internet to private networks such as the Bank Payments network.

About Atalla (a Tandem Company)
Atalla (a Tandem Company) brings nearly 25 years of
experience securing commerce over private networks to the public
networks and the Internet/Intranet arena. The company's
products include industry-leading hardware-based security
processors for the Internet, Intranet and the bank transfer
networks, POS/POE (point-of-sale/point-of-entry) credit /debit
payment terminals, customer authorization and PIN selection
terminals, and secure enrollment products for banking, retailing
and government applications. An estimated 70 percent of all ATM
transactions in North America (estimated value: $1.4 trillion
daily) are secured by Atalla's specialized security processor
products. Atalla is headquartered at 2304 Zanker Road, San Jose
CA 95131. Phone: (408) 435-8850. Fax (408) 435-1116. The company's
website is located at www.atalla.com.

Tandem, Atalla, PayMaster, and the Tandem logo are trademarks
or registered trademarks of Tandem Computers Incorporated in
the United States and/or other countries. All other brand names
are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
companies.

 
                                                     G.C.G.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 | Geoffrey C. Grabow       |      Great people talk about ideas.       |
 | Oyster Bay, New York     |     Average people talk about things.     |
 | gcg@pb.net               |      Small people talk about people.      |
 |----------------------------------------------------------------------|
 |     PGP 2.6.2 public key available at http://home.pb.net/~gcg      |
 |          and on a plethora of key servers around the world.          |
 |                          Key ID = 0E818EC1                           |
 |   Fingerprint =  A6 7B 67 D7 E9 96 37 7D  E7 16 BD 5E F4 5A B2 E4    |
 |----------------------------------------------------------------------|
 | That which does not kill us, makes us stranger.   - Trevor Goodchild |
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~