Certicom, an encryption technology company specializing in solutions for the mobile computing and wireless data markets, has introduced a virtual private network software solution for handheld mobile devices.
The Certicom VPN solution is interoperable with a range of VPN systems, allowing organizations to incorporate mobile and wireless devices into their corporate VPNs, Certicom said.
“A remote worker will use a VPN client to access their corporate network. It’s a very security protocol-intensive application … it allows you to get through the corporate firewall,” said Jennifer Vancini, director of strategic marketing for Certicom.
A VPN uses the Internet as the transport backbone to establish links with mobile workers while extending communications to regional and isolated offices, Certicom said. VPNs are specially designed connections between several points, which encrypt the communications for security.
Vancini said most mobile and wireless devices aren’t yet included in corporate security policies, and many enterprises are still wary of mobile-device transmissions, prompting policies that restrict a mobile user from accessing the corporate network.
The Certicom VPN solution makes mobile transmissions secure, allowing companywide use of devices such as the Palm VII and Wireless Application Protocol-enabled phones.
It will be available in the latter part of this year and initially will support the Palm OS 3.5 computing platform. Support for WinCE and EPOC soon will follow, the company said.
Certicom hopes to interoperate its VPN solution with VPN products from Alcatel, Axent Technologies Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Nortel Networks Corp. and others. It also is in the process of partnering with mobile device manufacturers, and according to Vancini, those organizations that have expressed interest in the VPN will be included in a beta test beginning this summer.
In other news, Sun Microsystems Inc. used Certicom’s e-commerce security technology in a demonstration at the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco to connect a Palm VII handheld with the Internet to extend Sun enterprise data access to mobile workers.
The demonstration was part of Sun’s initiative to develop a solution allowing its work force to securely access sensitive corporate data from mobile devices.
