According to a Web page of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA),
Suite B replaces classical public-key technology with elliptic curve technology, and can be incorporated into existing Internet protocols such as Internet Key Exchange (IKE), Transport Layer Security (TLS), and Secure MIME (S/MIME). The NSA has licensed 26 patents from Certicom, covering a variety of elliptic curve technology, Certicom claims.
The Certicom Security Builder API is touted as a "comprehensive, portable and modular solution designed to allow developers to quickly and cost-effectively embed security across multiple families and generations of devices." It is compatible with the new Microsoft CNG architecture and all .NET platforms, including Windows Mobile, Windows CE, and Windows XP Embedded.
Certicom's Security Builder API supports multiple .NET architectures
(Click to enlarge)The company says Security Builder for .NET acts as an abstraction layer to the cryptographic providers within the Certicom Security Architecture (see illustration below). Components built for the .NET Framework can be used by any of the more than 20 approved .NET languages, including Visual C# and Visual Basic .NET.
Security Builder API acts as an abstraction layer to cryptographic providers
(Click to enlarge)In a statement, Thom Robbins, Director of .NET platform product management at Microsoft, said, "for some time, security has been one of the key areas of focus for Microsoft. With Security Builder API for .NET Framework-based applications, Certicom is providing a valuable tool for developers to add advanced security to applications built on the .NET Framework."
Jim Alfred, director of product management for Certicom, added, "Security Builder API for .NET enables independent software developers to easily integrate strong, efficient security into their .NET Framework-based applications whether on a desktop or portable device. Without it developers must either abandon security functions based on existing code or create new .NET crypto classes and wrappers."
Security Builder API for .NET is available today. Pricing was not released.
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