Spyrus Smart Cards Certified for Vista

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- SPYRUS, Inc., an innovator in portable high-security hardware and software cryptography products, today announced that the SPYRUS® Rosetta Smart Card Series II successfully completed the pilot of the Microsoft Windows Vista Smart Card Framework logo program. Rosetta Smart Card Series II is the only smart card that supports Suite B, a set of advanced, unclassified cryptographic algorithms approved by the National Security Agency (NSA) to protect U. S. Government classified and unclassified data.

SPYRUS worked with the Microsoft Smart Card Certification Center in Ireland and a small group of vendors on the pilot for the Windows Smart Card Framework logo program, to validate Windows Vista logo program requirements for smart card minidrivers. Card minidrivers that pass the Windows Smart Card Framework logo program can be downloaded directly through Windows Update.

Windows Vista implements a next-generation cryptographic infrastructure, including support for elliptic curve cryptography and other Suite B algorithms. Suite B algorithms include Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) with NIST prime elliptic curves, Advanced Encryption Standard, and the SHA-2 series of hash functions, as defined by the National Security Agency. In addition to these, Rosetta Smart Cards include support for ECC with P-521 keys and SHA-512 that exceeds Suite B standards. Rosetta Smart Cards also fully support applications using traditional algorithms such as RSA and SHA-1. In combination with Windows Vista, Rosetta Smart Cards now also make it possible to take full advantage of Suite B-enabled applications such as Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 encrypted email and digital signatures.

“The introduction of Cryptography API: Next Generation in Windows Vista signifies the importance we see in Elliptic Curve Cryptography and Suite B algorithms,” said David B. Cross, director of program management for Windows Security at Microsoft Corp. “We are pleased that the SPYRUS Rosetta Smart Card, with its support for CNG, successfully completed our certification pilot.”

Spyrus Inc.