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NTRU Corporate Brief
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FAQs
- Who is NTRU?
- What does NTRU do?
- What is NTRU's technology?
- How and when did NTRU and its' technology originate?
- What is public key cryptography?
- What is the problem NTRU is solving?
- What is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)?
- How can RFID applications benefit from NTRU Security?
- Where is RFID currently being used?
- How can wireless applications benefit from NTRU?
1. Who is NTRU?
A: NTRU is the only provider of strong security that fits everywhere.
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2. What does NTRU do?
A: We're the leading provider of security technology for a range of consumer electronics and wireless devices. For example, when you use your cell phone, you trust in its' ability to protect your private information, financial information, and legal information. Our technology allows you to trust any kind of device you might use to authenticate yourself at the airport, during mobile transactions on the phone, or taking an ID card to the doctor with personal information on it NTRU technology is different because we provide security that operates so fast, it's transparent to the user and is so small, it fits everywhere.
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3. What is NTRU's technology?
A: Supporting a wide range of devices in wired and wireless environments, NTRU technology delivers strong security for any application while eliminating traditional speed, size, cost, and security tradeoffs. NTRU security operates at speeds up to 2,000 times faster than alternatives while using as little as 1/50th the footprint, and enables new security paradigms currently impractical with older technology. NTRU brings security to a new breed of connected consumer devices and highly scalable servers.
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4. How and when did NTRU and its' technology originate?
A: Four world-class cryptographers (several are Brown University professors) founded NTRU in 1996. They made the key observation that existing security technology was simply too slow and too big to operate on the new generation of small devices. They conceived a fundamental mathematical innovation to solve this problem and developed the NTRU algorithm. From 1996 through 1999, NTRU remained a research organization, submitting its' work to the cryptography community for scrutiny and review. NTRU became officially "commercialized" in early 2000 when it raised its first round of funding. The resulting innovation is now the smallest and fastest security solution available, making it perfectly suited for the small, constrained devices consumers want to use today and in the future.
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5. What is public key cryptography?
A: Cryptography is the creation and use of secret codes based on complex mathematics. It uses algorithms to enable users to make data unreadable to anyone other than the intended recipient. Cryptography ensures the privacy of data communication and transfer by encoding it during transfer. This process is called "encryption." Encrypted data algorithms are locked and unlocked through a two-part system of "keys." The sender encrypts the data with a public key. Once the intended user receives the encrypted data, he or she can decode, or "decrypt" it with their own private key. This process provides a secure way for both parties involved in this data transfer to authenticate their identities, proving they are the rightful sender and recipient.
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6. What is the problem NTRU is solving?
A: Powerful security technology developed in the 70s and 80s was designed to run on big devices like computers, but it does not operate effectively on small devices like MP-3 players, RFID tags, mobile phones, or smart cards. Now more than ever, security needs to be everywhere. It needs to fit in the palm of our hand ranging from PDAs, mobile phones, smart tokens and personal ID cards. Legacy security solutions are difficult or costly to fit into these environments. NTRU provides the only security technology that is small enough and fast enough to fit everywhere. NTRU is uniquely suited to capture high-growth markets and create new business opportunities where security was either impractical or impossible before. NTRU is rapidly becoming the security standard in such markets as consumer electronics, mobile communications, RFID (radio frequency identification), and embedded solutions.
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7. What is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)?
A: RFID is a technology that uses radio waves to transfer data between a reader and a movable item in order to identify, track or locate that item. RFID does not require physical sight or contact between the reader and the tagged item and has several advantages over bar codes, including non-contact readability, longer read/write range, durability (in harsh environments), write-ability and fewer errors. RFID enables a new way of identifying, tracking and locating merchandise, people, inventory and transactions at any time and anywhere.
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8. How can RFID applications benefit from NTRU?
A: To date, it has been completely impractical for older cryptography systems to provide robust, standards-based security to RFID applications due to the speed, size, complexity, and cost constraints of the technology. As a result, RFID applications have been fundamentally insecure and vulnerable to unauthorized access or monitoring.
The NTRU public key cryptography system is the only solution with the ability to deliver strong, efficient security to RFID applications and products. The size and speed advantages of NTRU security allow it to operate under the very constrained size and power consumption requirements demanded by RFID. With NTRU security, RFID applications benefit from authentication capabilities ensuring the tag, reader and/or system component is who or what they claim to be and that their transmitted data has not been altered. NTRU's technology also provides new audit capabilities that create digitally signed records of each and every transaction.
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9. Where is RFID currently being used?
A: RFID is present in several familiar applications today. For example, major gas companies have begun distributing wireless key fobs that debit users for fuel and store purchases. Major highways throughout the country have also begun distributing wireless transponders to travelers that enable them to pay tolls without waiting in ticket or payment lines.
RFID tags are also being used by resorts on ski passes to increase the efficiency of their operations. Skiers can now purchase passes allowing them access to the lifts without having to wait or carry money. NTRU security can enable these tags to be used for commerce in the mountain's shops and restaurants, allowing for faster, more efficient, and secure transactions.
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10. How can wireless applications benefit from NTRU?
A: Effective wireless data security must be small and fast in order to be deployed cheaply on inexpensive client devices without degrading the user experience. To minimize the cost of implementation, it must also scale efficiently on servers. Only NTRU's security is scalable in both directions. Because NTRU's technology is up to 2,000 times faster, and significantly smaller than any alternative, it runs quickly on small processors and requires a minimal amount of memory and battery power. NTRU's technology also requires very little processing time on servers, enabling a single server to service many more clients than would be possible with any other system. Another key element of NTRU's appeal to wireless technology providers is its' ability to enable disposable keys. NTRU's technology can generate keys so fast it makes it possible to utilize a new key pair for each individual transaction. This ability ensures that even if a key is somehow compromised, an unauthorized transaction is easily repudiated since each key is used for only one transaction.
NTRU's extremely fast key generation not only allows the server to authenticate the client device, but also enables the client to authenticate the server. This capability, which is known as "mutual authentication," holds great promise for wireless applications. Mutual authentication will become essential as wireless financial transactions become more prevalent. Because of technology limitations, current models for wireless security do not provide for mutual authentication, but NTRU's technology is small enough and fast enough to provide robust security without adversely affecting the experience of the end user.
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