Transmitting data wirelessly is a risky business, but on Monday Microsoft Corp.’s Pocket Outlook packets became more secure when Certicom Corp. announced the availability of a new application designed to secure e-mail transactions.
The new Certicom movianMAIL offering allows users to send and receive digitally-signed and encrypted e-mail messages on Pocket PC handheld devices through Pocket Outlook, an e-mail and calendaring application.
Based on secure multi-purpose Internet mail extensions (S/MIME), movianMAIL is transparent – it provides end-to-end security for e-mail messages and attachments and only notifies a user if a message couldn’t be secured. It stores all messages encrypted on the e-mail server and, using digital signatures, offers proof of the message’s origin.
Not only is it interoperable with most desktop clients and e-mail servers, but movianMAIL is easily deployed as no server-side components are required.
The application supports x.5093v certifications from Entrust, VeriSign Inc., Microsoft, and the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) public key infrastructure (PKI). A special Government Security Edition (GSE) of movianMAIL, movianMAIL GSE v1.0 is slated for release in the second quarter of 2003, with pricing contingent upon number of seats.
In addition to movianMAIL announcements, Mississauga, Ont.-based Certicom also announced Monday an agreement with Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications to produce movianVPN for the new Sony Ericsson P800 Smart Phone.
The Sony Ericsson P800 is a global system for mobile communications/general packet radio services (GSM/GPRS) Smart Phone with a built-in digital camera, and runs on the Symbian v7.0 operating system.
The movianVPN offering supports Internet protocol security (IPSec) standard, and allows mobile workers to securely connect to the corporate gateway, and Certicom already sells movianVPN for Palm, Windows CE, and Symbian. GSE versions are available for Palm and Windows CE. Interoperability with different VPNs depends on the version designed for each device.
For more information visit www.certicom.com.