This is a copy of the C2Net Press Release from 12 Jan 1998

"C2Net was the first company to offer support for the nFast encryption accelerator with its Stronghold server," said Mark Cox, managing director of C2Net Europe. "nFast support with the Stronghold Crypto Engine is a natural extension of that relationship, and extends the range of web security solutions and increased server performance we can offer for customers worldwide."

"nCipher's nFast cryptographic accelerators enhance e-commerce and online transactions by speeding up the processing of crypto keys," said Alex van Someren, President of nCipher. "Using nFast together with the Stronghold Crypto Engine is an ideal marriage of complimentary encryption technology and gives customers throughout the world a strong cryptography environment for conducting secure business on the Internet."

nFast accelerators off-load the processing burden of encryption key processing to a dedicated co-processor, which is able to handle up to 300 1024-bit key public signings per second. The accelerators provide an inexpensive, fast and platform-independent hardware solution that removes the burden of heavy computation from the host CPU without any alteration to the application software. Because the nFast accelerators simply plug into the SCSI port, they are easily scalable and can be used together to handle over 2000 key signings per second.

C2Net's Stronghold Crypto Engine

C2Net's Stronghold Crypto Engine (SHCE) replaces the cryptography engine currently used in the Microsoft Internet Information Server (Microsoft IIS). It provides significant server performance improvements and gives customers the ability to support full strength encryption worldwide while still using Microsoft IIS as the underlying web server. SHCE replaces the export-restricted encryption capabilities of Microsoft IIS to ensure that full 128-bit data is used to protect communications end-to-end across the Internet.

C2Net Software, Inc. (http://www.c2.net/) is the leading provider of uncompromised network security software. Through its international offshore development programs, all C2Net products are exempt from U.S. government export restrictions, allowing the company to offer strong cryptography solutions to customers worldwide. Its Stronghold web server is currently the world's most popular secure web server, according to a survey by Netcraft, Ltd.

nCipher (http://www.ncipher.com/) is an affiliate of Canada's Newbridge Networks Corporation (NYSE: NN), developing cryptography products in applications such as Internet security and electronic commerce. Its nFast line of products was recently named a Hot Product for 1998 by Data Communications magazine.