R&D Information
Three Leading Japanese Firms Jointly Develop
a New Encryption Technology—Elliptic Curve
Cryptosystem (ECDSA Signature)

Hitachi, Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, andNTT announced on July 28, 2003 their success injointly researching and developing a secure and efficient implementation for an elliptic curve cryptosystem (ECDSA signature)*1, which they have called
CRESERC. This is the world’s first case of wellestablished leaders in the field of cryptography collaborating in the development of implementation
technology by integrating their advanced skills andtechnologies.

To achieve e-governance*2 and the ubiquitous*3
environment mentioned in the “e-Japan Priority Policy Program”, there is a pressing need to establish afundamental technology to provide a truly securecommunication environment and to support theadvanced information sharing society. Encryption
and electronic authentication*4 are central to thistechnology. Secure and efficient implementation is avital R&D goal for achieving practical use, but there
has been a trade-off between security and efficiency.
Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric and NTT launched ajoint project and have succeeded in developing animplementation technology with the world’s
strongest security level while matching the efficiencyof the existing products on the market.
In March 2003, the EU (European Union) approved
NESSIE*5, a project to select the next-generation
cryptographic algorithms. They selected Camellia*6
jointly developed by Mitsubishi Electric and NTT,MISTY1*7 by Mitsubishi Electric, and PSEC-KEM*8
by NTT as recommended algorithms. Meanwhile,
ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
has been promoting the standardization of encryption
goals by the Spring of 2004 at the earliest. In theirdeliberations, they have nominated not only Camellia, MISTY1, and PSEC-KEM, but also MULTIS01 *9 and MUGI *10 by Hitachi for international
encryption standards. In addition, as recommended
cryptographic algorithms, they also selected ones by*1 Elliptic curve cryptosystems: Public key cryptosystems utilizing
mathematical operations over elliptic curves. They can encrypt
data using short key lengths at high efficiency while maintaininga high level of security, so they are receiving attention as new-generation public key cryptosystems that can replace RSA schemes(named after Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman). ECDSA (EllipticCurve Digital Signature Algorithm) is a digital signature algorithm based on elliptic curve cryptosystems. It has been selectedby NESSIE and CRYPTREC as one of the recommended signature schemes.
*2 e-governance: A governance support tool that allow various tasks
including administration to be executed electronically by utilizing
computer systems and Internet technology. Not to be confusedwith the more-commonly used term e-government, which refers togovernment agencies working together to use technology so thatthey can better provide individuals and businesses with government services and information.
*3 Ubiquitous: Existing everywhere at the same time (derived fromthe Latin ubique meaning everywhere). It is a popular term thesedays to describe an environment where a user can access information networks like the Internet at any time from anywhere.

*4 Electronic authentication: A technology for providing electronic(digital) signatures and public key certificates (electronic certificates).
*5 NESSIE (New European Schemes for Signatures, Integrity, andEncryption): An EU-approved project to select next-generation
cryptographic schemes started in 2000 and completed at the beginning of 2003.
*6 Camellia: A 128-bit block encryption algorithm jointly developedby Mitsubishi Electric and NTT. Specifications have been disclosed and published.
*7 MISTY1: A 64-bit block encryption algorithm developed by Mitsubishi Electric. Specifications have already been disclosed andpublished.
*8 PSEC-KEM: A public key encryption algorithm developed byNTT. Specifications have already been disclosed and published.
*9 MULTI-S01: A 256-bit key length stream encryption algorithm
developed by Hitachi. Specifications have already been disclosedand published.
*10 MUGI: A 128-bit key length stream encryption algorithm developed by Hitachi. Specifications have already been disclosed andpublished.

Background to the joint R&D

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NTT Technical Review

R&D Information

CRYPTREC: the cryptography evaluation project for
e-governance by MPHPT (Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications) and METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry).
Since the late 1990’s, the U.S. and Japanese governments, the EU, and ISO have actively promoted
these encryption algorithm validation, selection, andstandardization activities. They are now almost
reaching completion, and the cryptographic algorithms that will be widely used in the first half of the21st century are being chosen. The above Japanesecryptographic algorithms were highly regarded
throughout these activities for their excellent efficiency and high commercial viability (LSI implementation), and it is likely that one or more of them will bewidely used. Currently, ISO and CRYPTREC recognize that they need to emphasize secure implementation, and they plan to establish the corresponding validation criteria and validation standards.
As concern over secure implementation of cryptosystems increases, CRESERC is expected to beapplied in various situations that require information
security (for example, e-governance and ubiquitouscommunication systems) as the world’s leading
implementation technology in the field.
Roles of the three companies
In this joint R&D, Hitachi provided secure implementation technology for elliptic curve operations,
Mitsubishi Electric provided efficient implementation technology for elliptic curve operations, andNTT provided efficient and secure implementation
technology for the basic arithmetic.
Future plans
All three companies plan to launch products incorporating each others’ technology in e-governancesystems and ubiquitous-related security products
based on their joint R&D results, namely CRESERC.
For further information, please contact
NTT Information Sharing Laboratory Group
Musashino-shi, 180-8585, Japan
E-mail: koho@mail.rdc.ntt.co.jp

Most Advanced Wireless Technology in Scotland
Launched at EICC

An exhibition of the most advanced wireless technology ever to be seen in Scotland was launched at
the Edinburgh International Conference Centre(EICC) on August 5, 2003 and will run until March
2004. Scottish Enterprise has been instrumental inbringing this technology to Scotland with assistancefrom NTT in partnership with the EICC and BT. The
exhibition will give visitors to the EICC the opportunity to experience data-transfer and connection
speeds of more than 50 times faster than normal dialup speeds—without the need for wires.
Users who have a wireless-enabled laptop or PDA(personal digital assistant) will be able to send andreceive e-mail, browse the web, and securely accessVol. 1 No. 7 Oct. 2003

their own company intranet sites if available—
demonstrating the benefits of broadband and wirelesstechnology.
EICC visitors will have the opportunity to experience the most widely used wireless technologies(802.11b*1), provided and installed by BT. This will
be contrasted with the wireless technology of the*1 802.11 standards: 802.11 is a family of specifications for wireless
local area networks (WLANs) developed by a working group ofIEEE. There are currently four specifications in the family:
802.11, 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. All four use the Ethernet
protocol and CSMA/CA (carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance) for path sharing.

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