STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, congratulates three cryptography experts from its Secure Microcontroller Division and Advanced System Technology Group for winning an international competition to develop a new global industry standard for digital security – the Secure Hash Algorithm SHA-3. The competition was started in 2007 by the American National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to select a successor to the Secure Hash Algorithm SHA-2 currently used in numerous secure applications worldwide. Initially, 64 teams entered the competition. NIST selected five finalists in 2010 and announced the winning algorithm, to be published as the new SHA-3 standard, earlier this month. Experts from across the cryptographic community analyzed and reviewed the candidate algorithms throughout the competition. Secure hash algorithms are widely used to prevent tampering with data such as digital signatures and message authentication codes, and are vital to everyday activities from online commerce and pay-TV access to banking, computer security, secure data storage, and government communications. The winning entry was codenamed Keccak by its developers, a four-strong team that included three ST experts - Joan Daemen, co-inventor of the AES (a secret key encryption industry standard), Guido Bertoni, and Gilles Van Assche - and another Belgian cryptographer, and former ST employee, Michaël Peeters. In addition to providing enhanced security, the Keccak algorithm features a small memory footprint and runs well on many different types of computing devices. It enables hardware implementations with higher performance than SHA-2 or any of the other competition finalists and its relatively compact software footprint is a perfect fit for smart devices and Internet-Of-Things applications, opening new opportunities for system and protocol designers. Keccak is highly resistant to the types of attacks that could potentially succeed against some of the current secure hash algorithms. The Keccak algorithm is further proof of ST’s strong commitment to developing innovative solutions for digital data protection. This commitment started from early R&D investment and resulted in creating a robust security technology that has already been implemented in a number of ST’s System-on-Chip products, including set-top box, server and gateway applications, and secure microcontroller solutions. “This is a great achievement by the Keccak team, whose algorithm will now become a new worldwide standard for digital security,” said Marie-France Florentin, General Manager Secure Microcontroller Division, STMicroelectronics. “Gilles, Guido and Joan continue to specialize in digital security for ST, contributing their internationally recognized expertise to help create best-in-class secure solutions for our customers.”
About STMicroelectronics
ST is a global leader in the semiconductor market serving customers across the spectrum of sense and power technologies and multimedia convergence applications. From energy management and savings to trust and data security, from healthcare and wellness to smart consumer devices, in the home, car and office, at work and at play, ST is found everywhere microelectronics make a positive and innovative contribution to people's life. By getting more from technology to get more from life, ST stands for life.augmented. In 2011, the Company’s net revenues were $9.73 billion.
Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.
About STMicroelectronics
ST is a global leader in the semiconductor market serving customers across the spectrum of sense and power technologies and multimedia convergence applications. From energy management and savings to trust and data security, from healthcare and wellness to smart consumer devices, in the home, car and office, at work and at play, ST is found everywhere microelectronics make a positive and innovative contribution to people's life. By getting more from technology to get more from life, ST stands for life.augmented. In 2011, the Company’s net revenues were $9.73 billion.
Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.
