Baltimore Technologies and Ericsson Inc. have announced that Baltimore’s digital certificate technology is embedded in the Ericsson smartphone R380 to allow secure and trusted transactions. This agreement enables Ericsson customers worldwide to benefit from advanced security and authentication features provided by the award winning Baltimore Telepathy wireless e-security product and service offering. Future Ericsson phones, such as the GPRS phone R520, will also be secured using Baltimore root certificates.
Baltimore Telepathy root certificates are embedded into the WAP browsers of the latest Ericsson R380 phones, providing an automatic trust relationship for secure, authenticated wireless services including mobile banking. The Ericsson R380 is a small-sized dual band smartphone combining the functions of a mobile phone with advanced communication features and PDA-like tools and is the first commercially available mobile internet device with root certificates pre-installed. The digital certificates are now embedded in all R380 models for use in GSM markets around the world. This agreement paves the way for Baltimore to offer digital certificates for Internet sites and to provide enhanced security for mobile commerce transactions.
Ericsson sees security as a key ingredient in our mobile Internet enabled devices and an important value add for our customers. The inclusion of Baltimore digital certificates in our new phones allows early introduction of secure mobile transactions enabling the phone to become a personal trusted device, says Bo Albertson, Marketing Director Communications, Ericsson Mobile Communications.
We are delighted to co-operate with Ericsson to bring increased trust and security to mobile commerce. The inclusion of our root certificates in the new Ericsson smartphone which is now available, helps to move the market ahead, enabling the introduction of exciting new mobile internet applications, Paddy Holahan, Executive Vice President of Marketing at Baltimore Technologies.
The Ericsson R380 includes Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS), which is also planned to be included in future phones. WTLS provides the key security elements of confidentiality, integrity and authentication. WTLS is the wireless version of the industry standard Transport Layer Security (TLS), equivalent to the widely used Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). WTLS uses digital certificates to provide a secure network connection session between a mobile Internet client and a wireless server.
Ericsson is the third largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world. With the continuing emergence of the wireless Internet it is imperative that service providers and consumers have confidence in the security of this new medium. Through the inclusion of Baltimore root certificates, Baltimore can extend the first level of mobile trust to wireless users worldwide. In addition, by working with market leading companies such as Baltimore, Ericsson further demonstrates continued commitment to providing enhanced security capabilities to its customers, leveraging Baltimore’s experience in standards based scalable security solutions together with its worldwide expertise and resources.
