RSA® CONFERENCE 2003, SAN FRANCISCO— Organizers of the RSA® Conference, the world’s leading e-security event, today announced the recipients of its sixth annual RSA® Conference Awards for ongoing contributions to the advancement of electronic security. The recipients of the four awards were: mathematics, Dr. Mihir Bellare and Dr. Phillip Rogaway, noted cryptographers and researchers; public policy, Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY); security practices, Herman Miller Inc.; and industry innovation, Microsoft Corporation. The honors were presented today at the opening session of the 12th annual RSA Conference at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

“The RSA Conference Awards recognize individuals and organizations that spark new ideas and advancements in the e-security marketplace,” said Jim Bidzos, chairman of the RSA Conferences. “With businesses establishing electronic security as one of the most critical agenda items on their list today, it’s more important than ever to recognize industry innovators and provide a forum to exhibit the latest developments and best practices.”

A committee comprising members of the industry, academic community and public sector selected this year’s RSA Conference Award winners. A new category this year, Security Practices is intended to recognize remarkable contributions in commercial applications of cryptography and the practice of security within an organization.

Field of Mathematics Award Winner: Dr. Mihir Bellare and Dr. Phillip Rogaway
The RSA Conference Award for mathematics is designed to recognize innovation and ongoing contribution in the field of cryptography.

Dr. Mihir Bellare of the University of California San Diego and Dr. Phillip Rogaway of the University of California Davis dedicated their research to the field of cryptography for more than a decade, to provide assurances that cryptographic methods employed by implementers are secure. They co-developed the “random oracle” model, used as the primary paradigm for reasoning about the properties of cryptographic methods today, greatly improving industry understanding in this area. Additionally, their body of work also included the introduction of several major methods used in the field today, including Optimal Asymmetric Encryption Padding (OAEP) and the Probabilistic Signature Scheme (PSS).

Field of Public Policy Award Winner: Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY)
The RSA Conference Award for Public Policy is designed to recognize significant contributions and leadership in the national cryptography and electronic security policy discussion in the past calendar year.

Legislation introduced by Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-New Hartford, New York) aimed at improving the nation’s cyber security received final approval by Congress. “The Cybersecurity Research and Development Act” has been sent to the President, who is expected to sign it this year. This legislation strengthens efforts to attract top science and engineering talent to the Mohawk Valley in the field of cybersecurity and provide a powerful source of new ideas and innovation for the New York high-tech industry. The legislation would additionally expand federal funding for cybersecurity research and education.

Field of Security Practices Award Winner: Herman Miller Inc.
The RSA Conference Award for Security Practices recognizes outstanding contributions in commercial applications of cryptography - particularly those that provide clear value to the end user, or recognize outstanding achievement in the practice of security within an organization.

Office furniture giant Herman Miller Inc., is recognized for the implementation of the Herman Miller corporate network. This solution was implemented due to the increasing nature of VPN-connected remote and roaming employees accessing the corporate LAN without proper antivirus and firewall protection. The company rolled out a centrally managed, policy enforced endpoint security software, Zone Labs Integrity, to 900 remote users worldwide. This ensures that all users connecting to Herman Miller’s LAN via VPN have updated antivirus and firewall configurations to gain access, eliminating the worms and viruses that had plagued the company network previously. Integrity also aims to preserve Herman Miller’s corporate policy by alerting executives to workers running applications that are not permitted, such as peer-to-peer file sharing.

Field of Industry Innovation Award Winner: Microsoft Corporation
The RSA Conference Award for Industry Innovation goes to an organization that has greatly facilitated the widespread use or application of advanced cryptographic technologies in the marketplace.

Microsoft Corporation’s “Writing Secure Code” addresses a hot issue for the security industry, providing software developers with a better understanding of the processes and practices needed to produce sound software code. This book is the cornerstone of the security training programs developed during the implementation of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing initiative. Additionally, “Writing Secure Code” has become the definitive security resource for software developers and engineers at Microsoft, and is in its second edition. The success of this book and curriculum underscores the industry’s need for secure coding guidelines and the importance of educating developers about the value of secure software in today’s computing landscape.

Past winners of the RSA Conference Awards include:
Mathematics
Dr. Don Coppersmith, a noted cryptographer and IBM researcher (2002)
Professor Scott Vanstone, chief cryptographer and founder of Certicom Corp. (2001)
Ralph Merkle, co-inventor of public-key cryptography (2000)
John M. Pollard, mathematician, number theorist (1999)
Dr. Shafrira Goldwasser, world-leader in complexity theory, number theory and cryptography (1998)

Public Policy
Congressman Tom Davis (R-VA), who introduced the Cyber Security Information Act of 2000 (2002)
NIST’s AES Selection Committee (2001)
Ed Gillespie and Jack Quinn, executive director and co-chairman of Americans for Computer Privacy (2000)
John Gilmore, Electronic Frontier Foundation (1999)
Congressman Bob Goodlatte, chief sponsor of H.R. 695, the Security and Freedom through Encryption (SAFE) Act of 1997 (1998)

Industry
Symantec Corp. (2002)
Gemplus (2001)
Check Point Software Technologies (2000)
Atalla Security Products Group of Compaq (1999)
Netscape Communications Corporation (1998)

About the RSA Conference
Now in its 12th year, the RSA Conference brings together decision-makers and influencers from all major markets, including consumer, education, financial, government, computer networking, telecommunications, Wall Street and the media for one of the industry’s premier e-security and cryptography events. RSA Conference 2003 continues in Japan in June and Amsterdam in November. For more information, visit www.rsaconference.com.