VeriSign chosen to secure all WiMAX devices

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 13 July 2006 18:37

Business IT - Technology

VeriSign has been selected by the WiMAX Forum - the global organisation set up to certify the interoperability of products based on the fixed and mobile WiMAX standards - to provide technology that will protect all WiMAX Forum certified devices from unauthorised access.
According to the Forum, the partnership will "create a single, trusted device authentication standard across broadband wireless networks."

Under the agreement, VeriSign will operate the WiMAX root CA used to create a single, trusted device authentication standard for WiMAX networks. The VeriSign Custom Device Certificate Service (CDCS) will enable X.509 - standard digital certificates to be embedded into all WiMAX Forum certified hardware devices based on IEEE 802.16-2004 and ETSI HiperMAN 1.2.1 standards (ie fixed WiMAX products).  The announcement did not specify that the technique would be used on IEEE 802.16-2005 standard products, the so called mobile WiMAX, which is expected to be the dominant variant.

According to VeriSign, the use of strong certificate-based authentication allows service providers to ensure network access, digital content and software services can be secured from unauthorised access.

"VeriSign has proven experience creating interoperable trust models, and demonstrated a deep understanding of the WiMAX requirements, giving us the confidence that they are the best choice to secure the millions of WiMAX devices that will be deployed," said Ron Resnick, president and chair of the WiMAX Forum. "VeriSign met the WiMAX requirements for a PKI Trust Model and can provide scalable, robust PKI trust services to our more than 350 member corporations worldwide."