News Release

VIA and LocustWorld Secure Wireless Mesh Networks with VIA PadLock High-Speed Encryption

On-die security features in the latest VIA processors enable AES Encryption at blistering speeds from LocustWorld’s MeshAP-Pro

Taipei, Taiwan, September 23rd 2004 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced that the MeshAP-Pro from LocustWorld is the first commercial product to support the hardware-based VIA PadLock ACE (Advanced Cryptography Engine), allowing it to encrypt and decrypt data traveling through the mesh at very high speeds.

“Security is a vital part of any wireless network and is an increasingly important issue as adoption of last mile technologies, such as mesh networking, mature and become more widespread,” commented Wai Sing Lee, a security consultant at Frost & Sullivan. “Strong cryptography and certification can be used to build a highly secure wireless network.”

The LocustWorld MeshAP-Pro application is used by commercial wireless network operators around the world to provide widespread wireless broadband Internet services over wide areas where each node in the mesh network automatically interconnects with its neighbors to form a large scale, self organizing network. Traffic over the network is encrypted using digital certificates and dynamically generated private keys, making the mesh extremely secure, so as traffic increases, gateways become loaded with the overhead of handling multiple simultaneous cryptographic connections. By utilizing the VIA PadLock ACE, LocustWorld MeshAP-Pro enables meshbox gateways to deliver additional performance in extremely heavily loaded networks while maintaining uncompromisingly high-level certificated security throughout the mesh.

“Using the on-die AES encryption from the latest VIA processors we can achieve an encryption layer with hardly any overhead on the CPU,” said Richard Lander, CEO of LocustWorld. “Network performance using the VIA PadLock ACE is close to the speed of un-encrypted communications, achieving high-strength encryption without the associated performance impact, even on large networks with high traffic. The result is virtually transparent encryption.”

“The MeshAP-Pro is a great example of how compact power efficient devices based on VIA processors can enable industry leading security without affecting normal system performance,” said Steven S. Lee, Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Together with innovators like LocustWorld, we are taking the lead in the move to ubiquitous security where security operations can be carried out natively by every system in a network.”

Inter-operation between VIA PadLock ACE enabled nodes and other nodes that execute their encryption through software is ensured by the use of industry standard AES encryption, so. mesh administrators can utilize VIA PadLock ACE enabled systems for heavily used nodes to interconnect and make certificated encrypted connections with older or peripheral nodes with lower data throughput capacity.

"The VIA PadLock ACE is a great tool, enabling us to extend the power, speed and scale of our wireless mesh networks further, without losing out on performance,” added Jon Anderson, CTO of LocustWorld. “The VIA PadLock ACE-assisted Wireless Mesh gives high speed, secure, wireless networking a very significant performance boost."

The LocustWorld MeshAP-Pro has been certified through the VIA PadLock Certification Program that is designed to assist independent software developers in optimizing their products for the VIA PadLock Hardware Security Suite. More information on the VIA PadLock ACE is available from the VIA PadLock Hardware Security Suite website.

About the VIA PadLock Security Initiative
Comprising the VIA PadLock Hardware Security Suite and VIA PadLock Software Security Suite, the VIA PadLock Security Initiative is focused on providing key hardware and application level security building blocks that can be easily integrated into any computing and communications infrastructure.

The VIA PadLock Hardware Security Suite is integrated into VIA C5P Nehemiah core processors and features the VIA PadLock RNG for high quality key generation and the VIA PadLock ACE (Advanced Cryptography Engine) for high speed performance of the US government approved Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). The VIA PadLock Software Security Suite consists of the VIA PadLock SDK, the VIA PadLock ZIP utility and source code and the VIA PadLock Tru-Delete utility and source code.

More information on the VIA PadLock Security Initiative may be found at the VIA website http://www.via.com.tw/en/padlock/padlock_initiative.jsp.

About LocustWorld
LocustWorld produces the MeshAP-Pro, providing hardware, software and services that allow customers to build complete mesh networking solutions. Based in the UK, LocustWorld addresses the demand for mesh networking using their own resources assisted by a network of regional service providers.

LocustWorld has gained world-wide recognition as leaders in wireless mesh networking, with live installations and public references and many happy customers. More information about LocustWorld and reference installations can be found at www.locustworld.com

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