RSA Security
Encyclopedia
RSA, the security division of EMC Corporation
, is headquartered in Bedford
, Massachusetts, United States, and maintains offices in Australia, Ireland, Israel, the United Kingdom, Singapore, India, China, Hong Kong(China) and Japan.
RSA organizes the annual RSA Conference
. RSA's well-known products include the RSA BSAFE cryptography
libraries and the SecurID
authentication token.
RSA was named after the initials of its co-founders, Ron Rivest
, Adi Shamir
, and Len Adleman, after whom the RSA public key cryptography algorithm
was also named.
, Adi Shamir
and Leonard Adleman
developed the RSA encryption algorithm in 1977. They founded RSA Data Security in 1982.
products as an Advanced Persistent Threat
, although some have debated whether the attack was 'advanced'.
EMC Corporation
EMC Corporation , a Financial Times Global 500, Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, develops, delivers and supports information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure hardware, software, and services. EMC is headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA.Former Intel executive Richard Egan and his...
, is headquartered in Bedford
Bedford, Massachusetts
Bedford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is within the Greater Boston area, north-west of the city of Boston. The population of Bedford was 13,320 at the 2010 census.- History :...
, Massachusetts, United States, and maintains offices in Australia, Ireland, Israel, the United Kingdom, Singapore, India, China, Hong Kong(China) and Japan.
RSA organizes the annual RSA Conference
RSA Conference
The RSA Conference is a cryptography and information security-related conference held annually in the San Francisco Bay Area.The RSA Conference started in 1991 as a forum for cryptographers to gather and share the latest knowledge and advancements in the area of Internet security...
. RSA's well-known products include the RSA BSAFE cryptography
Cryptography
Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...
libraries and the SecurID
SecurID
SecurID, now known as RSA SecurID, is a mechanism developed by Security Dynamics for performing two-factor authentication for a user to a network resource.- Description :...
authentication token.
RSA was named after the initials of its co-founders, Ron Rivest
Ron Rivest
Ronald Linn Rivest is a cryptographer. He is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Computer Science at MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory...
, Adi Shamir
Adi Shamir
Adi Shamir is an Israeli cryptographer. He is a co-inventor of the RSA algorithm , a co-inventor of the Feige–Fiat–Shamir identification scheme , one of the inventors of differential cryptanalysis and has made numerous contributions to the fields of cryptography and computer...
, and Len Adleman, after whom the RSA public key cryptography algorithm
Algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
was also named.
History
Ron RivestRon Rivest
Ronald Linn Rivest is a cryptographer. He is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Computer Science at MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory...
, Adi Shamir
Adi Shamir
Adi Shamir is an Israeli cryptographer. He is a co-inventor of the RSA algorithm , a co-inventor of the Feige–Fiat–Shamir identification scheme , one of the inventors of differential cryptanalysis and has made numerous contributions to the fields of cryptography and computer...
and Leonard Adleman
Leonard Adleman
Leonard Max Adleman is an American theoretical computer scientist and professor of computer science and molecular biology at the University of Southern California. He is known for being a co-inventor of the RSA cryptosystem in 1977, and of DNA computing...
developed the RSA encryption algorithm in 1977. They founded RSA Data Security in 1982.
- In 1995 RSA sent a handful of people across the hall to found Digital Certificates International, better known as VeriSignVeriSignVerisign, Inc. is an American company based in Dulles, Virginia that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains and the .cc and .tv country-code...
. - The company then called Security Dynamics acquired RSA Data Security in July 1996 and DynaSoft AB in 1997.
- In January 1997 it proposed the first of the DES ChallengesDES ChallengesThe DES Challenges were a series of brute force attack contests created by RSA Security for the purpose of highlighting the lack of security provided by the Data Encryption Standard.-The Contests:...
which led to the first public breaking of a message based on the Data Encryption StandardData Encryption StandardThe Data Encryption Standard is a block cipher that uses shared secret encryption. It was selected by the National Bureau of Standards as an official Federal Information Processing Standard for the United States in 1976 and which has subsequently enjoyed widespread use internationally. It is...
. - In February 2001, it acquired Xcert International, Inc., a privately held company that developed and delivered digital certificate-based products for securing e-business transactions.
- In May 2001, it acquired 3-G International, Inc., a privately held company that developed and delivered smart card and biometric authentication products.
- In August 2001, it acquired Securant Technologies, Inc., a privately held company that produced ClearTrust, an identity managementIdentity managementIdentity management is a broad administrative area that deals with identifying individuals in a system and controlling access to the resources in that system by placing restrictions on the established identities of the individuals.Identity management is multidisciplinary and covers many...
product. - In December 2005, it acquired Cyota, a privately held IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i company specializing in online security and anti-fraud solutions for financial institutions. - In April 2006 it acquired PassMark Security.
- On September 14, 2006, RSA stockholders approved the acquisition of the company by EMC CorporationEMC CorporationEMC Corporation , a Financial Times Global 500, Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, develops, delivers and supports information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure hardware, software, and services. EMC is headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA.Former Intel executive Richard Egan and his...
for $2.1 billion. - On 2007 RSA acquired Valyd Software, a Hyderabad based Indian company specializing in File and Data Security .
- In 2009 RSA launched the RSA Share Project.http://www.rsashare.com/ As part of this project, some of the RSA BSAFE libraries were made available for free. To promote the launch, RSA ran a programming competition with a US$10,000 first prize.https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-3297
- RSA introduced a new CyberCrime Intelligence Service designed to help organisations identify computers, information assets and identities compromised by trojans and other online attacks.
Security Breach
On March 17, 2011, approximately a month after announcing its CyberCrime Intelligence Service, RSA disclosed that it had been hacked. It categorized the attack on its two-factor authenticationTwo-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication is an approach to authentication which requires the presentation of two different kinds of evidence that someone is who they say they are. It is a part of the broader family of multi-factor authentication, which is a defense in depth approach to security...
products as an Advanced Persistent Threat
Advanced Persistent Threat
Advanced persistent threat usually refers to a group, such as a foreign government, with both the capability and the intent to persistently and effectively target a specific entity. The term is commonly used to refer to cyber threats, in particular that of Internet-enabled espionage, but applies...
, although some have debated whether the attack was 'advanced'.
See also
- Hardware token
- RSA Factoring ChallengeRSA Factoring ChallengeThe RSA Factoring Challenge was a challenge put forward by RSA Laboratories on March 18, 1991 to encourage research into computational number theory and the practical difficulty of factoring large integers and cracking RSA keys used in cryptography...
- RSA Secret-Key ChallengeRSA Secret-Key ChallengeThe RSA Secret-Key Challenge consisted of a series of cryptographic contests organised by RSA Laboratories with the intent of helping to demonstrate the relative security of different encryption algorithms...
- Software tokenSoftware tokenA software token is a type of two-factor authentication security device that may be used to authorize the use of computer services. Software tokens are stored on a general-purpose electronic device such as a desktop computer, laptop, PDA, or mobile phone...
- RSA SecurID
External links
- Oral history interview with James Bidzos, Charles Babbage InstituteCharles Babbage InstituteThe Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking....
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Bidzos discusses his leadership of software security firm RSA Data Security as it sought to commercialize encryption technology as well as his role in creating the RSA ConferenceRSA ConferenceThe RSA Conference is a cryptography and information security-related conference held annually in the San Francisco Bay Area.The RSA Conference started in 1991 as a forum for cryptographers to gather and share the latest knowledge and advancements in the area of Internet security...
and founding VerisignVeriSignVerisign, Inc. is an American company based in Dulles, Virginia that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains and the .cc and .tv country-code...
. Oral history interview 2004, Mill Valley, California. - Oral history interview with Martin Hellman Oral history interview 2004, Palo Alto, California. Charles Babbage InstituteCharles Babbage InstituteThe Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking....
, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. HellmanMartin HellmanMartin Edward Hellman is an American cryptologist, and is best known for his invention of public key cryptography in cooperation with Whitfield Diffie and Ralph Merkle...
describes his invention of public key cryptography with collaborators Whitfield DiffieWhitfield DiffieBailey Whitfield 'Whit' Diffie is an American cryptographer and one of the pioneers of public-key cryptography.Diffie and Martin Hellman's paper New Directions in Cryptography was published in 1976...
and Ralph MerkleRalph MerkleRalph C. Merkle is a researcher in public key cryptography, and more recently a researcher and speaker on molecular nanotechnology and cryonics...
at Stanford University in the mid-1970s. He also describes the commercialization of cryptography with RSA Data Security and VeriSignVeriSignVerisign, Inc. is an American company based in Dulles, Virginia that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains and the .cc and .tv country-code...
.