January 2006 - Ecebs achieves industry milestone

Ecebs limited, has been awarded the ‘Common Criteria Standard’, which is the most prestigious internationally recognised security standard in smartcard IT, as adopted by government organisations in leading countries including Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, UK and USA. This standard has been developed to demonstrate proof of best practice in IT security.

David Braddock, Managing Director of Ecebs said:

“We are delighted that we have achieved this exacting standard that recognises the high level of security that our smartcard technology software achieves. This is a real boost for the Company and gives us significant credibility in the IT market place worldwide. We are the first independent company in the UK to achieve this standard in smartcard software. It reinforces our market leading position in this rapidly growing sector.”

“ We are confident that this will help us to market our software to future customers who increasingly rely heavily on high levels of security.”

The Central Information Systems Security Division of the Prime Minister's Office of the Republic of France (www.ssi.gouv.fr) in their capacity as a Certification Body under the internationally recognised IT equipment security assurance scheme known as Common Criteria (http://niap.nist.gov/cc-scheme/) issued a certificate to Ecebs Ltd of East Kilbride Scotland for one of its products, the ITSO Security Application Module (SAM) at Assurance Evaluation Level 4 High.

"The ITSO SAM, an ISO 7816 compliant 4 Megabyte smartcard, is the cornerstone of the ITSO security environment and we are delighted that this highly sophisticated application of our Multefile technology has been internationally recognised as being designed and implemented to such exacting standards" said Barry Hochfield, Technical Director. "AEL 4 High is the equivalent standard or better as required by fully accounted payment schemes world-wide" he continues " and this is this world's first multi-megabyte smartcard platform to reach AEL4 high".

To achieve this certification Ecebs Research and Development offices and procedures also had to pass a stringent security audit by the French Government. "We know of no other UK independent smartcard software developer to have met this standard".

David Braddock also commented, "This gives our clients the comfort they require that our innovative technology is also security fit for purpose"