RSA (security firm)

RSA is an American computer and network security company. 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.^[3] Among its products include the RSA BSAFE cryptography libraries and the SecurID authentication token. It also organizes the annual RSA Conference, an information security conference.

RSA is currently a operated as a subsidiary of EMC Corporation, who acquired the company in 2006 for $2.1 billion.

RSA is based in Bedford, Massachusetts, maintaining offices in Australia, Ireland, Israel, the United Kingdom, Singapore, India, China, Hong Kong and Japan.

History

Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman developed the RSA encryption algorithm in 1977. They founded RSA Data Security in 1982.^[1][2]

• In 1995 RSA sent a handful of people across the hall to found Digital Certificates International, better known as VeriSign.
• 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 Challenges which led to the first public breaking of a message based on the Data Encryption Standard.
• 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 management product.
• In December 2005, it acquired Cyota, a privately held Israeli 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 Corporation for $2.1 billion.^[4][5][6]
• 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.[4] 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.[5]
• RSA introduced a new CyberCrime Intelligence Service designed to help organisations identify computers, information assets and identities compromised by trojans and other online attacks.^[7]

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 authentication products as an Advanced Persistent Threat,^[8] although some have debated whether the attack was 'advanced'.^[9]

See also

• Hardware token
• RSA Factoring Challenge
• RSA Secret-Key Challenge
• Software token
• RSA SecurID

References

External links

• Oral history interview with James Bidzos, Charles Babbage Institute 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 Conference and founding Verisign. Oral history interview 2004, Mill Valley, California.
• Oral history interview with Martin Hellman Oral history interview 2004, Palo Alto, California. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Hellman describes his invention of public key cryptography with collaborators Whitfield Diffie and Ralph Merkle at Stanford University in the mid-1970s. He also describes the commercialization of cryptography with RSA Data Security and VeriSign.