Reuters: Callahan says: "Unhackable!"
UPDATE 1-Wave Systems signs IBM deal and shares rise 20 pct
August 04, 2003 10:41:00 AM ET
NEW YORK, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Wave Systems Corp. (WAVX) on Monday said it had agreed to a deal with IBM to embed its software inside selected IBM notebook and desktop computers, marking the latest in a string of deals for the tiny company.
Wave Systems of Lee, Massachusetts said its embedded software would be available on selected International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops that include IBM's digital security subsystem.
The stock of Wave Systems jumped as high as 20 percent Monday, in heavy volume and was up five-fold since Thursday, with volumes changing hands at 100 times their norm.
Shares of the previously thinly traded stock have rocketed in the past three days since Wave announced a deal with Intel Corp. (INTC), the world's biggest chipmaker, to embed its software inside some internal computer chassis built by Intel.
Terms of the latest deal were not disclosed. But Wave spokesman John Callahan said IBM computers with built-in Wave security would be available in the fourth-quarter of this year.
"There are lots of security software vendors. Ours is secured in a chip and is thus unhackable," Callahan declared.
Wave Systems, which has operated at the margins of the industry for most of its 15 years of existence, is the creator of a hybrid approach to security that combines hardware and software, but until recently had trouble winning industry support to embed its technology into their products.
Callahan said the goal of the company was to make its software widely available throughout the computer industry by perhaps as early as the end of this year. Toward this end, Wave has signed deals with security chipmakers such as National Semiconductor (NSM) and Infineon Technologies AG .
The spokesman said deals with the remaining security chipmakers and motherboard suppliers beyond Intel were expected in coming months.
The IBM security system combines IBM hardware with Wave software, which includes features that prevent authorized users from reading documents stored on the computers.
The IBM machines are typically sold to government agencies and businesses such as financial services or health care where security requirements are paramount. The Wave software includes digital signature technology that prevents unauthorized use of the computer by authenticating the identity of computer users. The system can also be used to sign electronic legal contracts.
By using IBM's Embedded Security Subsystem in conjunction with Wave's Document Manager Vault, sensitive data is protected even if the personal computer is lost or stolen.
Wave Systems' stock, among the most actively traded and top percentage gainers on Nasdaq early Monday, was up 12 percent, or 44 cents, at $4.09. REUTERS
