Hitachi Cable, Ltd. has verified successful integrated operation of its "Apresia" (*1)authentication switch with the "Secure Call" cellular-phone-based user authentication service from THIRDNETWORKS. CO, LTD. ("THIRDNETWORKS," headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Masaaki Amemiya). As a result, Hitachi Cable has now added a new device authentication solution to its line of user authentication solutions. At the same time, THIRDNETWORKS has jointed the Apresia security- alliance partner program, EnSEC, promoted by Hitachi Cable.

Exposure of personal information and similar incidents have emerged as widespread problems in recent years, and it has become increasingly important to establish effective means of keeping and protecting information within a company. This must be accomplished through security both on the device side and on the network side, where individuals are uniquely identified. We have responded to these needs with user authentication solutions implemented based on the integration of the Apresia authentication switch with a variety of authentication devices, authentication servers, and related devices.

In particular, solutions are urgently required that will provide user identification through advanced user authentication, rather than by conventional user ID and password-based methods. For this reason, using IC cards or biometrics-based authentication-fingerprint recognition, for example-has begun to attract attention, but the implementation of these methods has been limited due to the cost of the required dedicated devices.

Secure Call from THIRDNETWORKS, which we have verified to operate successfully in conjunction with Apresia, is a user authentication solution based on return calls to cellular phones (*2). This solution facilitates consolidation of a safe network, with low initial and running costs. It eliminates the need to introduce new devices, relying instead on the individual cellular phones carried by users and provided through the ASP service (*3).

In November 2004, Secure Call began trial service for the SSL-VPN facility (*4), an essential component enabling access to an in-house corporate network from a mobile environment. Secure Call has since been employed by a number of corporations and has won high acclaim from a great number of users. Integrated operation with Apresia has now been verified, proving that this service is applicable to in-house networks as well; this in turn has allowed us to offer a cellular phone-based user authentication solution to serve not just mobile users but all internal and external corporate users.

As part of this endeavor, THIRDNETWORKS has jointed the Apresia security- alliance partner program, EnSEC, promoted by Hitachi Cable.

At Hitachi Cable we have added Secure Call to our line of user authentication solutions centering on the Apresia authentication switch, at the same time enhancing cooperation with our EnSEC partners. Making use of our Apresia sales partner outlets, we plan to expand our share in the Ethernet switch market for service providers as well as for enterprises. We anticipate 10 billion yen in Apresia sales for fiscal year 2007.

*1	Apresia is a registered trademark of Hitachi Cable, Ltd. in Japan.
*2	The authentication procedure is as follows: the user enters his or her pre-registered phone number as a user ID in the authentication window displayed when the user attempts to access the in-house network of a company. When this is transmitted to the authentication server as authentication data, the authentication server dials the supplied phone number. The user receives the call and is prompted to enter his or her password. The user can then access the company's in-house network.
*3	This service enables use of leased application software installed in a service provider's server using a web browser. Since individual software elements do not need to be installed in the user PC, this service saves the company's IT division the cost and labor otherwise required to install and upgrade these software elements.
*4	This technology allows for the establishment of a virtual leased circuit (or VPN :Virtual Private Network) using SSL (Secure Socket Layer), the protocol used to send and receive encrypted information over the Internet. This technology is suitable for remote access when connecting to an in-house network.

Supplementary Data

List of EnSEC Partners (as of November 22, 2005)

Classification Product Company User Authentication Solution Device authentication [User authentication via cellular phone, IC card, etc.] Secure Call THIRDNETWORKS.CO, LTD. Single Sign On (SSO) [Allows certain specified operations and use of specified applications following one-time authentication.] Single Sign On for Apresia Kyosai Create Co., Ltd. NSAS Sony Broadband Solutions Corp. NET TIME Corporation Fingerprint authentication [A type of biometric authentication using user's fingerprint] UB-Safe DDS, Inc. Hardware authentication [Authentication based on terminal hardware information] RegistGate NSI Co., Ltd. ROUD Oki Network Integration Co., Ltd. Signature authentication [A type of biometric authentication based on a user-specificcharacteristic, such as handwriting] C-Sign Server/Client Cyber SIGN Japan Inc. Matrix authentication [Authentication based on icons or other patterns displayed on a matrix] WisePoint Authenticator Falcon System Consulting, Inc. PC Quarantine LAN Solution [For example, protection against viruses from connected terminals] SecureCube/PC Check (LAN-Blocker) NRI Secure Technologies, Ltd. NOSiDE NTT Data Corp. F-Secure Quarantine Controller Japan F-Secure Corporation RADIUS(authentication) server full flex Accense Technology, Inc. Enterpras Standard Stellar Craft, Inc. Steel-Belted RADIUS Funk Software, IncTerilogy Co., Ltd.