Leading TV Manufacturers Rely on TC TrustCenter to Implement the CI Plus Standard in Europe

TC TrustCenter signs exclusive partner agreement with CI Plus LLP to protect premium digital TV content against piracy

London, UK. – 13th January, 2009 – CI Plus LLP, a consortium of leading TV and Conditional Access Module manufacturers, has heralded a new era of protection against piracy with the publication of the new CI Plus Common Interface Standard. To implement the necessary content protection mechanisms that are based on digital certificates, CI Plus signed an exclusive multi-year contract with TC TrustCenter, the leading On Demand Digital Identity Services provider based in Hamburg, Germany. As an authorized Trust Authority of CI Plus, TC TrustCenter will not only provide certificate issuance and management services but also the necessary registration for all manufacturers of TV devices, digital recorders and Conditional Access (CA) modules who want to license the CI Plus standard.

The CI Plus standard is an enhancement of the existing CI Specification that eliminates vulnerabilities in content protection for Pay-TV content. To ensure optimum security between the CA Module and the digital receiver, the new CI Plus standard uses a collection of established, industry accepted and validated techniques, including key management, device and message authentication and encryption.

As an exclusive Trust Authority for CI Plus LLP in Europe, TC TrustCenter assumes the roles of a certificate agent and registration partner for manufacturers who are implementing the new standard in their products. The services include the entire on-boarding process of the manufacturers – from vetting to verification of subscription requirements to contract management.

To guarantee the mass provisioning of the CI Plus compliant certificates, which are injected into the receiving devices during the manufacturing process, TC TrustCenter developed an efficient and comprehensive solution in less than three months. It not only covers the entire specific security requirements of the new CI Plus standard but also meets the needs for flexibility, scalability, and administrative ease of use which are fundamental for the CE manufacturers to adopt the standard.

“We chose TC Trust Center because they demonstrated excellent technical expertise and an impressive responsiveness in adjusting to and acting on our specific requirements throughout the selection process,” explains Mark Londero of CI Plus LLP. “TC TrustCenter fully meets our expectations as a trusted partner to assist the market launch of the new CI Plus standard.”

“The trend of using digital certificates in electronic devices for strong authentification and for the protection of digital content is well corroborated by the new CI Plus standard,” says Dr. Artur Heil, Director Sales and Marketing, EMEA, at TC TrustCenter GmbH. “This project benefits from our many years of experience in the area of device authentication, especially when dealing with mass roll-outs. We are proud that this expertise has convinced CI Plus LLP to engage in a multi-year partnership with TC TrustCenter.”

About TC TrustCenter

For more than 10 years TC TrustCenter provides world wide trust to digital communication between employees, clients, partners and suppliers. As one of the first Trustcenter we provide world wide trust to the internet and electronic B2B Business with our Managed Services. In Europe as well as in the US we do have a broad range of project and industry experience regarding PKI and considerable references of international customers.

Our portfolio ranges from solutions for Phishing Protection, Security of Online Transactions, and Electronic Invoicing to broad PKI solutions and Managed Security Services. Our On Demand Digital Identity solutions are cost-efficient, highly secure and fast to implement.

TC TrustCenter is accredited according to the German Signature Act, European Signature Act, Identrust, SAFE, TÜVIT and SISAC.

For more information see www.trustcenter.de/en

About CI Plus LLP

CI Plus LLP is a UK Registered Limited Liability Partnership. The founder members of CI Plus LLP are Sony, SmarDTV, Samsung, Philips and Neotion.

In summer of 2007 the following companies, Neotion, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, SmarDTV and Sony, created the CI+ Forum. The CI+ Forum comprised a set of companies, CE Manufacturers and Common Interface Module Manufacturers, with a shared interest in extending the existing DVB Common Interface Standard to support additional security and features that would give the Pay TV Value Chain the confidence to deliver Pay TV Services to a wide range of consumer electronics devices equipped with the new extensions.
In January 2008 the CI+ Forum published V1.00 CI Plus Specification.

CI Plus LLP is now the corporate legal entity that takes CI Plus forward to market launch and deployment and takes over immediately the role of the former CI+ Forum in terms of ownership of the CI Plus Specifications and their future maintenance.

Going forward the CI Plus LLP will take the role of CI Plus Trust Authority and, with the assistance of its appointed agents, will operate the technology licensing, testing and certificate procurement regimes required to allow market deployment of CI Plus.

For more information see www.ci-plus.com

All trademarks, company and product names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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