Mountain View, Calif. -- Cable Television Laboratories Inc. has selected
VeriSign Inc. to serve as the organization's 'Root Certificate Authority' (Root
CA), which will handle the digital certificates that secure cable modems from
potential hackers.
Specifically, the Root CA group will become the starting point for
authenticating digital certificates embedded in future Data Over Cable Service
Interface Specification 1.1-based cable modems and multimedia-terminal adapters
based on PacketCable standards.
To prevent pirates from cloning cable modems and stealing high-speed cable
services from operators, the presence of digital certificates and a public-key
infrastructure have become required elements of DOCSIS 1.1 and PacketCable.
Three cable-modem manufacturers currently use VeriSign's
cable-modem-authentication technology: 3Com Corp., Toshiba America Information
Systems Inc. and Terayon Communication Systems Inc.
Another player in the digital-certificates field, Entrust Technologies Inc.,
recently signed on Thomson Multimedia.
