Want to win a million bucks and a high-paying job for life?

That's what Mississauga-based Certicom Corp. is offering anyone who can crack the code to its products and patents surrounding Elliptic Curve Cryptology (ECC) — a combination of algebra and algorithms that ensure everything from cellphone chatter to wireless e-mail sent and received on an Internet-enabled phone or a Blackberry PDA can't be hacked.

The math is complex, the technology used to apply it confounding. But its aim is simple. It is to give access only to those entitled to it — from mom using a cellphone to stay in touch with kids to military scientists using a computer network and determined to keep their secrets."Our technology is based on a very difficult mathematical problem, so we're challenging people to solve the mathematical problem," said Scott Vanstone, a professor of math and computer science at the University of Waterloo and Certicom's founder, explaining the $1 million challenge.

"That's why we're comfortable having our technology incorporated into mission-critical systems."

By M. Corey Goldman at The Star.

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