Broadcom Debuts RFID

IRVINE, Calif. -- Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today introduced the world's first secure processor with integrated radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, as part of the company's Trusted Authentication Initiative. The new device is designed to secure personal authentication transactions associated with physical access, logical access (into a PC or network) and contactless payment applications. The secure processor also enhances the use of currently deployed authentication technologies, such as biometrics and contactless technologies, by eliminating some of their inherent security vulnerabilities.

Personal authentication is a part of daily life -- people present "credentials" to prove their identity and gain access to a place or thing.

In today's world, transactions for physical access, logical access and financial payment are increasingly becoming digital, and thus, our identity has become a collection of electronic bits. While enabling unprecedented levels of convenience, digital transactions inherently expose individuals and companies to greater risk of identity theft, invasion of privacy and physical harm. Though encryption and biometrics have given users a sense of security, in reality, it has pushed attackers towards weaker and more vulnerable parts of the network. In a world dominated by cyber fraud and terrorism headlines, system manufacturers know that they have to eliminate security vulnerabilities.

Announced today is the new Broadcom(R) BCM5890 secure processor, which helps solve these problems by providing a secure processing environment for protecting sensitive transactions. Authentication operations are too often handled on an open processor that is vulnerable to attack. The BCM5890 secure processor is different. It runs in a special secure mode that protects the software, and the security keys that run on it, from tampering or theft. Any system that implements authentication measures, such as biometrics and contactless technologies, will benefit from the use of the BCM5890 secure processor.

"Our society has become quite comfortable with our digital identities, yet in the pursuit of convenience we have opened ourselves up to identify theft and loss of privacy," said Joseph Wallace, Senior Director for Broadcom's Security Line of Business. "Broadcom is committed to providing the technology that joins security with convenience for such applications as physical access, logical access and financial payments."

Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM)