Curl Corporation Partners With NTT Software; Curl Announces the Use of NTT Software's CipherCraft to Enhance Security Features of the Curl Client/Web Platform.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 21, 2003

Curl Corporation and NTT Software Corporation today announced a strategic partnership incorporating NTT's CipherCraft(R) that will improve security and efficiency in encryption in Curl applications. This new security service feature will be available in both the Japanese and English versions of the Curl(TM) Client/Web Platform.

The incorporation of this new security feature will extend existing security capabilities of the Curl Platform. Additionally, CipherCraft will allow greater ease of development of secure applications with the Curl Platform. According to Tom Stiling, President and CEO of Curl Corporation, "this provides Curl with competitive advantage for secure transactions for existing and new customers in industries like government, financial services, manufacturing, and health care."

"The collaboration NTT Software and Curl Corporation brings an enhanced offering to the marketplace," says Mr. Fuyuhiko Kurata, Executive Manager of NTT Software. "This partnership combines the high productivity of the Curl Client/Web Platform with the proven security of CipherCraft, and allows both Curl and NTT Software to satisfy global business needs for application developers and users."

The Curl(TM) Client/Web Platform is the industry's first rich client software suite delivering Web-distributed enterprise applications with smart user interfaces and rapid responsiveness. Combining the desktop power of Client/Server and the efficiencies of the Web, the Curl platform offers many advantages for large corporations for business productivity and profitability. The platform comprises a runtime environment and an IDE that includes an extensible programming language. The Curl Client/Web Platform is ideal for the Web-enabled enterprise launching into Web services and enterprise portal projects.

CipherCraft is a cipher engine that supports the cipher algorithm Camellia and PSEC-KEM. This is the first cipher developed in this industry that contains the maximum level security and efficiency. Towards the end of February, the NESSIE (New European Schemes for Signature, Integrity and Encryption) selected CipherCraft as the recommended cryptographic primitives. In addition to Camellia and PSEC-KEM, CipherCraft also supports multiple ciphers including AES and 3-DES.

"The CipherCraft security enhancement makes the Curl solution even more compelling for the European market," says Jan Bergstrom, CEO and President of B-Tribe, Curl Corporation's recently announced European sales agent. "B-Tribe will be able to make an even stronger case for implementing the Curl Client/Web Platform in companies that rely on secure transactions."

What is Camellia

Developed jointly by NTT and Mitsubishi Electronic, Camellia is a 128-bit block cipher that also supports 192 and 256 bits, and implements a higher safety standard than the next-term AES finalist, Rijndael. It can also be efficiently implemented in compact and low-power consumption hardware, such as IC card (8-bit CPU), and many platforms such as PC (32-bit CPU), or servers (64-bit CPU).

What is PSEC-KEM

Developed by NTT, PSEC-KEM is an elliptic curve encryption algorithm, and it is mathematically proven that PSEC cannot be broken under the assumptions that hash function outputs are random. It has the same ability as ElGamal, and it yields higher implementation speed in software, since high security is realized even with short length keys.

About NTT Software

NTT Software provides rich-solutions for advanced network technologies, IT-administrative-strategy consulting, and system construction and maintenance to meet customer needs. NTT develops custom solutions and offers a system integration solution package to construct the system from the scratch. NTT's business focuses on IP Platform Building, Mobile Applications, EC Front Systems, and EC Backbone Systems. Within these four divisions, NTT will focus on broadband support and IT marketing consulting for small businesses.

About Curl Corporation

Curl Corporation was established to extend and commercialize the results of a three-year, five million dollar US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded research project conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). By combining the desktop power of client/server processing with Web-based efficiencies, the Curl(TM) Client/Web Platform enables Global 2000 enterprises and Independent Software Vendors to achieve large gains in business productivity and profitability. As the industry's first rich client software suite to deliver Web-distributed enterprise applications, the Curl(TM) Client/Web Platform is complementary to server-side platforms, such as Sun's J2EE and Microsoft's .NET. Founded in 1998 and privately funded, Curl Corporation is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

For more information on the Curl(TM) Client/Web Platform, call 617-761-1200, e-mail [e-mail], or visit www.curl.com.

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    CONTACT: Curl Corporation
             Rachel Berger
             617-761-1200
             [e-mail]
             or
             VA International Corporation
             Public Relations Office of NTT Software Corporation
             Ms. Makiko Shindo
             Mr. Chihiro Kodama
             [phone]

    KEYWORD: MASSACHUSETTS INTERNATIONAL EUROPE TRACK
    INDUSTRY KEYWORD: SOFTWARE COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS MARKETING
AGREEMENTS
    SOURCE: Curl Corporation