Canon taps EMC security unit for US govt smartcard project

By eGovAsia Editors | Sep 15, 2010

Thumbnail: 

SINGAPORE – RSA, the security division of EMC, announced that RSA Professional Services has worked with Canon USA Inc., a manufacturer of digital imaging products, to provide US government standard encryption for its embedded platform used to validate smartcards in Canon printers, copiers and multifunction products (MFP).

RSA’s technology has enabled the company to sell equipment that achieves the security requirements for smartcard authentication to the US public sector, such as the Department of Defense. In order to sell products containing cryptography capability to the US government, information technology and office equipment must meet Federal Information Processing Standardization 140 (FIPS 140) regulations. The FIPS 140 regulations require that software undergo extensive third-party testing to prove that it is robust and secure. Once the software has been tested, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) evaluates the software code as well as its documentation, to ensure the cryptography algorithms meet the federally-mandated standard.