MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., August 27, 2001 - Nokia today introduced a new set of advanced features for its award winning (December 12, 2000 Network World Fusion Reviews) line of virtual private network (VPN) solutions. Building on our ability to cut communication costs and maximize IT return on investment for our customers, this new release provides significant enhancements in the remote access, PKI, and management functionality of our entire line of Nokia VPN appliances. Specific enhancements include Smart Card support, external PKI support for increased functionality, and remote client support for IPSec over NAT (Network Address Translation).
Smart cards are now being leveraged for use with VPNs for remote user authentication to provide a secure, convenient alternative to storing those digital certificates and susceptible information on computer hard drives. Nokia's VPN smart card implementation lets mobile users connect to a Nokia VPN Gateway easily and securely by simply inserting their personal smart card into the computer's card reader and entering their PIN code. An encrypted tunnel to the corporate network is created immediately by the Nokia VPN client software, which leverages the digital certificate on the smart card. As all confidential authentication details reside on the smart cards instead of computers themselves, unauthorized access is effectively prohibited.
The Nokia VPN uses a PKI smart card of Setec's SetCOS (TM) product family. Setec's PKI smart card is an ISO standard multi-application card with 16 KB of EEPROM for applications. It supports 1024 bit RSA keys, and both RSA key generation and RSA calculation are handled completely inside the card thus never compromising the sensitive private RSA keys.
"Integrating a smart card into a VPN solution brings definite advantages. One obvious benefit is the high security of a PKI smart card - the personal private keys used for authentication and encryption cannot be copied or compromised. Furthermore, PKI smart cards are used more and more for securing email and web applications, for secure single sign-on and for legally binding digital signatures. VPN remote user authentication fits perfectly into the line of security applications utilizing smart card technology," states Lauri Pesonen, CTO and EVP, at Setec, a leading provider of smart cards.
Another significant upgrade to the Nokia VPN solution is that Nokia VPN Gateways and Clients now operate across networks that perform network address translation (NAT). This enhancement allows mobile users to dial into the network from remote sites of varying networking environments, such as hotels and airports. Previously, remote VPN connections from behind a NAT device have been impossible due to converted IP address information.
"From the ground up, Nokia's dedicated VPN solutions have been designed to maximize flexibility, cost-effectiveness and the most advanced security VPN technologies available. Continuing in this tradition, the new features we now introduce help corporations of any size ensure secure connectivity across the Internet, intranet, or extranet," says Bob Brace, vice president of marketing, Nokia Internet Communications.
In addition to support for smart cards and IPSec over NAT, Nokia is also announcing the following software enhancements in their VPN solution:
· Simplified VPN management. The upgraded management tools of the Nokia VPN solution, featuring auditing and SNMP enhancements, help administrators overcome deployment and management pains.
· Automatic retrieval of certificate revocation lists (CRLs) from Certificate Authorities (CA), such as Verisign, for checking if certificates used in a Nokia VPN are valid.
· On?line certificate enrollment for Nokia VPN Gateways and Clients. Gateways and clients can obtain a digital certificate on-line by sending their public key directly to a CA using SCEP (simple certificate enrollment protocol).
· Remote users relying on the Linux FreeS/WAN IPSec V1.8 implementation can connect to Nokia VPN Gateways.
Nokia's VPN solutions are standards-based and purpose-built platforms. For growing organizations where VPNs have begun to play a more strategic business role, Nokia's family of dedicated VPN solutions offer high availability with seamless active session fail-over, dynamic load balancing, and scale to the most demanding performance requirements on the market. The Nokia dedicated VPN solutions consist of the Nokia VPN Client software, Nokia VPN Policy Manager, and the Nokia VPN Gateways including CC5205, CC5200, CC2500, and CC500 models.
Availability
Nokia's enhanced VPN offering will be available on the entire portfolio of the dedicated Nokia VPN appliances (CC500, CC2500, CC5200, CC5205) in early September 2001 in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
About Nokia Internet Communications
Nokia Internet Communications, headquartered in Mountain View, California, provides world class Network Security and Virtual Private Network solutions that ensure the security and reliability of corporate enterprise and managed service provider networks. Nokia is committed to enhancing the end user experience by bringing a new level of security and reliability to the network, enabling an Internet transaction that is personal and trusted -- each and every time. For more information, please visit www.nokia.com and click on Secure Network Solutions.
About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications. Backed by its experience, innovation, user-friendliness and secure solutions, the company has become the leading supplier of mobile phones and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed and IP networks. By adding mobility to the Internet, Nokia creates new opportunities for companies and further enriches the daily lives of people. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on six major exchanges.
Further information (media and analysts only):
Nokia Internet Communications Americas
Laurie Armstrong
Tel. + 1 650 625 2424
laurie.armstrong@nokia.com
Nokia Internet Communications EMEA
Claire Backhurst
Tel. +44 7788 145460
Maarit Oikarinen
Tel. +358 40 830 1108
Nokia Internet Communications APAC
Bonnie Datta
Tel. +6597389743
bonnie.datta@nokia.com
www.nokia.com