Jeffrey Chisholm joins Board of Directors; Don Pope appointed VP Sales

Mississauga, Ontario (February 18, 2003) – Certicom Corp. (TSX: CIC), a leading provider of wireless security solutions, today announced the appointment of Jeffrey S. Chisholm to the company’s Board of Directors, and Don Pope to the position of Vice President, Sales.

Mr. Chisholm has extensive experience in finance, strategic and technology planning, corporate turnarounds and brand positioning at a global level. Mr. Chisholm established a consulting firm in 2001 following a 30-year career with the Bank of Montreal where he held a variety of senior management positions between 1990 and 2001, including Vice Chair Personal Commercial Client Group, Vice Chair Electronic Financial Services, and Vice Chair Corporate and Institutional Financial Services. Prior to 1990, he held progressively senior management positions in finance and treasury.

“Jeffrey brings a wealth of expertise across a broad spectrum of disciplines, and we are pleased to welcome him to the Board of Directors, ” said Ian McKinnon, President and CEO of Certicom. “His insight and counsel will undoubtedly be a strong asset to Certicom as we pursue our strategy for profitable, sustainable growth.”

Mr. Pope joins Certicom with broad sales and management expertise acquired over a 25-year career in the high technology industry. Mr. Pope has served as vice president of sales for leading telecommunications and computer companies, including VirtualCom, Inc./OPTIM Systems, Inc., NewComm Net, Inc./Advanced Telecom Group, Inc. and Orion Network Systems. Mr. Pope was most recently with Telia International Carrier, where he developed alternate sales channels and executed entry into the US federal government vertical market.

Mr. Pope will build on the foundation and strategy established by Hunton Witt, who served as Acting Vice President of Sales since the first quarter of fiscal 2003 and remains a key member of the Certicom sales team. Due to personal reasons, Fran Pascarella will not return to the role of Vice President, Sales but remains a valued advisor to the company. Mr. Pope will be based at the company’s Herndon, Virginia office.

“Don is a veteran sales professional with strong operational and management experience in North American and global markets, “ said Mr. McKinnon. “His leadership and ability to identify customer needs, enter new markets and develop innovative sales strategies will significantly enhance the execution of Certicom’s long-term strategy to achieve sustainable, profitable growth.”

About Certicom
Certicom is a leading provider of wireless security solutions, enabling developers, governments and enterprises to add strong security to their devices, networks and applications. Designed for constrained devices, Certicom’s patented technologies are unsurpassed in delivering the strongest cryptography with the smallest impact on performance and usability. Certicom products are currently licensed to more than 300 customers including Texas Instruments, Palm, Research In Motion, Cisco Systems, Oracle and Motorola. Founded in 1985, Certicom is headquartered in Mississauga, ON, Canada, with offices in Ottawa, ON; Herndon, VA; San Mateo, CA; and London, England. Visit www.certicom.com.

Certicom, Security Builder, SSL Plus, Trustpoint, movianVPN, movianCrypt are trademarks or registered trademarks of Certicom Corp. All other companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Except for historical information contained herein, this news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Factors that might cause a difference include, but are not limited to, those relating to the acceptance of mobile and wireless devices and the continued growth of e-commerce and m-commerce, the increase of the demand for mutual authentication in m-commerce transactions, the acceptance of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) technology as an industry standard, the market acceptance of our principal products and sales of our customer’s products, the impact of competitive products and technologies, the possibility of our products infringing patents and other intellectual property of fourth parties, and costs of product development. Certicom will not update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. More detailed information about potential factors that could affect Certicom’s financial results is included in the documents Certicom files from time to time with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities.

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