David Sequino brings deep experience in Certicom's key markets

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario – (August 17, 2004) – Certicom Corp. (TSX: CIC), the authority for strong, efficient cryptography, today announced that David Sequino has joined the company as vice president, worldwide sales. Mr. Sequino has more than 15 years of sales and business development expertise, the majority of it in the embedded systems industry, a primary focus for Certicom.

Most recently, Mr. Sequino was vice president, worldwide sales and business development at Teja Technologies, a developer of software platforms for multi-core processors. There he was responsible for developing the company's worldwide field organization and implementing a new sales methodology that resulted in significant improvements in quarter-over-quarter revenue growth and a tenfold increase in the sales pipeline, while reducing the sales cycles and increasing the average selling prices. Prior to Teja, Mr. Sequino held senior sales management positions at Deep Nines Technologies, Wind River Systems, M/A-Com Semiconductor and Tektronix.

"I am extremely excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for Certicom. The company is without a doubt the worldwide leader in strong, efficient cryptography and offers a compelling value proposition to device manufacturers and software developers looking to embed security in their products," said Mr. Sequino. "I look forward to helping Certicom realize its vision of Elliptic Curve Cryptography-based security solutions in all networked applications and devices."

Throughout his career Mr. Sequino has worked with the top firms in the processor and device manufacturing industries, many of whom Certicom counts as its key customers and partners. Mr. Sequino also has experience selling into the financial and government industries, which are important markets for Certicom.

"David is an accomplished salesman and business strategist with a deep understanding of the technical aspects of our business. We're pleased to welcome such an experienced member to our team," said Ian McKinnon, president and CEO at Certicom. "We are confident he will be a great asset to Certicom and to our customers as he helps them to leverage the benefits of our cryptographic expertise."

Mr. Sequino, who began July 26, 2004, is based in Certicom's Worldwide Sales Headquarters in Reston, Virginia. He replaces Donald Pope, who left to pursue other opportunities.

About Certicom
Certicom Corp. (TSX:CIC) is the authority for strong, efficient cryptography required by software vendors and device manufacturers to embed security in their products. Adopted by the US Government’s National Security Agency (NSA), Certicom technologies for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) provide the most security per bit of any known public key scheme, making it ideal for constrained environments. Certicom products and services are currently licensed to more than 300 customers including Motorola, Oracle, Research In Motion, Terayon, Texas Instruments and XM Radio. Founded in 1985, Certicom is headquartered in Mississauga, ON, Canada, with offices in Ottawa, ON; Reston, VA; San Mateo, CA; and London, England. Visit www.certicom.com.

# # #

Certicom, Security Builder, Security Builder Crypto, Security Builder SSL, Security Builder PKI, Security Builder GSE, movianVPN, movianCrypt and movianMail are trademarks or registered trademarks of Certicom Corp. MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered trademarks in the US Patent & Trademark Office. Java and all other Java-based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. The Bluetooth trademarks are owned by their proprietor and used by Motorola, Inc. under license. All other companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Forward-Looking Statements
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.

The shares of the company described above have been offered only to qualified institutional buyers in reliance on Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and outside the United States pursuant to Regulation S of the Securities Act. The shares have not been registered under the Securities Act and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to a U.S. Person absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offering would be unlawful.

For further information, please contact: