Industry experts, the creators of ECC and users convene in Toronto to discuss best practices and growing adoption of Elliptic Curve Cryptography

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario – (October 20, 2004)– Certicom Corp. (TSX: CIC), the authority for strong, efficient cryptography, announced it will host the Certicom ECC Conference 2004, the first-ever conference that brings together Elliptic Curve Cryptography researchers, industry experts and users. During the two-day conference, participants from North America, Europe and Asia will discuss the growing adoption of ECC and share best implementation practices and insights for future applications. The conference begins with an evening reception on November 15 with sessions running November 16 -17 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, Canada.

Keynote speakers include Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO of Research In Motion, and Dr. Scott Vanstone, Certicom founder and EVP strategic technology. Also participating are Norm Kern, Unisys; Dr. Jerry Krasner of Embedded Market Forecasters; Herb Little, Research In Motion; Dr. Ralph Merkle, Georgia Tech; and Dr. Leon Pintsov, Pitney Bowes. During the conference, Certicom will present recognition awards to ECC creators Dr. Neal Koblitz, University of Washington and Dr. Victor Miller, Institute for Defense Analyses Center for Communication Research, as well as an ECC visionary award to Dr. Walt Davis, Motorola (retired).

ECC, which is often referred to as the next-generation public-key cryptography system, is used in a growing number of sectors ranging from consumer electronics, wireless devices and semiconductors to government and financial services. Specifically, its implementations protect content, securely transmit data and digitally sign documents. The small size of ECC is a main driver behind its growing adoption. It provides equivalent security to competing public-key cryptosystems but at a fraction of the size, making it ideally suited for resource-constrained devices such as smart phones, semiconductors and smart cards.

Software developers, hardware engineers, and anyone responsible for buying or implementing cryptographic systems will benefit from this conference and the free exchange of practical ideas and real-world lessons. They also will gain insights into future applications of ECC, including standards and protocols.

"This conference is a dynamic forum for ECC proponents to get together and engage in open discussions about the technology: its roots, how it is used today and where it's going," said Scott Vanstone. "We've pulled together a stellar roster of the who's who in the ECC world and representatives from some of North America's leading companies. This conference promises to advance the understanding of ECC and accelerate its adoption."

To register or for more information, visit www.certicom.com/conference2004/registration.

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 Unisys. 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 GSE, Security Builder IPSec, Security Builder Middleware,Security Builder PKI, Security Builder SSL, movianVPN, movianCrypt and movianMail are trademarks or registered trademarks of Certicom Corp. 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.

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