Regulations and compliancy
Many standards and regulations now require, or at least recommend, the use of Elliptic Curve Cryptography. With its stronger and smaller key sizes, ECC is becoming commonplace as the next generation of crypto algorithm as the RSA algorithm’s backwards compatibility benefits diminish over time. Today, the RSA key is still the most common standard as it offers backward compatibility.
Current regulations promoting use of ECC:
Is there a regulation you have to comply to isn’t yet listed, talk to our experts today and we’ll advise you what certificate type to use.
Stronger Keys means Higher Security Strength
Small ECC keys have the equivalent strength of larger RSA keys. For example, a 256-bit ECC key is equivalent to a 3072-bit RSA key and a 384-bit ECC key is equivalent to a 7680-bit RSA key! These strong, small keys allow encryption to stay ahead of increasing computing power without having to simply create longer keys.
| Security Strength | RSA Key Length | ECC Key Length |
|---|---|---|
| 80 | 1024 | 160 |
| 112 | 20148 | 224 |
| 128 | 3072 | 256 |
| 192 | 7680 | 384 |
| 256 | 15360 | 512 |
Smaller Certificate Size means increased performance
The smaller ECC key size means less data is being transmitted between the server and the client during the TLS/SSL handshake, which translates to increased network performance. ECC certificates require less CPU and memory.
This is especially important for applications or devices (especially IoT ecosystems) with limited power, memory, bandwidth or power availability. Overall benefits include:
- Lower CPU demand;
- Physical space taken by an ECC SSL certificate;
- Bandwidth;
- Power consumption;
How to order ECC Certificates
Ordering ECC certificates is very simple with TrustCubes. Our smart ordering system detects an ECC key based CSR and will return an ECC certificate. You can find more information on how to create an ECC CSR in our Resources section. Remember that TrustCubes has pioneered an automated organisation verification system to make sure you receive the industry’s fastest and most efficient validation process.
Automated verification process, free 30 day cancellation period!
Don’t wait days or weeks, get your ECC Certificates in hours!
Is ECC Right for You?
ECC is beneficial in the majority of use cases. However, there are some considerations when evaluating the use of ECC for your application. Most importantly, not all browsers and servers yet support ECC certificates and support in mobile platforms is still being evaluated. Another concern is that while ECC is faster overall, the ECC signature verification can be a computationally intensive task and may be slower than RSA on some older devices.
Determining ECC suitability for your application
- Order a certificate for testing purposes. All customers receive a free 30 day cancellation period, or
- Talk to a TrustCubes expert today and we’ll be happy to advise
Why TrustCubes?
Our team has been shaping the PKI, Signing and Identity Management world for over 15 years and includes founders and previous executives of GeoTrust, GlobalSign, Comodo and more. We use our customer first philosophy and years of experience to guide you through your options and give you the best means of buying industry-leading cybersecurity products.
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