A small security firm has landed a big deal with IBM .
Wave Systems said its applications will be used by Big Blue in certain ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops.
News of the deal, which comes a week after an agreement to put its software on Intel desktop motherboards, sent the Lee, Mass.-based Wave cresting Monday to $4.42 per share on heavy volume. The stock had been mired around $1 until a deal with Intel last week brought the company wider recognition.
“Wave’s partnership with IBM will significantly help us in our objective to deliver open and interoperable solutions to business customers as trusted computing continues to evolve,” said Lark Allen, Wave’s executive vice president.
Two of Wave’s products will be used by IBM and will complement existing safeguards that are built into a chip, making the system less vulnerable to hacking.
The first is Document Manager, which allows users to store private data such as encrypted files and folders using a “drag and drop” mechanism.
It also contains a set of plug-ins for popular office tools to encrypt and decrypt any type of data on a local PC, ensuring that information stays safe even if the machine is lost or stolen.
The second is SmartSignature, which is used to execute digital signatures that comply with industry standards for electonic contracts.
The offerings are likely to appeal primarily to business users, but could improve efficiency and security even with in-house tasks, the companies said.
For example, a human resources department could create and distribute electronic insurance forms, which could be digitally signed by employees, automatically forwarded for additional approvals or processing, and then archived in a secure back-end vault.
Wave was founded in 1988. Financial terms of the IBM deal were not disclosed.