CableLabs Clears Motorola's DOCSIS 3.0 Security
Vendor’s Certificate Authority Accredited As Source For Cable-Modem Keys
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 7/21/2008 9:59:00 AM
CableLabs has granted “manufacturer certificate authority” status to Motorola’s DOCSIS 3.0 products, allowing the equipment vendor to supply security credentials to MSOs’ cable modem networks.
The Motorola Public Key Infrastructure Center, located in San Diego, passed an audit for its digital security certificate generation system. Motorola is qualified to provide the underlying security for use in Motorola DOCSIS equipment.
Motorola said all its digital certificates are backward-compatible with DOCSIS 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0 equipment and will fully support all future shipments of DOCSIS equipment.
"The DOCSIS 3.0 specification itself establishes ways for cable companies to safely buy equipment from multiple vendors to deploy high-speed data services," CableLabs president and CEO Dick Green said in a statement. "The audit the Certificate Authority undertakes is another benchmark standard that we hold DOCSIS certificate suppliers to as additional fail-safe for the cable community. Motorola has further demonstrated its commitment to DOCSIS by participating and successfully fulfilling the requirements of the audit."
Additional security elements of DOCSIS 3.0 include advanced traffic encryption and for new multicast messaging, early authentications, enhanced provisioning, verification, proxy configuration, certificate revocation and future secure software download.
Motorola’s SurfBoard cable and digital voice modems were recently certified in CableLabs Certification Wave 58. Its BSR 64000 cable modem termination system received the lowest-level bronze qualification, which indicates it supports basic features of DOCSIS 3.0, including downstream channel bonding.
