OASIS enhances public-key cryptography standard

The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) has just enhanced its popular public-key cryptography Standard, PKCS #11 for mobile and cloud applications.

According to OASIS, PKCS#11 specifies a platform-independent application programming interface for cryptographic tokens which store and control authentication information including personal identity, cryptographic keys, certificates, digital signatures and biometric data.

“We’re updating PKCS #11 to address recent advances in cryptography, such as new algorithms. We’ll also be considering requirements brought on by mobile devices, cloud computing and virtualization architectures, Web sensors, and contactless payment technologies,” Robert Griffin of RSA, the security division of EMC said.

Griffin co-chairs the new OASIS PKCS# 11 Technical Committee, along with Valerie Fenwick of Oracle.

“By continuing to grow the PKCS #11 standard, we can strengthen support for additional cryptographic algorithms and cryptographic technologies industry wide. We expect the OASIS PKCS Technical Committee will help expand and energize the community of developers, users, and enterprise customers that rely on cryptographic communications and services to secure their tools, applications and data at rest,” Fenwick said.

Reported previously, OASIS announced a new technical committee last year, with a particular focus on biometrics and standardization.

Article Topics

access control  |  authentication  |  Cloud  |  cryptography  |  mobile  |  OASIS  |  smartphones