[Debian-OASIS] Fwd: [announce] OASIS Mobilizes to Overcome Challenges to PKI Adoption

[Mark Johnson]

----- Forwarded message from Carol Geyer <carol.geyer@oasis-open.org> -----
    Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 09:48:38 -0500
    From: Carol Geyer <carol.geyer@oasis-open.org>
Reply-To: Carol Geyer <carol.geyer@oasis-open.org>
 Subject: [announce] OASIS Mobilizes to Overcome Challenges to PKI Adoption
      To: announce@lists.oasis-open.org

OASIS Mobilizes to Overcome Challenges to PKI Adoption

San Francisco, CA, USA; 23 February 2004--Members of the OASIS international
standards consortium have published an Action Plan aimed at breaking down
barriers to widespread adoption of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
technology. Considered a foundational Internet security technology, PKI is
used to authenticate people, secure commercial transactions, and protect the
privacy of emails and telephone conversations. 

"The industry's understanding of how digital certificates can be effectively
used in e-business and e-government systems has greatly evolved from the
early days of PKI," explained John Sabo of Computer Associates, co-chair of
the OASIS PKI Technical Committee. "The Committee believes that the security
benefits provided by PKI can become more widely available with our proposed
plan for addressing the current obstacles to deployment. We believe that
following through on this action plan, which incorporates input from PKI
experts and adopters, can greatly benefit those implementing emerging Web
and e-business standards."

The OASIS PKI Action Plan builds on the results of a series of surveys
conducted by the OASIS PKI Technical Committee with IT staff who have
deployed or attempted to deploy PKI. The surveys identified five primary
obstacles to adoption:
1) poor or missing support in software applications, 2) high costs, 3) poor
understanding of PKI among senior managers and end users, 4)
interoperability problems, and 5) lack of focus on business needs.

The OASIS PKI Action Plan directly addresses these obstacles, calling for
clear and specific guidelines for using PKI in the most relevant application
types--document signing, secure email, and electronic commerce. The Plan
also defines the need for interoperability testing, improved educational
materials, best practices and other measures to reduce cost, and outreach to
software application vendors.

"We're issuing an industry-wide Call-to-Action to increase use of a
technology that is essential to achieve the level of security needed in
today's world," said Steve Hanna of Sun Microsystems, co-chair of the OASIS
PKI Technical Committee. "The tactics spelled out in the OASIS PKI Action
Plan are not difficult, but they do require the cooperative efforts of the
entire community. That's why members of OASIS are calling on all PKI
stakeholders--customers, vendors, standards groups, researchers and
government--to join us in executing this Plan."

The OASIS PKI Action Plan is a work product of the OASIS PKI Technical
Committee, whose members include Booz Allen Hamilton, Computer Associates,
Entrust, FundSERV, IBM, KPMG LLP, RSA Security, Sun Microsystems, VISA
International, Wells Fargo, and others. By working together to implement the
Plan, the group believes that barriers to deployment can be measurably
reduced and PKI usage increased.

Support for OASIS PKI Action Plan

Entrust
"As a public-key infrastructure pioneer, we have actively participated in
the development of the OASIS PKI Technical Committee's Action Plan," said
Sharon Boeyen, Principal Consultant with Entrust, Inc.  "We fully support
the goal of OASIS to increase awareness of PKI and foster the growth of
Internet-scale federated identity management solutions based on the
technology."

FundSERV 
"Having been in the PKI arena for the past four years, FundSERV has
experienced many of the obstacles identified by the survey. A clear and
universal action plan like the one that has been defined by OASIS will be of
immense benefit to the PKI community and help overcome barriers to
adoption," said Amir Jafri, Vice President of Technology, FundSERV Inc.  

Sun Microsystems
"Building public key infrastructure that realizes the promise of public key
cryptography has proved more difficult than anyone imagined when Marty
Hellman and I came up with the idea of public key systems in the 1970s,"
said Dr. Whitfield Diffie, Sun Fellow and Chief Security Officer of Sun
Microsystems, Inc. "The OASIS PKI Action plan is an important step toward
the eventual interoperability of all public key implementations. I am very
pleased with Sun's contribution to OASIS and delighted with our endorsement
of the Plan."



About OASIS

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards)
is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the development,
convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set
the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly
designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS
produces worldwide standards for security, Web services, conformance,
business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and
interoperability within and between marketplaces. Founded in 1993, OASIS has
more than 2,500 participants representing over 600 organizations and
individual members in 100 countries. http://www.oasis-open.org


Additional information:

OASIS PKI Technical Committee
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/pki

OASIS PKI Action Plan:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/pki/pkiactionplan.pdf 



Press contact:
Carol Geyer
Director of Communications
OASIS
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org
+1.978.667.5115 x209




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----- End forwarded message -----



____________________________________________________________
Mark Johnson      <mrj@debian.org>
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Home Page:        <http://dulug.duke.edu/~mark/>
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