STRATEGIC PARTNERS
January 27, 2002
WASHINGTON -- The Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X9, the national standards-setting body for the financial services industry, has issued a new standard that defines the components of a public key infrastructure (PKI) and sets a framework of practices and policy requirements for its use.
In addition, the standard "ANS x9.79: 2000, "PKI Practices and Policy Framework" defines the operational practices relative to industry-accepted information systems control objectives and supporting control procedures. PKI users implementing this standard can support multiple policies that incorporate the use of digital signature technology.
"Financial institutions and intermediaries are building infrastructures to provide new electronic financial transaction capabilities for consumers, corporations and government organizations. The growing volume of these transactions and the need to keep them safe, private and reliable has increased the use of public key cryptography. Our hope is that this standard will promote the use of secured transactions over the Internet," said Cynthia Fuller, managing director of X9 Standards.
X9.79 is the latest in a series of X9 standards dealing with public-key technology. Other recently issued standards focus on digital signatures, key management, certificate management and data encryption.
This standard has been submitted as an initial committee draft to the International Organization of Standardization Technical Committee 68 for Banking. For more information, contact 1-800-BANKERS or visit www.x9.org.
