(FYI) World Wide Web Consortium Issues XML Key Management System (XKMS) 2.0 as a W3C Recommendation

Congratulations folks!

Here's a copy of the Press Release that was sent a couple of minutes
ago:

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-news/2005AprJun/0005.html

That is the link for the official announcement.

-jose

----------------------

News Release: World Wide Web Consortium Issues XML Key Management System
(XKMS) 2.0 as a W3C Recommendation

Today, W3C announces the completion of its latest Security Component,
the XML Key Management System 2.0. XKMS 2.0 brings public key
infrastructure to the W3C Security Framework, and makes PKI more
manageable Web applications, including Web Services. For more
information, please contact Janet Daly, W3C Global Communications
Officer, at +1 617 253 5884 or <janet@w3.org>

===================================================

World Wide Web Consortium Issues XML Key Management System (XKMS) 2.0 as
a W3C Recommendation

XKMS 2.0 Adds Public Key Management to Web Applications, Web Services

Web Resources:

XML Key Management System 2.0 (2 components)
   http://www.w3.org/TR/xkms2/
   http://www.w3.org/TR/xkms2-bindings/

This press release
   in English: http://www.w3.org/2005/06/xkms-pressrelease.html.en
   in French: http://www.w3.org/2005/06/xkms-pressrelease.html.fr
   in Japanese: http://www.w3.org/2005/06/xkms-pressrelease.html.ja

Testimonials from DataPower, Oracle Corporation and XMLSec Inc.
   http://www.w3.org/2005/06/xkms-testimonial


Contact Americas, Australia --
Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613
Contact Europe, Africa and the Middle East-
Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94
Contact Asia --
Yasuyuki Hirakawa <chibao@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170

________________________________________

http://www.w3.org/ -- 28 June 2005 -- W3C has approved the XML Key
Management System 2.0 (XKMS 2.0, XKMS 2.0 Bindings) as a W3C
Recommendation. XKMS 2.0 is part of the W3C XML Security Framework,
which includes the XML Signature, XML Encryption, and Canonical XML
Recommendations. XKMS, a cornerstone of Web applications security, adds
public key management to the W3C XML Security Framework.

Key Management is Essential for Web Services Security

Web applications and services security rely on interoperable components
that make it possible to sign, seal, encrypt, and exchange electronic
documents. All of these functions rely on management and processing of
public keys. Before XKMS, these services lacked openly specified,
non-proprietary interfaces (APIs). Today, XKMS offers an open,
standards-based interface to key management services that has already
demonstrated its utility in distributed enterprise security applications.

XKMS 2.0 Makes PKI Work Better between Enterprises

XKMS 2.0 makes public key infrastructure (PKI) practical to implement in
Web applications, including Web services. Standards-based key management
enables one to communicate identity across applications and systems,
including in Web services applications operating across different trust
boundaries.

Traditionally, the common PKI operations (public key certificate
management, localization, parsing, and validation operations) are
difficult to integrate into existing applications because they add
overhead and must be hard-coded for a given PKI. XKMS 2.0 improves PKI
deployment by delegating those operations to a server by means of low
overhead protocols. At the same time, it is open enough to be used with
any public certificate format, chosen by developers to meet application
requirements.

XKMS 2.0 Streamlines Enterprise-Level Applications

In real world scenarios, XKMS 2.0 systems streamline enterprise-level
applications. All decisions as to the type of public key certificate
format, revocation, and so on can be handled directly at the server and
transparently to the applications themselves. This will not only help
third parties provide PKI operations in an interoperable way, it will
also allow companies to install their own XKMS 2.0 servers for
applications pertaining to local intranets. Furthermore, enterprises
running XKMS 2.0 servers can handle key exchange and management at the
server level, rather than at the client level, which makes for a single
point of coordination, rather than requiring clients within an
enterprise to be aware of each other.

Security Experts, Industry Leaders Drive XKMS 2.0 Development

XKMS 2.0 was developed by the W3C XML Key Management Working Group, and
included W3C Members DataPower, Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle, Sun
Microsystems, VeriSign and webMethods, along with invited experts
co-chairs Stephen Farrell and Shivaram Mysore, Guillermo Alvaro Rey,
Berin Lautenbach, Tommy Lindberg, Roland Lockhart and Yunhao Zhang. For
more information on implementation and support of the new
Recommendation, please review the XKMS 2.0 testimonials.

About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]

The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing
common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its
interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly run
by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT
CSAIL) in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and
Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France and Keio University in
Japan. Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository of
information about the World Wide Web for developers and users, and
various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of new
technology. To date, nearly 400 organizations are Members of the
Consortium. For more information see http://www.w3.org/

Testimonials

Testimonials for XKMS 2.0 Recommendation
These testimonials are in support of W3C issuance of XKMS 2.0 as a W3C
Recommendation.

DataPower | Oracle Corporation | XMLsec Inc.

DataPower'sXS40 XML Security Gateway has long supported XKMS since early
2003. Asthe most widely deployed XML Web services security gateway among
theGlobal 1000 and large government agencies, our extensive experience
hasdemonstrated that XML Web services are a highly effective way to
offerapplication security as a service to achieve 'separation of
concerns'best practices and reduce the complexity of Web services
security. Inthis way, XKMS 2.0 aims to improve PKI deployments and
simplifyapplication security by moving digital-signature handling and
encryptionout of the applications themselves and provide PKI as an
easy-to-useservice instead.
-- Rich Salz, Chief Security Architect, DataPower

XKMS provides PKI integration capabilities that will facilitate and
accelerate the adoption of Web services. Oracle was pleased to provide a
reference implementation for the XKMS 2.0 specification; we look forward
to supporting the specification in Oracle Application Server as XKMS
gains widespread deployment.
-- Donald Deutsch, Vice President, Standards Strategy and Architecture,
Oracle Corporation

In 2002, the W3C's release of the XML Signature and XML Encryption
Recommendations led the way in making it much easier, thanks to XML, to
integrate cryptography into applications. However, until now,
application developers still had to use challenging, non-XML protocols
for the key management aspects of cryptography. Now thanks to the W3C
XML Key Management Specification (XKMS) Version 2.0 Recommendation which
defines straight-forward XML messages and protocols for key management,
the last major hurdle to fully enabling XML-based data security has been
removed. As a past participant of the W3C XKMS working group, XMLsec
congratulates the W3C on its release of the XKMS 2.0 Recommendation.
-- Ed Simon, President and CEO, XMLsec Inc.

------------------