[372] in Best-of-Security
BoS: IETF To Develop Open-PGP
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Con Zymaris)
Thu Oct 2 15:30:49 1997
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 11:20:41 +1000
From: Con Zymaris <conz@cyber.com.au>
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IETF To Develop Open-PGP
(09/27/97; 2:18 p.m. EDT)
By John Fontana, InternetWeek
The IETF Friday approved the formation of a working
group to develop a specification for secure E-mail
built
on encryption technology from Pretty Good Privacy
Inc.
At the same time, rival RSA Data Security, Redwood
City, Calif., made its own moves to get its S/MIME
protocol into an Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF) working group.
Once the Open-PGP specification is developed, the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) could
approve it as an Internet standard. To facilitate
the
acceptance of the protocol by the IETF, PGP released
"change control" of its technology to the Internet
Society (ISOC), and the IESG. Change control gives
the working group the right to re-engineer the
protocol
as it sees fit.
That has been one of the sticking point in the
effort to
turn the Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension
protocol (S/MIME) into a standard. S/MIME also is
encumbered by trademark and licensing requirements
because RSA owns the technology.
But Friday, RSA submitted a letter to the ISOC
stating
that it would release its trademark and copyright on
S/MIME, according to Paul Hoffman, the director of
the Internet Mail Consortium.
If the ISOC accepts the terms of the letter, the
IESG
could commission a working group for S/MIME, a de
facto standard with support from all the leading
messaging vendors.
Working groups are commissioned by the IETF to
develop specifications for Internet standards. Those
specifications must be approved by the IESG before
getting on what is called the "standards track."
Both protocols could be approved as Internet
standards, just like HTTP and FTP are standards for
transferring files.
