Open Source Will Drive Adoption of PKI Enabled Applications
RSA CONFERENCE, SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sun-Netscape
Alliance (Alliance) announces today that it plans to contribute its public key
infrastructure (PKI) source code to mozilla.org. This open source release will
provide the industry with proven cross-platform PKI libraries that enable
software developers to integrate higher levels of security into their
applications. The contribution will include a version of the Netscape Security
Services (NSS) and Personal Security Manager (PSM) solutions. The Alliance
release coincides with the US Department of Commerce announcement that it has
released new regulations which will further enable the increased export of
certain encryption source code.
"The Alliance views security as a critical component to the global e-
commerce market," said Mark Tolliver, president and general manager for the
Sun-Netscape Alliance. "Our contribution has provided the development
community with proven PKI technology which, by making it freely available,
will set the stage for transforming the e-commerce marketplace with innovative
solutions."
"We are very excited about the industry leadership that the Sun-Netscape
Alliance is demonstrating with this announcement," said Matthew Szulik,
President and CEO of Red Hat. "Open source development based on this
contribution will help strengthen and accelerate the adoption of PKI enabled
applications and services worldwide."
NSS is a security software development package that provides easy-to-
integrate, Internet-ready Secure Sockets Layer (SSL/TLS) and public-key
security capabilities through an industry proven flexibility architecture. NSS
is the security architecture for most of the Alliance server products
including iPlanet Certificate Management System, iPlanet Web Server, iPlanet
Directory Server, and iPlanet Messaging Server. Developers will now be able to
efficiently incorporate the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL/TLS) protocol and
cryptographic token support (PKCS#11) into their applications using the NSS
cross-platform application programming interface.
PSM is a new client -- independent security module that greatly simplifies
PKI functions for the end user. PSM hides the complexity of PKI for operations
such as setting up an SSL connection, object signing and signature
verification, certificate management including issuance and revocation, and
other common PKI functions.
Mozilla.org will provide the management structure that will allow
developers to contribute additions and modifications back to the original
source code, allowing free access to the source code and enabling ongoing
contributions and improvements by the development community.
"The availability of industry proven PKI source code will be a tremendous
benefit to developers," said Mitchell Baker, Chief Lizard Wrangler at
mozilla.org. "This contribution should speed the delivery of innovative new
security-enabled products and services."
About the Sun-Netscape Alliance
America Online, Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) formed the
Sun-Netscape Alliance to provide easy to deploy, comprehensive enterprise and
e-commerce solutions to business partners and other companies competing in
today's Net Economy. The Alliance product portfolio provides customers with
the industry's most scalable, integrated infrastructure software and a family
of production ready e-commerce applications. The products are offered on the
industry's most widely available product platforms, including DEC, HP, IBM,
Linux, SGI, Microsoft Windows, and Sun. The alliance software product
portfolio includes messaging and calendar, collaboration, web, application,
directory, and certificate servers. The Alliance also offers a family of
production-ready applications for e-commerce, including commerce exchange,
procurement, selling, and billing.
About mozilla.org
Mozilla.org (http://www.mozilla.org) is the group chartered by Netscape
Communications with responsibility for making Mozilla a successful open-source
project; it exists to support the entire Mozilla community. Mozilla.org
provides a central point of contact and community for those interested in
using and/or improving the Mozilla codebase.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- The Network Is The
Computer(TM) -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., to its position as a
leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that
power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to ".com" their businesses.
With $12.4 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 170
countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.
NOTE: Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, and all other Sun trademarks,
service marks, slogans, logos, etc. referred to or displayed in the document,
are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the
United States and other countries. Netscape and the Netscape logo are
registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation in the U.S. and
other countries. Other Netscape logos, product names, and service names are
also trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation, which may be
registered in other countries.
SOURCE Sun-Netscape Alliance
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CONTACT:
Kelley Egre of Sun-Netscape Alliance,
503-314-5005
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