Sun Microsystems has released a new
data encryption key management technology and packed it off to the open-source
community.
According to a press release Sun
says it is the first release of a generic communication protocol
between an encryption key manager and encrypting devices into an open-source
community.
With a name like KMS API, which is clearly a name only an Open Sourcer would
understand, the key has been in development at least 18 months. The API
lets partners write applications that can encrypt data to Sun's Key Management
Station, an appliance that automatically creates, manages and destroys
encryption keys for data storage.
It also means that multiple devices from from lots of manufacturers can
connect to Sun gear.