This subtask will also develop ways for organizations or individuals to interoperate in the face of a rich and dynamic set of policies, for example, those that exist among different Federal agencies. The cryptographic activity involves the development and testing of cryptographic algorithms and interfaces for use in protecting office and electronic commerce applications and data. Public Key and Key Management Infrastructure. Comprehensive certificate management mechanisms and underlying support infrastructure are required for all of this to work. The viability and success of the NGI will depend on the existence of new, more secure protocols.
Current protocols have limited and demonstrably weak security mechanisms.
New protocols being developed will include advanced methods to authenticate communications, nodes, and users, and will provide other security services such as confidentiality protection, extended audit trails, and threat monitoring. Unlike other types of standards and open specifications, security standards have an implicit requirement for special testing.