Munich, Germany — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Intel Corporation announced today at the RSA Europe security conference it will deliver its Common Data Security Architecture (CDSA) software to the industry at no cost. This will allow companies around the world to develop security-enabled software products faster and in a more cost-effective manner.

Intel is making the CDSA software available as “open source” code, which can be modified and used by developers with virtually any operating system to add security features to software applications. This open source approach also will allow CDSA software to be used as the security infrastructure for the Linux operating system.

“One of the most important issues facing the computer industry is security on the Internet,” said Craig Kinnie, Vice President and Director of the Intel Architecture Labs. “By providing CDSA software as open source code, Intel is helping fuel the growth of the Internet, offering the industry the services needed to build secure e-Business applications.”

CDSA, developed by Intel Architecture Labs, is an industry-accepted specification for the creation of interoperable, security-enabled, e-Business applications. CDSA allows applications to gain access to security services like encryption, biometrics, and the management of digital certificates and authorization credentials. Software vendors can use CDSA software to add those and other security capabilities to their software products, instead of developing those security components themselves. This can cut development costs and accelerate time to market.

Industry Momentum

The Open Group, an industry consortium that promotes open specifications, adopted CDSA in 1997. Since then, CDSA has received wide industry adoption and is currently being used in the products of several leading hardware, software and computer security vendors. Working with the Open Group, industry experts review and enhance future versions of CDSA software, making it more robust. Through this process, an enhanced version of the CDSA open specification was approved last December, offering more capabilities to CDSA adopters.

“CDSA software is designed to be used in an Internet environment, and as such it can be used with a variety of operating systems and computing devices,” added Kinnie. “It is also designed to evolve and add more capabilities, such as support for biometric security devices like retinal scanners and fingerprint readers. We believe its flexibility and market momentum will make CDSA the security infrastructure of choice for Internet computing.”

By offering CDSA software as open source, it can be included in the Linux operating system. Intel and leaders in the Linux community are developing a 64-bit Linux version of the CDSA software that will be performance-optimized for use with Intel's upcoming Itanium processor, which will be introduced later this year and will target the enterprise computing market segment. The companies are also developing a Linux version of the CDSA software for use with Intel's current and future 32-bit processors.

Recent changes by the U.S. Government to export regulations now allow companies to freely export open source security software and provide worldwide technical support to users of that software. These changes will make it easier for other countries to develop and implement more secure software applications for use over the Internet, and fuel the growth of global e-Business. CDSA software is currently approved for export.

Software Availability

A Windows version of the CDSA open source software will be available from Intel in May. The 64- and 32-bit Linux versions will be available in August. The software will be downloadable from Intel's CDSA web page, at developer.intel.com/IAL/security. For more information about CDSA software, please visit Intel's CDSA web page, or the Open Group's web page, at www.opengroup.org/publications/catalog/c902.htm.

 
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