W3C Launches Web Cryptography Working Group

W3C launched today a new Web Cryptography Working Group, whose mission is to define an API that lets developers implement secure application protocols on the level of Web applications, including message confidentiality and authentication services, by exposing trusted cryptographic primitives from the browser. Web application developers will no longer have to create their own or use untrusted third-party libraries for cryptographic primitives. This will improve security on the Web. Some of the chartered use cases for this API include:

• The ability to select credentials and sign statements can be necessary to perform high-value transactions such as those involved in finance, corporate security, and identity-related claims about personal data.
• The provisioning and use of keys within Web applications can be used for scenarios such as increasing the security of user authentication and determining whether a particular device is authenticated for particular services.
• The ability to check source integrity before executing Javascript code previously stored in local storage.

Learn more about the Security Activity.