Applying for the role as co-chair of the EKMI TC

EKMI TC Voting Members:

Like many of you, I was disappointed to see Arshad step down as the chair of the EKMI TC, and while I hope that other members who have expressed frustration and dissatisfaction with the OASIS procedures relative to the proposed KMIP TC do not follow suit it is likely that we have lost more than just Arshad’s vision and leadership. I came on board with the EKMI TC very late in the process when the TC was only putting the final adjustments and polish on version 1 of their proposed standard, and as such I have tried to maintain an active status with the TC but in a very passive fashion to allow the TC to get through the current process. While the standard produced by this TC represents excellent work, it has always been my intent to work with the TC to develop a derived standard that would be a scaled-down subset of the full SKSML standard that would be more appropriate for the “dumb-client-intelligent-server” model (such as key management for hardware devices). In the one or two meetings that I missed, apparently the TC has already taken steps towards that scaled-down standard in the “Mobile SKSML Subcommittee” proposal.

I believe this TC has done some great work, and have high hopes that the Mobile SKSML efforts could ultimately deliver a symmetric key management standard that covers most, if not all of the market factors that are driving the need for an industry standard in this area. As such, I have agreed to accept the position as co-chair of the TC along with Anil Saldhana.

QUALIFICATIONS:

I have been in the industry for 27 years, mostly designing and developing software products, and I am currently a Principle Architect with CA, Inc. In that role with CA, I was and continue to be the architect of the CA Tape Encryption and CA Key Manager products and have also personally developed all of the cryptography and key management components of those products. CA is and has always been a systems management software vendor, which means that CA has always maintained been vendor and platform agnostic. When given the task of architecting a key management product with that same vendor and platform agnostic perspective, clearly the brick wall that I hit was the lack of a standard that would facilitate the goal of delivering upon an agnostic product. Because of the lack of an industry standard, the only path available from a design and implementation standpoint was to start with a solution that included support for specific products that currently employ proprietary key management interfaces. The goal, and the reason I joined the EKMI TC, is to ensure that an industry standard is developed and becomes widely accepted and adopted to enable that the vendor and platform agnostic vision for CA’s key management product.

Therefore, my qualifications for helping to lead this TC in a co-chair role stem from my experience in actually designing and implementing a key management system, and the problems and complaints I have seen and heard from our customers who are struggling to achieve regulatory compliance and limit legal liabilities with a set or products and tools that the industry is providing today where each solution is delivered with its own proprietary key management solution, and each key management instance must be backed up and managed in the same classification as their most sensitive and business-critical applications and data.

MY PLANS FOR THE TC:

My agreement with Anil is that he would assume the primary lead on the direction of the TC, but as was already my intent prior to the disruption caused by the KMIP TC proposal I expect to get much more involved, especially in the creation of the Mobile SKSML standard. As this standard is more in line with the immediate target market for our CA Key Management product, I will bring my perspective and actual experiences in developing to current proprietary products and devices into the Mobile SKSML discussions. I also plan on joining the KMIP TC, and it is my hope that we can steer that TC ultimately towards a merger with the EKMI TC. But if that does not happen, I will at least understand the reasons why a merger is not possible (be that political, commercial or technical).

Regards,

Tim Bruce
Principal Software Architect, Development
5465 Legacy Drive
Plano, Tx. 75024
tel: 214-473-1917
fax: 214-473-1069

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