Case Studies

Trusted Security with PKI

Client: Securities Industry Association

Challenge:
The Securities Industry Association (SIA), the advocate for the securities industry located in the Wall Street area, acknowledged the association members' concerns about and need for tighter security on the Internet. The Securities Industry Root Certificate Authority (SIRCA) pilot project was organized by the SIA to test the viability of public key infrastructure (PKI) technology in the securities industry. A group of NASD Broker/Dealer, SIA member firms, and industry utility organizations formed the basis of the pilot consortium.

Partner with MokoNet:
When SIA realized they needed a partner to lead SIRCA for the top 20 financial institutional member firms, they turned to MokoNet. Understanding the complexity and cutting-edge nature of the project, SIA knew that MokoNet's R&D capabilities in security and large-scale heterogeneous distributed computing could help them develop industry-wide PKI standards for the securities industry.

By creating a root certificate authority within the securities industry, the participating firms wanted to create an infrastructure for message authentication and security that could be used for financial transactions and other purposes over untrusted networks. This SIRCA concept called for a trustworthy and scalable PKI that was strong enough to support highly sensitive financial transactions.

MokoNet assisted SIA in organizing and conducting the pilot project for technical, procedural, educational, and legal issues. We also guided the participants in developing the technical benchmark for PKI technology testing. Each SIRCA participant had independently selected its own tools for implementing public key technology. Vendor products had been evaluated for the following criteria: industry standards, functionality, administration, and interoperability. All the evaluations were performed in the SIRCA member firm's normal test environment, not in sanitized test labs, to reflect the real issues of PKI technology.

Results:
Working closely with SIA, MokoNet successfully completed Phase I of SIRCA. All the key findings are shared among the consortium members to set the industry standards for the securities industry. MokoNet and the many participants realized that "Integration" became the most crucial and integral part of the PKI project. We found that it was critical to become aware of the technical limitations and relative immaturity of currently available software. MokoNet is now working with SIA on Phase II of SIRCA, continuing its dedication to deliver innovative, industry-standard PKI solutions.

Other cases:
Reinventing Business Over the Internet
Reaching Customers Through the Internet
Constructing Customer-Centric Web Repository