12.6 Future Directions

The PKCS and S/MIME standards continue to evolve as the technology and environment around them change. An example of this is the influence that mobile devices have on S/MIME and each of the PKCS standards. In fact, mobile devices have specific requirements for small footprints and low computationally intense functions. As these devices become more pervasive, their effects on existing technologies, such as PKCS and S/MIME, increase.

In addition, there are no standards addressing the handling of such objects as text or files where they are to be considered as real objects ”in the computer programming sense of having inheritance, having life cycle, and being capable of audit. Current standards address themselves only to the application of a security layer, usually as a temporary envelope that is seamlessly discarded, rather than persisting once it has been checked.

We are some time away from seeing formal standards in this area, mainly because technical standards are still focused on how technical mechanisms are supposed to function. They leave it up to the implementer to find the best way, if there is one, of applying the standard to a business requirement. As technical-standard writers are not usually businesspeople, it may be some time before that world aligns itself with normal commercial or personal requirements. The technical community needs to spend more time implementing business-based solutions that can be made to operate quickly and without substantial costs and gain practical experience before setting new standards.