Lotus Statement of Interest in Signed XML

Lotus Notes and Domino provide secure Web based access to documents using
standards based document languages and protocols.

Digital Signature has long been an important proprietary feature of Lotus
Notes and Domino both on mail and on many forms of stored content; indeed,
digital signature is a foundation of Notes system security. Recent releases
of Notes have begun to embrace internet standards in many areas, including
security. Until the recent inclusion of S/MIME however, Notes has not
included an internet standards based method for the creation and
verification of digital signatures.

Based on the general trend of support for internet standard formats and
protocols in Notes and Domino, movement toward a standards based Public Key
Infrastructure, and a legacy of support for signed content, Lotus is very
much interested in the development of an internet standards based form of
digital signatures for Web content.

Lotus would be interested exploring several aspects of digital signatures
for the Web, including:

   Creation and Validation of native XML Signatures on documents
   Use of XML signatures for active content.
   Use of rich signature semantics that include both textual and machine
   readable assertions.
   Proxy signatures - signing on behalf of another party.

We would like to participate in the Signed XML effort to further explore
opportunities to promote Internet standards for security, and to provide
feedback on the usefulness various proposals in terms of their potential
for use in applications.

M.

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Mark Champine <mark_champine@iris.com> x39600  (978-392-6600)
Iris Associates, 5 Technology Park Drive, Westford MA, 01886