SECURITY

Transaction security and information privacy are issues of paramount concern to users in today’s Net economy. Through its development of Recommendation ITU-T X.509, which now serves as the de facto global standard for electronic authentication over public networks, ITU has played a crucial role in building a solid, reliable technical framework to underpin the fast-growing electronic marketplace. During the course of the year 2000, a revised version of ITU-T X.509 — Public-key and attribute certificate frameworks — was approved, providing the basis for authentication over a huge range of electronic transaction-based systems.

In the area of online multimedia communications, the year 2000 also saw a number of security features adopted in the form of Annex J to Recommendation ITU-T H.323, which currently serves as the global standard for carrying voice, video, fax and data traffic over the Internet.