Exploring XML Encryption

IBM Developer Works are running a good article on XML Encryption. Over the last year or so almost all the new feeds and systems I've linked in with on projects have used XML for interop. XML Security is going to be extremely important over the next year or two. It is particularly useful, because you can encrypt and sign individual elements rather than only full messages. The signatures will ofcourse verify the integrity of a message or element and the element by element encryption is useful for only allowing access to the part of the message you need in your subsystem.

Security a growing concern for mobile devices

`Corporations are concerned about the levels of security required in handheld and mobile devices,'' says Kevin Burden, manager of IDC's Smart Handheld Devices research. ``They are now recognizing security expenses as part of the overall cost of doing business in a widely distributed, increasingly wireless ebusiness environment.'' [PDABuzz.com]

I don't know many financial companies who actually use their issued PDA's for financial apps yet. But that is bound to change. Sun's current push of a bunch of new API's for J2ME onto phones and PDA's looks particularly interesting for our industry, but Microsoft of course have a few tricks up their sleave too with .NET.

In the coming months I'll keep an eye on the various emerging technologies as they are being developed and discuss their uses in the Financial Apps. By the nature of Mobile Apps, Security really will have to be the single most important factor when developing and deploying them, so we need to keep on top of this.

Pelle Braendgaard: Mobile Technology

Exploring XML Encryption

Security a growing concern for mobile devices