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Google's Keyczar designed to make cryptography easier

This open-source project is meant to help developers implement secure and simple cryptography.

Robert Vamosi Former Editor
As CNET's former resident security expert, Robert Vamosi has been interviewed on the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and other outlets to share his knowledge about the latest online threats and to offer advice on personal and corporate security.
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Robert Vamosi

Google on Tuesday announced Keyczar, an open-source project to help developers select and use safe cryptography in their applications.

Built on OpenSSL, PyCrypto, and the Java JCE libraries, Keyczar supports authentication and encryption with both symmetric and asymmetric keys. It simplifies some of the details by choosing safe defaults and automatically tagging outputs with key version information. Keyczar also provides a simple interface.

The project provides developers with a simple API, key rotation and versioning, and safe default algorithms, modes, and key lengths.

A "nongoals" page proclaims what Keyczar is not. For example, Keyczar is not designed to work with legacy crypto output formats.

The project was developed as part of the Google Security Team by Steve Weis of Google and Arkajit Dey of MIT, with help from others.