RSA delivers SET encryption engine

The Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) standard for secure Net payments gained steam today with the release of an SET-compliant encrption engine from leading encryption vendor RSA Data Security.

The SET specifications were jointly developed by Microsoft, MasterCard International, and Visa International. American Express threw its weight behind the standard last week. Now that all three major credit card companies have signed on, RSA is offering a free upgrade of its BSAFE 3.0 encryption engine that provides all the cryptographic modules required to implement SET specifications, according to company officials.

RSA also plans to release a toolkit later this year that will support all SET messaging protocols and transactions, a kit that RSA claims will reduce the development time needed to produce secure Web browsers for applications built on top of the SET bank card processing specification.

RSA said it will also work with industry leaders, including Microsoft and Oracle, to incorporate SET into existing Web browsers and email packages.