A Look at OATH

I've heard it said that you can tell our industry loves standards because there are so many of them. I recently had a chance to sit down and talk with several representatives to OATH, the Initiative for Open Authentication. These folks are clear that they're not trying to become a standards body, but they are active in promoting standards that will allow authentication components from many different vendors to work together. I think it's an interesting idea, and an example of companies coming togethe due to economic necessity--their customers are demanding it--rather than from any sense of duty to an ideal. Regardless of the motivation, though, there are some great possibilities here for benefit to the customer, so I think it should be of more than a little interest. You can listen to the podcast here. After you do, drop me a note ([email protected]) to let me know whether you think we need more open standards in security, or if you think that standards are, themselves, security vulnerabilities.

If you you haven't already subscribed to the podcast, look over to the left, you'll find the link to subscribe to the Security Channel podcast. In addition, I'd like to ask a favor. Take a minute to drop me a note at [email protected], and let me know what you'd like to hear in future podcasts. A podcast can be short or long, serious or amusing, hands-on or quite strategic. Let me know what you'd like to listen to, and we'll do our best to make it happen.

The music in this podcast is "Rust" from the album Aeonblue by subatomicglue. They release their music under a Creative Commons license--if you like the sound, head over to their web site and check out the rest of their music.