[LINK] Authentication Protocol from Australian Government

[Tom Worthington]

The Minister for Human Services announced 28 April 2009 that 
Centrelink was releasing its Protocol for Lightweight Authentication 
of Identity (PLAID) freely available government and private use to 
secure applications. The PLAID Specification Version 7.1 and a  PLAID 
Reference Implementation are available: 
<https://www.govdex.gov.au/confluence/display/PLAID/>.

---
"Centrelink has developed the Protocol for Lightweight Authentication 
of Identity (PLAID) smartcard authentication. The protocol is 
cryptographically stronger, faster and more private, than most or all 
equivalent protocols currently available either commercially or via 
existing standards. PLAID is a candidate for broad usage in Physical 
and Logical Access Control Systems (PACS/LACS) where the requirement 
for a fast, private, ID leakage proof, secure, free and extensible 
smartcard authentication protocol has grown significantly.

     When broadly implemented, the technology will have significant 
advantages to Government and industry in both efficiency and 
reduction of costs. Should multiple governments or commercial users 
support the same protocols there are further advantages in the use of 
common readers, building, key and card management systems.

     Centrelink has made the intellectual property that it has 
developed freely available to other agencies, Governments and 
commercial organisations on an open, free and non-discriminatory 
basis. The protocol now requires market acceptance through commercial 
'off the shelf' product availability. In support of this aim, 
Centrelink plans to:

         * generate third party interest, evaluation and cooperation
         * develop, propose, socialise, agree and implement 
standardisation strategies in consultation with third parties
         * manage vendor access, feedback and licensing to ensure 
equality of access to PLAID intellectual property
         * ensure intellectual property is available to all potential 
users under reasonable and free licensing arrangements, and
         * encourage and support governments, their agencies, 
commercial end users and vendors to implement PLAID. "

     From: About PLAID, Centerlink, 2009


Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                      http://www.tomw.net.au/
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Australian National University