Netfocus launches the world’s first open code Validation Authority
04/24/2006
Netfocus has launched the Open-VA project, which is a pioneer on a global level. The initiative consists of the free, unrestricted distribution of an open code Validation Authority which allows, among other options, the verification and validation of the integrity and origin of the documents or electronic actions in which the digital signature is used.
For the first time in the world the Open-VA digital security project offers the possibility of obtaining a Validation Authority completely free of charge under the GPL License (Generic Public License) a mode which authorises the consultation, modification and free distribution of the Open-VA source code.
According to Carles Abarca, managing director of netfocus, "netfocus usually incorporates open source products to its solutions, and on this occasion we want to provide the open source community with an essential tool to manage, with guarantees, the revolution of digital identity, a revolution from which nobody should be excluded and of which netfocus forms and active and committed part."
Open-VA will be available in English, Spanish and Catalan. This validation system responds to a SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and it contemplates the validation of the new Spanish electronic identity card, and therefore it is able to validate signatures made with this card.
netfocus is also including the participation of developers from other countries, especially from the EU, with the objective of providing Open-VA with the capacity to validate other electronic identities currently in the implementation stage (Belgium, Holland, Austria…).
The project has its own web site (www.open-va.org) from where the latest versions of the Open-VA Validation Authority may be downloaded and which provides all kinds of information regarding its characteristics, installation, use and related projects.
