Subject: Status of RFC3183: Domain Security Services using S/MIME

From: "Craig McGregor" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 15:33:45 +1300

Greetings all,

I recall that the SMIME WG charter once said something similar to
"Submit domain security services as Proposed Standard", and has since
changed to "Submit domain security services as Experimental RFC". During
a browse of the archives I could not find any discussion as to the
merits or otherwise on pursuing Experimental vs Proposed for this
document. There was a message titled "Last Call: Domain Security
Services using S/MIME to Proposed Standard" on 12 June 2001, but nothing
since.

I am particularly interested in the progress of this RFC because in New
Zealand we're using a system remarkably similar to Domain Security
Services for securing e-mail between our Public Service Agencies over
the internet. This began in late 2000 and is now transparently securing
messages sent between around 30,000 Public service employees in 41
government agencies using 78 e-mail domains. For somewhere the size of
New Zealand this is a relatively large user base for a system.

We view our "S.E.E. Mail" system as an interoperaility standard for
interfacing between government agencies, and as such rely on the use of
open standards where possible to ensure product variety. In the past we
have found that 'Product Managers' of e-mail gateway software are
relatively uninterested in supporting 'Experimental' standards as they
are usually limited in deployment and are subject to change or to
disappear and never been seen before.

Is anyone aware of any similar implementations of DOMSEC in other
'communities' that have similar paranoia/security requirements? I think
there was something similar used for Health care in parts of the US?

Regards,
Craig McGregor	 http://see.govt.nz/mail