Introduction

Hardware cryptographic devices are becoming more popular because of the requirement to do cryptographic operations securely, and securely store keys. A Java™ Cryptography Extension (JCE) hardware-based provider that provides secure key storage and off loads cryptographic operations to the hardware device has significant benefits over software-based cryptography approaches. This allows Java Applications to have access to these benefits. The Public Key Cryptographic Standards (PKCS) #11 is a known standard for accessing cryptographic hardware devices and most cryptographic hardware devices support this standard. Now if a PKCS#11 implementation could be fitted into the JCE framework, then an application has the benefits without major changes.

The IBMJCECCA provider is available as an alternative to PKCS#11 for Linux® on IBM Z®, as well as for z/OS®. For more information, see The IBMJCECCA provider.