Work on Commerce Security Standards Plods Along.(Secure Electronic Transaction format and the...

EVEN AS E-COMMERCE enjoyed stunning success over the past year, boosters for the well-known Secure Electronic Transaction format, or SET, are continuing to lay the foundation for the slowly developing standard.

Meanwhile, the Internet Open Transaction Protocol (IOTP), a less prominent standard used to manage consumer purchases, has advanced. In June, the Internet Engineering Task Force agreed to take the transaction protocol under its wing from a consortium of companies that conceived it. A working group hopes to deliver a request for comments early this year.