“When the Open Source Software Institute (OSSI) sought Federal
Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 validation for its
OpenSSL toolkit last year, it was anything but smooth sailing. In
fact, the whole process took so long that by the time it eventually
wound its way through the validation process, it was already
technically outdated. OSSI has just submitted a new OpenSSL update
for FIPS validation but, according to Executive Director John
Weathersby, things are bound to go much more smoothly this time
around.“FIPS validation of OpenSSL, an open source toolkit that allows
programs to securely exchange data in the same fashion as
proprietary versions of Secure Sockets Layer encryption, is crucial
in order for governmental agencies like the Department of Defense
to be able to use it to manage sensitive data…”