Electronic transactions have experienced significant growth over the past few decades, and the expansion of electronic payments could have a substantial, positive effect on future economic growth. Transactions are frequently entered remotely, off-premise from financial institutions, by retailers, or by customers directly. However, the vast range in value, size, and volume of such transactions expose institutions to severe risks, which may be uninsurable. ANSI X9.24-1-2017: Retail Financial Services Symmetric Key Management Part 1: Using Symmetric Techniques is applicable for institutions implementing techniques to safeguard the cryptographic keys used for the authentication and encryption of messages and other sensitive data.
To protect financial messages and other sensitive information, many institutions are making increased use of the American National Standards Institute Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (TDEA) and the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Developed by Accredited Standards Committee X9, ANSI X9.24-1-2017 is used to manage symmetric keys that can protect messages and other sensitive information in a financial services environment.
The security and reliability of any process based on the AES or the TDEA is directly dependent on the protection afforded to secret parameters called cryptographic keys. The ANSI X9.24-1-2017 standard establishes guidelines for the secure management and application-level interoperability of keying operations. Such keys could be used for authenticating messages, for encrypting Personal Identification Numbers (PIN), for encrypting other data, for encrypting other keys, or for other purposes.
This document replaces the 2009 version of X9.24-1. As part of the ANSI 5-year review process, this standard underwent significant modifications that resulted in an extensive rewrite. It reflects updates in key management security requirements, includes AES algorithm use, and leverages advancements in hardware devices used for protecting cryptographic keys.
ANSI X9.24-1-2017 is available on the ANSI Webstore.
