Cryptography in PDF: future perspectives
Taking PDF crypto to the next level
Excerpt: The relationship between cryptography and PDF is one with a long history. PDF’s cryptography-related features have been through a number of significant revisions over the years, and PDF signatures have firmly established themselves as a replacement for paper signatures in many workflows all over the world. That being said, the cryptography landscape constantly evolves as well, and ensuring that PDF keeps up with that evolution requires significant effort. Right now, there is a lot of cryptograph … Read moreAbout the presenter(s)
I was a researcher at KU Leuven from 2016 to 2020, where I completed my PhD in mathematics. At the PDFa, I’m mostly active in the Forms, Digital Signatures and … Read more
Description
The relationship between cryptography and PDF is one with a long history. PDF’s cryptography-related features have been through a number of significant revisions over the years, and PDF signatures have firmly established themselves as a replacement for paper signatures in many workflows all over the world.
That being said, the cryptography landscape constantly evolves as well, and ensuring that PDF keeps up with that evolution requires significant effort. Right now, there is a lot of cryptography-related activity in the PDF community. This isn’t limited to the PDF Association’s technical working groups; cryptography is also a hot topic in the ISO and ETSI committees that work on PDF-related standards.
The primary goal of this talk is to frame some of that ongoing work, and share some of our ideas for the future of cryptography in PDF beyond that. PDF is not the only crypto-enabled digital format, and there’s a lot that we can learn from the successes (and failures!) of other technologies. We’d love to share our insights with the PDF community to kickstart the discussion!