Exostar, a provider of secure cloud-based solutions that improve identity access management, is now certified by SAFE-BioPharma Association to issue SHA-2 compliant public key infrastructure (PKI) digital certificates for use in the life sciences and healthcare.

The digital certificates serve as cyber identity credentials providing strong authentication for application access and for digitally signing documents for submission to government regulators. Exostar's Federated Identity Service (FIS) Certificate Authority was cross-certified with the SAFE-BioPharma Bridge Certificate Authority (SBCA), which assures that its PKI-based cyber identities will be trusted by U.S. government agencies and other organizations cross-certified with SAFE-BioPharma.

Secure Hash Algorithm 2 (SHA-2) defines a set of mathematical tools that helps protect and validate the integrity of digital certificates. Both the original SHA-1 and new SHA-2 versions were designed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology. The SHA-1 standard was published in 1995 and declared no longer reliable for secure government transactions in 2010 due to advances in technology that allowed successful attacks against it.

“Meeting the new security standard means that PKI digital certificates issued by Exostar for use within the life sciences and healthcare are more secure than under the earlier SHA-1 security protocols,” said Dr. Peter Alterman, chief operating officer, SAFE-BioPharma Association. Exostar previously received interoperability certification for its FIS SHA-2 PKI certificates in July 2014 from the U.S. Department of Defense.

“Devices and applications interfacing with digital certificates increasingly will require those certificates to be SHA-2 compliant,” said Vijay Takanti, vice president of security and collaboration solutions, Exostar. “Our SHA-2 cross-certification with the SBCA enables us to issue the PKI certificates our healthcare and life sciences customers can use to digitally sign correspondence so they can efficiently, effectively, and securely conduct business.”

The SAFE-BioPharma Trust Framework develops and maintains policies and practices used by identity credential issuers. It is a service of SAFE-BioPharma Association, a nonprofit coalition of biopharmaceutical companies that manages the global SAFE-BioPharma digital identity and digital signature standard.