Standards

Who actually writes the standards

Every algorithm and protocol in this catalog traces back to a specific document from a specific standards body. These pages cover the bodies themselves — how each one actually works, what it's published, and where to find the real reference.

NIST: the standards body behind AES, SHA, and post-quantum cryptography

Almost every algorithm in this catalog traces back to a NIST publication. Here's what NIST actually is, how it picks a winner, and the full list of what it's standardized.

22 min The IETF: RFCs and the protocols the internet actually runs

TLS, JWT, PKIX certificates, SSH — every protocol module on this site cites an RFC. Here's how the IETF actually produces them, and what "RFC" does and doesn't guarantee.

20 min ISO/IEC: the paywalled standards behind ISMS certification and algorithm testing

A federation of national standards bodies, not a single organization — and the source of both ISO/IEC 27001 certification and the international equivalent of NIST's own algorithm standards.

20 min OASIS: where the identity and PKI-token standards actually get written

SAML, PKCS#11, and KMIP all live here — a member-driven consortium, not a government body, that ended up stewarding some of the most load-bearing identity and key-management specs in production today.

18 min