[ Changed 11th November 1998 ]
Cryptographic (CRYP) sub-systems now play a vital role in the protection of "mission-critical" information systems and data networks, particularly those now being deployed for electronic commerce activities nationally and internationally. Such mission-critical information systems, and associated data networks, are, in turn, being used to control and monitor critical infrastuctures in modern society; infrastructures that need a high degree of protection (CIP). These include overall structures for water reticulation, electricity, finance, government, energy, transport and so on. However, under cost pressures those in charge of such infrastructures are moving to adoption of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) systems for the control and monitoring of such infrastructures, rather than "bespoke" solutions to information systems needs. With cryptography forming the main protection and trust mechanism to safeguard these controlling information systems, the trustworthy integration of cryptographic sub-systems into COTS becomes of paramount importance. This has a number of technical, business and political implications that need to be explored. This paper examines all three of these aspects of the cryptography integration problem.