Josh Eckels

The absence of standard and familiar Java APIs presents one of the biggest obstacles when developing for Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME). Since J2ME targets much smaller devices, it lacks many libraries and features that are normally available in larger Java installations. On Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) and Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), the Java Cryptography Architecture and Java Cryptography Extension help streamline the process of adding security to a project. The J2ME platform, however, lacks crypto APIs. Of course, many J2ME devices, such as Palm handhelds, aren't suited for common cryptographic functions. Their constrained RAM and processors can make operations, such as public key cryptography, infeasible. Still, there's a real need for security on small devices, and they can perform a useful subset of cryptographic operations. This article explores the use... (more)