China: National Technical Committee on Cybersecurity Standards opened consultation on draft National Standards for Network Security Technology: SM9 Cryptographic Message Format

On 25 April 2025, the Secretariat of the National Cybersecurity Standardisation Technical Committee opened a public consultation, set to close on 24 June 2025, on the draft National Standards for Network Security Technology: SM9 Cryptographic Message Format. SM9 is a pairing-based cryptographic algorithm designed for tasks like identity-based encryption and signatures. It allows the public key to be derived directly from a user’s identity (such as an email address), eliminating the need for certificates in certain systems. The consultation seeks to gather input to enhance the draft standard's precision and applicability, defining a consistent and secure format for packaging an encrypted and signed message, ensuring interoperability between different systems using SM9, and supporting secure communications in networks compliant with national cryptographic standards.