The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has issued XML-Signature Syntax and Processing (XML Signature) as a W3C Recommendation. While there are technologies one can use to sign an XML file, XML Signature brings two additional benefits. First, XML Signature can be implemented with and use many of the same toolkits one is using for XML applications. In this way, no additional software is required. Second, XML Signature can process XML as XML instead of a single large document. This means multiple users may apply signatures to sections of XML, not simply the whole document. XML Signature permits both the original form and user’s entries to be independently signed without invalidating the other. XML Signature is tailored to XML processing, but it can be used to sign any data, such as a PNG image. Participants in the joint IETF/W3C Working Group included Accelio, Baltimore, Capslock, Citigroup, Corsec, Georgia State University, IAIK TU Graz, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Pure Edge, Reuters Health, Signio, Sun Microsystems, University of Siegen, University of Waterloo, VeriSign Inc., and XMLsec. www.w3.org