The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) developed a South African National Standard (SANS) in 2014 to standardise the automatic identification and data capture techniques. SANS 1368 is also aligned to the minimum global standard on Digital Signature Meta structure commonly known as DigSig.

SANS 1368 specifies a method whereby data stored within a barcode and/or RFID tag is structured and digitally signed. It provides an effective and interoperable method to exchange data messages in the Internet of Things [IoT] and machine to machine [M2M] services allowing intelligent agents in such services to authenticate data messages and detect data tampering.