As of JDK 9, the default keystore type (format) is "pkcs12" which is based on the RSA PKCS12 Personal Information Exchange Syntax Standard. Previously, the default keystore type was "jks" which is a proprietary format. Other keystore formats are available, such as "jceks" which is an alternate proprietary keystore format with stronger encryption than "jks" and "pkcs11", which is based on the RSA PKCS11 Standard and supports access to cryptographic tokens such as hardware security modules and smartcards.