1. A method in which a program uses a cryptographic web service remotely over a communications network, comprising: at program computing equipment on which the program is implemented, calling a local cryptographic function from the program; in response to calling the local cryptographic function, calling a remote cryptographic function at the cryptographic web service that corresponds to the called local cryptographic function by sending information from a web services interface at the program computing equipment to a web services interface at the cryptographic web service over the communications network, wherein the information includes at least one data parameter; at the cryptographic web service, requesting a key from a key server over the communications network; at the cryptographic web service, receiving the requested key from the key server over the communications network; at the cryptographic web service, producing results for the called remote cryptographic function using a cryptographic engine, wherein the results are produced by the cryptographic engine using the key from the key server, wherein the remote cryptographic function comprises encrypting the at least one data parameter to produce encrypted data; and at the program computing equipment, receiving the results for the called remote cryptographic function from the cryptographic web service, wherein the results include the encrypted data.