Essays: 1997 Archives
The Challenge of Cryptography
Never underestimate the time and effort attackers will expend to thwart your security systems.These days, security is on the minds of anyone involved in building or using information systems. After all, every form of commerce has had its share of fraud, from farmers rigging their weight scales to counterfeiters passing off phony currency. Electronic commerce is no exception, with fraud taking the form of forgery, misrepresentation, and denial of service. And it doesn’t stop with electronic transactions. There are privacy breaches, with competitors intercepting communications, and electronic vandalism, with attackers destroying Web pages and mail-bombing ISPs. It seems threats are coming from everywhere…
Why Cryptography Is Harder Than It Looks
From e-mail to cellular communications, from secure Web access to digital cash, cryptography is an essential part of today’s information systems. Cryptography helps provide accountability, fairness, accuracy, and confidentiality. It can prevent fraud in electronic commerce and assure the validity of financial transactions. It can prove your identity or protect your anonymity. It can keep vandals from altering your Web page and prevent industrial competitors from reading your confidential documents. And in the future, as commerce and communications continue to move to computer networks, cryptography will become more and more vital…
Cryptography, Security and the Future
From e-mail to cellular communications, from secure Web access to digital cash, cryptography is an essential part of today’s information systems. Cryptography helps provide accountability, fairness, accuracy, and confidentiality. It can prevent fraud in electronic commerce and assure the validity of financial transactions. It can protect your anonymity or prove your identity. It can keep vandals from altering your Web page and prevent industrial competitors from reading your confidential documents. And in the future, as commerce and communications continue to move to computer networks, cryptography will become more and more vital…
Cryptographie, sécurité et l'avenir
Translated by Fernandes Gilbert
Des communications par courrier électronique aux cellulaires, des accès protégés sur Internet à l’argent numérique, la cryptographie est une composante essentielle des systèmes d’information actuels. La cryptographie permet d’obtenir comptabilité, justice, précision et confidentialité. Elle empêche la fraude au sein du commerce électronique et assure la validité des transactions financières. Elle peut protéger votre anonymat ou bien prouver votre identité. Elle peut empêcher des vandales d’altérer votre page Internet et empêcher vos adversaires commerciaux de lire vos documents confidentiels. Et dans l’avenir, à mesure que le commerce et les communications se déplacent vers des machines en réseau, la cryptographie va devenir de plus en plus essentielle…
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.