Zusammenfassung
As paper-based communication and transaction mechanisms are replaced
by automated ones, traditional forms of security such as photographs
and handwritten signatures are becoming outdated. Most security experts
believe that digital certificates offer the best technology for safeguarding
electronic communications. They are already widely used for authenticating
and encrypting email and software, and eventually will be built into
any device or piece of software that must be able to communicate
securely. There is a serious problem, however, with this unavoidable
trend: unless drastic measures are taken, everyone will be forced
to communicate via what will be the most pervasive electronic surveillance
tool ever built. There will also be abundant opportunity for misuse
of digital certificates by hackers, unscrupulous employees, government
agencies, financial institutions, insurance companies, and so on.
In this book Stefan Brands proposes cryptographic building blocks
for the design of digital certificates that preserve privacy without
sacrificing security. Such certificates function in much the same
way as cinema tickets or subway tokens: anyone can establish their
validity and the data they specify, but no more than that. Furthermore,
different actions by the same person cannot be linked. Certificate
holders have control over what information is disclosed, and to whom.
Subsets of the proposed cryptographic building blocks can be used
in combination, allowing a cookbook approach to the design of public
key infrastructures. Potential applications include electronic cash,
electronic postage, digital rights management, pseudonyms for online
chat rooms, health care information storage, electronic voting, and
even electronic gambling.
Nutzer