Cryptography Reference
In-Depth Information
Example of the value of a company:
•
Material assets worth 1.3 billion dollars.
•
Miscellaneous
(know-how,
customer
base,
brand
name,
staff,
...
)
worth 11.6 billion dollars.
Figure 1.1:
Information can be more valuable than material assets.
information that could mean added value for a competitor, for example, the
know-how and disclosing of the customer base [Peters, p. 27].
Or think of the huge amounts of data from seismographic measurements that
could give a clue on the location of a future oil platform and would mean
millions in profit for an impostor. The German Chamber of Industry and
Commerce (IHK) and industrial associations estimated the damage caused by
industrial espionage to be at least 4 billion euros for Germany in 1988. This has
remained the only official figure. Estimates from the beginning of the millen-
nium were between 10 and 35 billion euros. The wide range of these estimates
shows better than any verbose statement how large the gray zone must be.
Yet another consideration explains the significance of information: according
to Peters [Peters], virtual companies will drive other business formats out of
the market, because they are much more flexible and efficient. In this context,
several companies would merge temporarily and for a specific purpose. Secure
exchange of information represents an immediate value-adding potential for
such virtual companies.
Underestimating the value of information can have catastrophic consequences.
We should have learned this much from history. In both world wars, read-
ing encrypted messages of the adversary played a decisive role, and in both
world wars, the parties concerned simply ignored the impact of it. In 1914,
when the German cruiser
Magdeburg
ran aground and fell to the Russians,
including the
Signalbuch der Kaiserlichen Marine
and other code books, it
didn't raise suspicion on the German side; no secret code was changed on this
account. A Russian prisoner then even told the Germans that they owned the
code books. Obviously the Germans underestimated the significance of crypt-
analysis, and they hadn't even gotten suspicious when the activities of British
warships made clear that the German intelligence communication had been
eavesdropped.
