Cryptography Reference
In-Depth Information
intention and sue you. This has happened more than once. In court, your
PIN is as good a judicial evidence as your signature.
Poor cryptography allows adversaries to rummage in your name, and you will
be held responsible for the damage. Think of unscrupulous nuts with enough
capability and a decent budget!
This topic is not about national economy and data protection. But it uses
examples from these fields to show you how important it is to protect informa-
tion today. Together with the explosively growing popularity of the Internet,
data protection gains unimagined significance. As convenient and beneficial as
global communication may be, we have to learn
which
information we have
to protect against unauthorized access, and
how
we can protect it. This topic
deals mainly with the second question.
Have you noticed something? Our real-world examples talked little about
national intelligence organizations, and the popularly quoted armchair hacker
wasn't mentioned at all. Information has become merchandise, and accordingly
it is of interest for business. I recommend the topic by Hummelt [Humm] for
further reading; he worked with companies specializing in competitive analyses
himself and knows what he is writing about. This explains the large number of
instructive examples in his topic.
Nevertheless, we should by no means underestimate the potential threat from
national intelligence organizations. Thanks to rapidly evolving computer tech-
nologies, the possibilities of unnoticed surveillance grow just as rapidly. Section
8.2.1 will show you how technology can enable surveillance of our everyday
lives, and how much of it has been implemented.
1.2.2 Cryptology: A Special Chain Link
Security is a Very Complex Field
Good cryptological algorithms alone offer no protection at all. Security can
only be achieved by a gapless chain of measures:
•
All members of staff concerned have to be trustworthy.
•
All members of staff concerned have to be security-aware: none of them
may write passwords on the bottom of the keyboard, have anyone looking
over their shoulders as they type their passwords, let alone mumble them.
Unfortunately, this happens quite often in practice.
•
Data media with unencrypted information must be stored safely.
