A Simpler, More Personal Key to Protect Online Messages

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () iconia com>
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 09:46:24 +0200
To: "Dave E-mail Pamphleteer Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: A Simpler, More Personal Key to Protect Online Messages

A Simpler, More Personal Key to Protect Online Messages

By JOHN MARKOFF
The New York Times

PALO ALTO, Calif., July 6 — A Silicon Valley start-up company on Tuesday
plans to unveil a new approach to sending secure electronic messages and
protecting data, a simpler alternative to current encryption systems, which
use long digital numbers, called public keys.

The new company, Voltage Security, which is based here, instead uses another
unique identifier as the public key: the message recipient's e-mail address.

Under the Voltage system, the sender of a message uses software that
converts the recipient's e-mail address into a number and then encrypts the
message using a mathematical formula. The recipient can then use a similar
formula in conjunction with a secret key to decode the message. The company
says it would be almost impossible for an eavesdropper to use the formula.
The software can be used with several existing PC e-mail programs.

--snip--

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/07/technology/07CODE.html

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
geoff.goodfellow () iconia com * Prague - CZ * telephone +420 603 706 558
"success is getting what you want & happiness is wanting what you get"
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/17drop.html
http://www.livejournal.com/users/a2gsg/



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