Author:

Keywords:

cosic

Abstract:

This chapter discusses the issues in modern cryptology and provides an overview of cryptographic algorithms. Problems solved in cryptography include identification, time stamping, sharing of secrets, and electronic cash. The chapter studies many interesting problems under the concept of secure multiparty computation, such as electronic elections and the generation and verification of digital signatures in a distributed way. An important aspect is the underlying key management infrastructure which ensures that secret and public keys can be established and maintained throughout the system in a secure way. The chapter demonstrates that while cryptology has made significant progress as a science, there are some interesting research challenges ahead from both a theoretic and a practical viewpoint. Progress needs to be made in theoretical foundations-such as how to prove that a problem is hard-in the development of new cryptographic algorithms-such as new public-key cryptosystems that do not depend on algebraic number theory and light-weight or low footprint secret-key cryptosystems-and in the secure and efficient implementations of cryptographic algorithms. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.