Diffie: Keeping a secret getting harder

Atlanta - The more we want to use global networks, the more we compromise the security of our messages.

In the final keynote address of NetWorld+Interop 97 here, Whitfield Diffie, distinguished engineer of security for Sun Microsystems, Inc., laid out a pessimistic view of the world's problems with secure communications.

"Society is utterly dependent upon telecommunications," Diffie said. "And communications are intrinsically vulnerable to interceptance."

They are also increasingly vulnerable to pattern detection, thanks to detailed billing records held by employers and phone companies that can provide immense information about a call. "I don't understand how anyone gets away with anything anymore," Diffie said remarking on today's high crime rate.

Yet in the future, information will become the major form of commerce, he said. This means we have to find ways to replicate face recognition, the ability to be introduced to someone you don't know, a written signature and a private conversation in order to achieve true security, Diffie said. He continued that we have to accept the fact that no conversations, no matter how hushed, are secure.

He said a major problem for intelligence and law enforcement will be to find the information they want to track because of the ever-increasing amounts of information being transported across various mediums.

"The intelligence community has been profiting from intelligence communication for a long time," Diffie said. He added that the spread of cryptography will create a loss of sources for government intelligence.

Diffie also noted government's heightened involvement in communications security, specifically in the area of the exporting of operating systems. Export controllers are shying away from operating system standardization for fear the government will have no control over communications.

"If you'll promise to put Digital Encryption Standard in your operating system, then you can have export rights," Diffie said.