Small Electronic Digital Safes
Small Electronic Digital Safes
Electronic Commerce
Initially, the Internet was designed to be used by government and academic users, but now it is rapidly becoming commercialized. It has on-line “shops”, even electronic “shopping malls”. Customers, browsing at their computers, can view products, read descriptions, and sometimes even try samples. What they lack is the means to buy from their keyboard, on impulse. They could pay by credit card, transmitting the necessary data by modem; but intercepting messages on the Internet is trivially easy for a smart hacker, so sending a credit-card number in an unscrambled message is inviting trouble. It would be relatively safe to send a credit card number encrypted with a hard-to-break code. That would require either a general adoption across the internet of standard encoding protocols, or the making of prior arrangements between buyers and sellers. Both consumers and merchants could see a windfall if these problems are solved. For merchants, a secure and easily divisible supply of electronic money will motivate more Internet surfers to become on-line shoppers. Electronic money will also make it easier for smaller businesses to achieve a level of automation already enjoyed by many large corporations whose Electronic Data Interchange heritage means streams of electronic bits now flow instead of cash in back-end financial processes. We need to resolve four key technology issues before consumers and merchants anoint electric money with the same real and perceived values as our tangible bills and coins. These four key areas are: Security, Authentication, Anonymity, and Divisibility.
Commercial R&D departments and university labs are developing measures to address security for both Internet and private-network transactions. The venerable answer to securing sensitive information, like credit-card numbers, is to encrypt the data before you send it out. MIT’s Kerberos, which is named after the three-headed watchdog of Greek mythology, is one of the best-known-private-key encryption technologies. It creates an encrypted data packet, called a ticket, which securely identifies the user. To make a purchase, you generate the ticket during a series of coded messages you exchange with a Kerberos server, which sits between your computer system and the one you are communicating with. These latter two systems share a secret key with the Kerberos server to protect information from prying eyes and to assure that your data has not been altered during the transmission. But this technology has a potentially weak link: Breach the server, and the watchdog rolls over and plays dead. An alternative to private-key cryptography is a public-key system that directly connects consumers and merchants. Businesses need two keys in public-key encryption: one to encrypt, the other to decrypt the message. Everyone who expects to receive a message publishes a key. To send digital cash to someone, you look up the public key and use the algorithm to encrypt the payment. The recipient then uses the private half of the key pair for decryption. Although encryption fortifies our electronic transaction against thieves, there is a cost: The processing overhead of encryption/decryption makes high-volume, low-volume payments prohibitively expensive. Processing time for a reasonably safe digital signature conspires against keeping costs per transaction low. Depending on key length, an average machine can only sign between twenty and fifty messages per second. Decryption is faster. One way to factor out the overhead is to use a trustee organization, one that collects batches of small transaction before passing them on to the credit-card organization for processing. First Virtual, an Internet-based banking organization, relies on this approach. Consumers register their credit cards with First Virtual over the phone to eliminate security risks, and from then on, they uses personal identification numbers (PINs) to make purchases.
Encryption may help make the electric money more secure, but we also need guarantees that no one alters the data–most notably the denomination of the currency–at either end of the transaction. One form of verification is secure hash algorithms, which represent a large file of multiple megabytes with a relatively short number consisting of a few hundred bits. We use the surrogate file–whose smaller size saves computing time–to verify the integrity of a larger block of data. Hash algorithms work similarly to the checksums used in communications protocols: The sender adds up all the bytes in a data packet and appends the sum to the packet. The recipient performs the same calculation and compares the two sums to make sure everything arrived correctly. One possible implementation of secure hash functions is in a zero-knowledge-proof system, which relies on challenge/response protocols. The server poses a question, and the system seeking access offers an answer. If the answer checks out, access is granted. In practice, developers could incorporate the common knowledge into software or a hardware encryption device, and the challenge could then consist of a random-number string. The device might, for example, submit the number to a secure hash function to generate the response.
The third component of the electronic-currency infrastructure is anonymity–the ability to buy and sell as we please without threatening our fundamental freedom of privacy. If unchecked, all our transactions, as well as analyses of our spending habits, could eventually reside on the corporate databases of individual companies or in central clearinghouses, like those that now track our credit histories. Serial numbers offer the greatest opportunity for broadcasting our spending habits to the outside world. Today’s paper money floats so freely throughout the economy that serial numbers reveal nothing about our spending habits. But a company that mints an electric dollar could keep a database of serial numbers that records who spent the currency and what the dollars purchased. It is then important to build a degree of anonymity into electric money. Blind signatures are one answer. Devised by a company named DigiCash, it lets consumers scramble serial numbers. When a consumer makes an E-cash withdrawal, the PC calculates the number of digital coins needed and generates random serial numbers for the coins. The PC specifies a blinding factor, a random number that it uses to multiply the coin serial numbers. A bank encodes the blinded numbers using its own secret key and debits the consumer’s account. The bank then sends the authenticated coins back to the consumer, who removes the blinding factor. The consumer can spend bank-validated coins, but the bank itself has no record of how the coins were spent.
The fourth technical component in the evolution of electric money is flexibility. Everything may work fine if transactions use nice round dollar amounts, but that changes when a company sells information for a few cents or even fractions of cents per
page, a business model that’s evolving on the Internet. Electric-money systems must be able to handle high volume at a marginal cost per transaction. Millicent, a division of Digital Equipment, may achieve this goal. Millicent uses a variation on the digital-check model with decentralized validation at the vendor’s server. Millicent relies on third-party organizations that take care of account management, billing, and other administrative duties. Millicent transactions use scrip, digital money that is valid only for Millicent. Scrip consists of a digital signature, a serial number, and a stated value (typically a cent or less). To authenticate transactions, Millicent uses a variation of the zero-knowledge-proof system. Consumers receive a secret code when they obtain a scrip. This proves ownership of the currency when it’s being spent. The vendor that issues the scrip value uses a master-customer secret to verify the consumer’s secret. The system hasn’t yet been launched commercially, but Digital says internal tests of transactions across TCP/IP networks
indicate the system can validate approximately 1000 requests per second, with TCP connection handling taking up most of the processing time. Digital sees the system as a way for companies to charge for information that Internet users obtain from Web
sites.
Security, authentication, anonymity, and divisibility all have developers working to produce the collective answers that may open the floodgates to electronic commerce in the near future. The fact is that the electric-money genie is already out of the bottle. The market will demand electric money because of the accompanying new efficiencies that will shave costs in both consumer and supplier transactions. Consumers everywhere will want the bounty of a global marketplace, not one that’s tied to bankers’ hours. These efficiencies will push developers to overcome today’s technical hurdles, allowing bits to replace paper as our most trusted medium of exchange.
About the Author
Itech troubleshooter is an advanced web development, high skilled professional software Solution Company located in New Delhi founded by, PRABHAKAR MISHRA in the year 2008.The company provides vast range of services to each and every customer in reaching their respective targeted spectators and their valuable information in fix and on steady affordable price. Today, you can easily get a lot of quality services by this company on just dialing a call to the company which includes services like website designing , web application development , Application development , Maintenance , Re-engineering , Flash development , SEO , SEO Services , Computer AMC , Computer Networking , Wireless Networking , Data Recovery , ERP Solution .
|
|
Cuisinart GTF Gold Tone Filter $0.01 Permanent gold-tone filter for use in the DCC-100, DCC-900, DCC-1000, DCC-1200, and DGB-300 series coffee makers by Cuisinart. … |
|
|
Cuisinart DCC-1200 Brew Central 12-Cup Programmable Coffeemaker $165.00 A striking blend of retro style and modern technology. Programmable for brewing up to 24 hours in advance. Setting for 1 to 4 cups ensures full-bodied flavor and aroma. BrewPause™ feature lets you enjoy a cup before brewing is finished. Adjustable heater plate setting keeps coffee at the temperature you prefer. Audible “ready” signal. Automatic shutoff. Includes Gold Tone metal filter, #4 pap… |
|
|
Taylor 9842 Commercial Waterproof Digital Thermometer $8.75 Flat-Edged Dial Safe-T-Guard Thermometer with Antimicrobial Sleeve. Special additive in the sleeve material inhibits bacterial and fungal growth. Thermometer is waterproof for dependable use in kitchen or lab environments. Field calibratable. Auto-off feature saves on battery life. What’s Included: One LR44 battery… |
|
|
First Alert CO615 Carbon Monoxide Plug-In Alarm with Battery Backup and Digital Display $26.95 Carbon monoxide (CO) is the leading cause of accidental poisoning deaths in America, yet many people don’t know they are suffering from CO poisoning until its too late. Since symptoms of CO poisoning are like the flu, you might not even know you’re in danger at first. That’s why a carbon monoxide alarm is an excellent way to protect your family. It can detect the CO you can’t see, smell or taste i… |
|
|
Stack-On PDS-500 Drawer Safe with Electronic Lock $37.85 … |
|
|
Belkin Conserve Socket F7C009q Energy-Saving Outlet $9.66 Conserve Socket Power Timer. Many of the electronics and appliances around your home use electricity even when they’re not in use wasting energy and driving up your electric bill. The Conserve Socket Power Timer automatically shuts off power (including standby power) to your electronics and appliances after a time interval you select to help you save energy. Choose between three settings: 30 minut… |
|
|
Omron HJ-112 Digital Pocket Pedometer $21.00 The Omron Pocket Pedometer HJ-112 features advanced technology, which provides added durability and flexibility to count steps at all positions perpendicular to the ground. This feature allows the user to place the pedometer in a pocket, bag or clip it to a belt…. |
|
|
Remington CI95AC/2 Tstudio Salon Collection Pearl Digital Ceramic Curling Wand … |
|
|
Philips Norelco NT9110 Precision Nose and Ear Trimmer $14.99 The NT9110′s Tube Shave technology makes nose and ear hair trimming safe, fast, and easy. The ultra sharp, closed cutting system avoids pulling for a more comfortable trimming experience. The guarded system also protects against nicks and cuts. This unique and patented tube technology integrates a miniature trimming head for increased visibility, maneuverability and precision…. |
|
|
New Unipeck Of America Bulk Dried Mealworms Avg. Count 176,000 100% Perservative & Additive Free $252.95 100% safe & secure shopping; Superior customer service…. |
HW-2025F First Alert Mini-Digital Personal Home Safe