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Why be Concerned with Security?
Many people see the Internet as a model for how business will be done in the future. But before that can happen, people have to feel safe about sending credit card and other financial information across the Net. Because information traveling across the Internet actually passes through many computers along the way, the opportunity exists for someone to snoop and steal confidential information.
How Might Security Affect You?
Let's say you come across a catalog on the Web. If the website allows you to purchase that item by providing your credit card number, how do you know that information will travel safely from your computer to its final destination? With the tremendous potential for doing business online, there's a lot of time and money being spent trying to make the Net secure.
How is the Net Being Secured?
With a technology called encryption. Encryption software acts like the cable converter box on your television set. It scrambles the data with a secret code so that no one can make sense of it while it's being transmitted. When the data reaches its destination, the same software unscrambles the information. But codes can be broken by people who thrive on outsmarting computer security systems. These people, sometimes known as hackers, make a hobby out of breaking into computers. That's why encryption technology needs to be constantly updated.
Should You Worry About Hackers Breaking into Your Computer?
If you access the Internet through a dial up account, the chances of someone breaking into your computer are virtually non-existent. The real target of most hackers are large private companies and government computers. They protect their systems by erecting something called a firewall, an extra layer of security placed between their internal computers and the Internet itself. The best security though, is common sense. Be sure you're dealing with reputable firms and make sure that encryption software is being used on both ends. If you're uncomfortable, you can sometimes give your credit card number over the phone, although there is no guarantee that's secure either.
The risks involved in transacting business on the Net are no greater than those we face in any other arena in which we do business. When we go to a resturant, we hand over our credit cards to the wator or waitress without a second thought. While it is relatively safe to conduct business on the Internet right now, there are many companies continually working to develop and improve the technology required to make the Web secure.
What is Public-Key Cryptography?
Until recently, people used a technique called symmetric key cryptography to secure information being transmitted across public networks. This method involves encrypting and decrypting a message using the same "key," which must be known to both parties in order to keep it private. The "key" is passed from one party to the other in a separate transmission, making it vulnerable to being stolen as it is passed along.
With public-key cryptography, separate keys are used to encrypt or decrypt a message so that nothing but the encrypted message needs to be passed along. Each party in a transaction has a "key pair" which consists of two keys with a particular relationship that allows one to encrypt a message that the other can decrypt. One of these keys is made publicly available and the other is a "private" key. A message encrypted with a person's public key can't be decrypted with that same key, but can be decrypted with the private key that corresponds to it. If you sign a transaction with your bank using your private key, the bank can read it with your corresponding public key and know that only you could have sent it. This is the equivalent of a "digital signature."
Public-key cryptography lessens the risk of private information being intercepted and it allows parties to positively identify each other through digital signatures.
What is Secure Servers?
Netscape Corporation has created the best known secure server technologies. It uses a security protocol called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which provides data encryption, server authentication, message integrity and optional client authentication for a TCP/IP connection. When a client program connects with a secure server, they exchange a "handshake" which initiates a secure session. With this protocol, the same server system can run both secure and insecure web servers simultaneously. This means an organization or company can provide some information to all users using no security and other information that is secured. For example, a business that sells products online can have their "storefront" (merchandise catalog) unsecured, but ordering and payment documents or forms can be secure.
Why are Public-Key Cryptography and Secure Servers Important?
As we use the Internet more and more to buy and sell products and services, the Net becomes a medium in which we will also do banking. Right now, most transactions involve the exchange of credit card information either directly over the network or by phone to complete a transaction initiated online. Eventually, you will be able to use cash as well as credit, directly over the network.
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