Rethinking Public Key Infrastructures and Digital Certificates: Building in Privacy [Hardcover]

Stefan Brands (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2000

As paper-based communication and transaction mechanisms are replaced by automated ones, traditional forms of security such as photographs and handwritten signatures are becoming outdated. Most security experts believe that digital certificates offer the best technology for safeguarding electronic communications. They are already widely used for authenticating and encrypting email and software, and eventually will be built into any device or piece of software that must be able to communicate securely. There is a serious problem, however, with this unavoidable trend: unless drastic measures are taken, everyone will be forced to communicate via what will be the most pervasive electronic surveillance tool ever built. There will also be abundant opportunity for misuse of digital certificates by hackers, unscrupulous employees, government agencies, financial institutions, insurance companies, and so on.In this book Stefan Brands proposes cryptographic building blocks for the design of digital certificates that preserve privacy without sacrificing security. Such certificates function in much the same way as cinema tickets or subway tokens: anyone can establish their validity and the data they specify, but no more than that. Furthermore, different actions by the same person cannot be linked. Certificate holders have control over what information is disclosed, and to whom. Subsets of the proposed cryptographic building blocks can be used in combination, allowing a cookbook approach to the design of public key infrastructures. Potential applications include electronic cash, electronic postage, digital rights management, pseudonyms for online chat rooms, health care information storage, electronic voting, and even electronic gambling.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stefan A. Brands is Distinguished Scientist at Zero-Knowledge Systems, Inc., Montreal, Canada.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 356 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1st edition (August 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262024918
• ISBN-13: 978-0262024914
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,004,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Privacy in a public world - it can be done, September 5, 2003

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rethinking Public Key Infrastructures and Digital Certificates: Building in Privacy (Hardcover)

Although highly technical, the book really addresses a worsening social problem: trust and privacy. When I need to provide proof that I'm over 21, for example, I may present a driver's license. That can confirm that I'm over 21, certainly. It will also release my exact age and birth date (very different questions), as well as my name, address, license number, and whether I need glasses! The store certainly has a right to know that I am of legal age for some purchase, with a certificate at least as trustworthy as my driver's license. The rest of the information is irrelevant, but can expose me to a lot of unwanted attention, even real danger. I must, however, present all of it or none.

We really can have it both ways. Brands' protocols can give that seller the information needed - am I at least 21 - with extreme certainty. The protocol will release ONLY that information, however - not my exact age, address, or the rest. If I want to release my address, too, I can do that without releasing my driver's license number. The "infrastructure" in Brands' title is the set of mechanisms make this possible. It uses modern cryptography to create the required level of trust. It also uses Brands' techniques to let the owner of information control how it is released.

Brands has given clearer and more detailed meanings of personal privacy that I would ever dreamed exist. He then shows how mathematical techniques can protect each facet of privacy, while releasing all the information I must for living in a modern world. The text is quite mathematical - enough for the dedicated reader to implement any of the protocols described. It is possible, however, to skip past the math. What's left is an excellent discussion of living a safe and dignified life in a society of information.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating overview of cryptography PKI's underpinnings, December 26, 2001

By 

Ben Rothke "Author of 'Computer Security: 20 ... (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rethinking Public Key Infrastructures and Digital Certificates: Building in Privacy (Hardcover)

Rethinking Public Key Infrastructures and Digital Certificates is Brand's Ph.D. thesis.

The book is a fascinating overview of the cryptography and underpinnings of PKI. Brand's focuses more on PKI from the perspective of privacy, as opposed to authentication and confidentiality.

Brand's has come up with a number of new cryptographic communication techniques that can enable applications to limit the information provided to other parties. This is hugely crucial in that information leakage is a huge threat to personal privacy.

This book is a good complement to Schneier's Applied Cryptography ...

Either way, Rethinking Public Key Infrastructures and Digital Certificates is an original and innovative look at how to use PKI to enhance personal privacy and is highly recommended for anyone attempting to use PKI within their technology infrastructure.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Reader, February 16, 2006

By 

Javier Salido "JS" (Mercer Island, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rethinking Public Key Infrastructures and Digital Certificates: Building in Privacy (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book in that it is the only one I know, where the process of building advanced cryptographic protocols is explained step by step. Most other books simply throw out the protocols, as if the designers had conceived them through divine inspiration, and were to be used as cookbook recipies.
True, it is not a reference book, you can not simply pick a chapter and expect to understand what Dr. Brands is talking about. You have to read it sequentially.
However, if you have taken an undergraduate course in cryptography, you will recognize the basic problems and algorithms that are used, RSA and the discrete logarithm problem date back to the birth of public key cryptography in the 70s, the rest is the result of years and years of research, most of it concluded and published before 1997, after being thoroughly reviewed by many of the great names in cryptography research.
As an other reviewer has noted, this is not a cookbook with recipies for programmers, and neither is it a book for beginners.
You do not have to be a mathematician or a grad student to understand it, but you do need a solid understanding of public key cryptography and digital signatures.