Q&A

Whit Diffie on Encryption and PKI

Crypto pioneer Diffie on the developments in encryption and the relevance of PKI. (Part of the What Happens Next security predictions series.)

By Bill Brenner, Senior Editor

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How does Sun's current strategy fit in with the future direction of cryptography?
OpenSolaris supports a cryptographic framework that provides uniform cryptographic services to both kernel and user processes. The multi-threaded Niagara processor devotes one of the eight cores on each chip to cryptographic services, implementing conventional and public-key cryptography, and supporting all the Suite B algorithms. The SPARC instruction set has been augmented with instructions that support the older (modular-arithmetic-based) public-key cryptography, elliptic curve cryptography, and symmetric cryptography.

One great gap in cryptographic protection is stored data. To address this market, Sun's StorageTek division produces fully encrypted tape drives. This allows tapes to be shipped and stored with untrusted service providers without concern for the security of the data the tapes concern.

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• Security Predictions: What Happens Next?
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