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Cryptographic Keys Focus Of Next-Gen Net Security

Against the backdrop of rising malware threats and organized cybercriminal rings, a national cybersecurity initiative is taking shape which will bring a "locked down" mentality to the way we authenticate users, apps, and anyone or anything that touches a network. I'm talking about the Cryptographic Key Management (CKM) project that is being run out of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Computer Security Division.

Of course, keys are not a new thing, they've long been used in what amounts to a sophisticated security handshake so that there's some assurance there's no bad guy on the other end before you grant network access or hand over information. It's also true, as a CKM report noted, that "nearly all Internet security protocols use cryptography for authentication, integrity and/or confidentiality."

What's different this time is that there's an overarching effort to figure out how to extend and implement keys so that they're universally applied on the Internet -- and thus by extension, on all networks everywhere -- not only for legacy stuff, but also in emerging areas of concern including cloud security, as well as the plugging of holes that routinely exist for wireless authentication.

Click the link to read the rest of the post on NetworkComputing.

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