How to insure that data acquired to verify treaty compliance are trustworthy
In a series of papers, this author has documented the evolution at the Sandia National Laboratories of a solution to the problem of how to make it possible for two mutually distrusting (and presumed deceitful) parties, the host and the monitor, to both trust a data acquisition system whose function it is to inform the monitor, and perhaps third parties, whether the host has or has not violated the terms of a treaty. They start by assuming that such a data acquisition system exists, and that the opportunities for deception which are the subject of this paper lie only in the manipulation of the data itself, i.e., forgery, modification, retransmission, etc. The national interests of the various participants, host, monitor and third parties, at first appear to be mutually exclusive and irreconcilable, however the authors will arrive at the conclusion that it is possible to simultaneously satisfy the interests of all parties. The technical device on which this resolution depends is the concatenation of two or more private authentication channels to create a system in which each participant need only trust the part of the whole which he contributed. In the resulting scheme, no part of the data need be kept secret from any participant at any time; no party, nor collusion of fewer than all of the parties can utter an undetectable forgery; no unilateral action on the part of any party cna lessen the confidence of the others as to the authenticity of the data and finally third parties, i.e., arbiters, can be logically persuaded of the authenticity of data. Thus, finally after nearly two decades of development a complete technical solution is in hand for the problem of trustworthy verification of treaty compliance.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 6911316
- Journal Information:
- Proc. IEEE; (United States), Vol. 76:5
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
EVALUATION
INFORMATION VALIDATION
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
TREATIES
COMPLIANCE
VERIFICATION
SANDIA LABORATORIES
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
TESTING
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
VALIDATION
350300* - Arms Control- Verification- (1987-)