A survey of information authentication
In deference to the origins of the problem of authentication in a communications context, the authors refer to the authenticated information as the message and, to the originator (of a message) as the transmitter. The message, devoid of any meaningful physical embodiment, is presented for authentication by a means that the they call the authentication channel. This channel is by definition insecure, i.e., all communications that pass through it are public and may even be intercepted and replaced or altered before being relayed on to the intended receiver. In the simplest possible authentication scheme the party receiving the message (the receiver) is also the one wishing to verify its authenticity; although, there are circumstances in which this is not the case. Authentication, however, is much broader than this communications based terminology would suggest. The information to be authenticated may indeed be a message in a communications channel, but it can equally well be data in a computer file or resident software in a computer; it can be quite literally a fingerprint in the application of the authentication channel to the verification of the identity of an individual or figuratively a ''fingerprint'' in the verification of the identity of a physical object such as a document or a tamper sensing container. In the broadest sense, authentication is concerned with establishing the integrity of information purely on the basis of the internal structure of the information itself, irrespective of the source of that information.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 7122825
- Journal Information:
- Proc. IEEE; (United States), Vol. 76:5
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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TECHNOLOGY IMPACTS
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TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
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SURVEYS
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COMPUTERIZED CONTROL SYSTEMS
EQUIPMENT
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990300* - Information Handling
990220 - Computers
Computerized Models
& Computer Programs- (1987-1989)
990100 - Management