Paul Barrett

The smart diskette: a universal user token and personal crypto-engine

It is becoming increasingly common for large, distributed systems to utilise personal computers (PC’s) for the purpose of user access, and hence the security arrangements for such an access point have become a focus of attention in systems security design. Generally speaking the functional requirements of a PC security sub-system are as follows:- (i) Identity verification of the user, for controlling access both to resources within the local PC workstation and to remote teleprocessing services on other machines. (ii) File encryption at the PC for secure storage. (iii) Message encryption and message authentication for secure communications. (iv) Digital signatures for proof of origin of communications and for data and software certification.