Showing papers on "The Internet published in 1978"

An overview of public key cryptography

Abstract: bout 30 years ago when I first started working in cryptography from an unclassified point of view, the climate was far from conducive. On hearing of my new interest, most of my colleagues told me I ' A was crazy to try working in an area where NSA had had a megabudget for decades. \" How can you hope to discover anything new. And if you discover anything good, they'll classify it. \" History has shown that there was more wisdom in their objections than I was willing to allow at the time. But some inner foolishness drew me inexorably to the area. And, as sometimes happens, being foolish turned out to be smart as well. Two other fools, Diffie and Merkle, independently broke with the conventional wisdom. Eventually we found each other and joined forces. Somehow we knew that cryptography was something the world would need, and expected great commercial demand to materialize within five to 10 years. This estimate turned out to be optimistic, with widespread commercial use taking roughly twice as long to develop. But the scale of deployment has met our grand expectations. Literally millions of people use cryptography daily on the Internet and, as it should be, most do not even know it is protecting them. Their credit card and other sensitive information is transmitted with a high level of cryptographic protection automatically and transparently. Public key cryptography, the subject of this paper, is critical in allowing that ease of use. Re-reading this article, I am struck by several points: The decreasing cost of computation has continued to make cryptography ever more ubiquitous. In the 25 years since the article was written, costs have fallen by a further factor of approximately 100,000, so that the US$lO DES chip referred to in the article is today a very small part of a chip or software and has almost no associated cost. While the cryptanalyst's costs have also fallen by this same factor, fortunately his work increases much more rapidly if we do the larger computations that have become economical. The promulgation of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is an important step in this direction. Another system that appeared after this article should also be mentioned. Schnorr's variant of EIGamal's signature scheme became the basis of the Digital Signature Algorithm. The need for large safety margins, mentioned toward the end of the article, has been borne out …

Issues in packet-network interconnection

Abstract: This paper introduces the wide range of technical, legal, and political issues associated with interconnection of packet-switched data communication networks. Motivations for interconnection are given, desired user services are described, and a range of technical choices for achieving interconnection are compared. Issues such as the level of interconnection, the role of gateways, naming and addressing, flow and congestion control, accounting and access control, and basic internet services are discussed in detail. The CCITT X.25/ X.75 packet-network interface recommendations are evoluated in terms of their applicability to network interconnection. Alternatives such as datagram operation and general host gateways are compared with the virtual circuit methods. Some Observations on the regulatory aspects of interconnection are offered and the paper concludes with a statement open research problems and some tentative conclusions.

The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need

Abstract: Revised throughout and expanded with new information on Internet investment resources, this personal finance classic is "so full of tips and angles that only a boobie or a billionaire could not benefit" (New York Times). Index.

The project coordinator's problem

Abstract: A project coordinator has a set of activities with known durations and values which are available for scheduling within a given horizon. There may be both precedence and corequisite restrictions (two activities are corequisites if scheduling one implies the other must be scheduled). The project coordinator's problem is to select the activities to be scheduled, and their start times, so as to maximize the net value of the project when there is no penalty for failing to schedule an activity. An efficient solution procedure is developed and illustrated and several generalizations are discussed.

Policies of publishers: A handbook for order librarians

Abstract: This handbook provides, in a convenient single source, the information librarians need to place direct orders with publishers. The new 1995 edition includes listings of approximately 350 publishers' policies in a standard format. Each entry includes publisher's main address and telephone number; order address; prepayment requirement; discount policy; return policy; shipping and billing policy; back order policy; and standing order/approval plans. For many publishers, the new 1995 edition includes e-mail addresses for orders and correspondence, addresses for accepting electronic orders, and the availability of publications catalogs through a computer network such as the Internet or Bitnet.