Whitfield Diffie: Prospects of Secure Computing
Abstract
Secure computing is about forty years old, becoming distinct from the
physical security of the computer only after the introduction of timesharing in
the 1960s. In the intervening decades, secure computing has proven a very
difficult problem and made far less progress than originally expected.
Today a number of new technologies from Trusted Platform Modules, to
``computers built out of networks,'' to proof carrying code give promise of
major breakthroughs. On the other hand, the introduction of web services
will change our concept of security radically and may virtually eliminate
secure computing as we know it today.
