|
Capstone (cryptography)
Capstone is a United States government long-term project to develop cryptography standards for public and government use. Capstone was authorized by the Computer Security Act of 1987, driven by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Security Agency (NSA); the project began in 1993. Project The initiative involved four standard algorithms: a data encryption algorithm called Skipjack, along with the Clipper chip that included the Skipjack algorithm, a digital signature algorithm, Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA), a hash function, SHA-1, and a key exchange protocol. Capstone's first implementation was in the Fortezza PCMCIA card In computing, PC Card is a configuration for computer parallel communication peripheral interface, designed for laptop computers. Originally introduced as PCMCIA, the PC Card standard as well as its successors like CardBus were defined and develop .... All Capstone components were designed to provide 80-bit security. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Government
The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a federal district (the city of Washington in the District of Columbia, where most of the federal government is based), five major self-governing territories and several island possessions. The federal government, sometimes simply referred to as Washington, is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the U.S. Constitution in the Congress, the president and the federal courts, respectively. The powers and duties of these branches are further defined by acts of Congress, including the creation of executive departments and courts inferior to the Supreme Court. Naming The full name of the republic is "United States of America". No other name appears in the Constitution, and this i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryptography
Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversarial behavior. More generally, cryptography is about constructing and analyzing protocols that prevent third parties or the public from reading private messages. Modern cryptography exists at the intersection of the disciplines of mathematics, computer science, information security, electrical engineering, digital signal processing, physics, and others. Core concepts related to information security ( data confidentiality, data integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation) are also central to cryptography. Practical applications of cryptography include electronic commerce, chip-based payment cards, digital currencies, computer passwords, and military communications. Cryptography prior to the modern age was effectively synonymo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer Security Act Of 1987
The Computer Security Act of 1987, Public Law No. 100-235 (H.R. 145), (Jan. 8, 1988), was a United States federal law enacted in 1987. It was intended to improve the security and privacy of sensitive information in federal computer systems and to establish minimally acceptable security practices for such systems. It required the creation of computer security plans, and appropriate training of system users or owners where the systems would display, process or store sensitive information. History It was repealed by the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 SEC. 305. (a) Provisions * Assigned the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, At the time named National Bureau of Standards) to develop standards of minimum acceptable practices with the help of the NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Institute Of Standards And Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical science laboratory programs that include nanoscale science and technology, engineering, information technology, neutron research, material measurement, and physical measurement. From 1901 to 1988, the agency was named the National Bureau of Standards. History Background The Articles of Confederation, ratified by the colonies in 1781, provided: The United States in Congress assembled shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective states—fixing the standards of weights and measures throughout the United States. Article 1, section 8, of the Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1789, granted these powers to the new Congr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign and domestic intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, specializing in a discipline known as signals intelligence (SIGINT). The NSA is also tasked with the protection of U.S. communications networks and information systems. The NSA relies on a variety of measures to accomplish its mission, the majority of which are clandestine. The existence of the NSA was not revealed until 1975. The NSA has roughly 32,000 employees. Originating as a unit to decipher coded communications in World War II, it was officially formed as the NSA by President Harry S. Truman in 1952. Between then and the end of the Cold War, it became the largest of the U.S. intelligence organizations in terms of pers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Encrypt
In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decipher a ciphertext back to plaintext and access the original information. Encryption does not itself prevent interference but denies the intelligible content to a would-be interceptor. For technical reasons, an encryption scheme usually uses a pseudo-random A pseudorandom sequence of numbers is one that appears to be statistically random, despite having been produced by a completely deterministic and repeatable process. Background The generation of random numbers has many uses, such as for rando ... encryption Key (cryptography), key generated by an algorithm. It is possible to decrypt the message without possessing the key but, for a well-designed encryption scheme, considerable computational resources and skills are required. An au ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skipjack (cipher)
In cryptography, Skipjack is a block cipher—an algorithm for encryption—developed by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). Initially classified, it was originally intended for use in the controversial Clipper chip. Subsequently, the algorithm was declassified. History of Skipjack Skipjack was proposed as the encryption algorithm in a US government-sponsored scheme of key escrow, and the cipher was provided for use in the Clipper chip, implemented in tamperproof hardware. Skipjack is used only for encryption; the key escrow is achieved through the use of a separate mechanism known as the Law Enforcement Access Field (LEAF). The algorithm was initially secret, and was regarded with considerable suspicion by many for that reason. It was declassified on 24 June 1998, shortly after its basic design principle had been discovered independently by the public cryptography community. To ensure public confidence in the algorithm, several academic researchers from outside the gove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clipper Chip
The Clipper chip was a chipset that was developed and promoted by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) as an encryption device that secured "voice and data messages" with a built-in backdoor that was intended to "allow Federal, State, and local law enforcement officials the ability to decode intercepted voice and data transmissions." It was intended to be adopted by telecommunications companies for voice transmission. Introduced in 1993, it was entirely defunct by 1996. Key escrow The Clipper chip used a data encryption algorithm called Skipjack to transmit information and the Diffie–Hellman key exchange-algorithm to distribute the cryptokeys between the peers. Skipjack was invented by the National Security Agency of the U.S. Government; this algorithm was initially classified SECRET, which prevented it from being subjected to peer review from the encryption research community. The government did state that it used an 80-bit key, that the algorithm was symmetric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Digital Signature Algorithm
The Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) is a Public-key cryptography, public-key cryptosystem and Federal Information Processing Standards, Federal Information Processing Standard for digital signatures, based on the mathematical concept of modular exponentiation and the Discrete logarithm, discrete logarithm problem. DSA is a variant of the Schnorr signature, Schnorr and ElGamal signature scheme, ElGamal signature schemes. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) proposed DSA for use in their Digital Signature Standard (DSS) in 1991, and adopted it as FIPS 186 in 1994. Four revisions to the initial specification have been released. The newest specification isFIPS 186-4 from July 2013. DSA is patented but NIST has made this patent available worldwide royalty-free. A draft version of the specificatioFIPS 186-5indicates DSA will no longer be approved for digital signature generation, but may be used to verify signatures generated prior to the implementation date of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SHA-1
In cryptography, SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm 1) is a cryptographically broken but still widely used hash function which takes an input and produces a 160-bit (20-byte) hash value known as a message digest – typically rendered as 40 hexadecimal digits. It was designed by the United States National Security Agency, and is a U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard. Since 2005, SHA-1 has not been considered secure against well-funded opponents; as of 2010 many organizations have recommended its replacement. NIST formally deprecated use of SHA-1 in 2011 and disallowed its use for digital signatures in 2013, and declared that it should be phased out by 2030. , chosen-prefix attacks against SHA-1 are practical. As such, it is recommended to remove SHA-1 from products as soon as possible and instead use SHA-2 or SHA-3. Replacing SHA-1 is urgent where it is used for digital signatures. All major web browser vendors ceased acceptance of SHA-1 SSL certificates in 2017. In February ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Key Exchange
Key exchange (also key establishment) is a method in cryptography by which cryptographic keys are exchanged between two parties, allowing use of a cryptographic algorithm. If the sender and receiver wish to exchange encrypted messages, each must be equipped to encrypt messages to be sent and decrypt messages received. The nature of the equipping they require depends on the encryption technique they might use. If they use a code, both will require a copy of the same codebook. If they use a cipher, they will need appropriate keys. If the cipher is a symmetric key cipher, both will need a copy of the same key. If it is an asymmetric key cipher with the public/private key property, both will need the other's public key. Channel of exchange Key exchange is done either in-band or out-of-band. The key exchange problem The key exchange problem describes ways to exchange whatever keys or other information are needed for establishing a secure communication channel so that no one else ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortezza
Fortezza is an information security system that uses the Fortezza Crypto Card, a PC Card-based security token. It was developed for the U.S. government's Clipper chip project and has been used by the U.S. Government in various applications. Each individual who is authorized to see protected information is issued a ''Fortezza card'' that stores private keys and other data needed to gain access. It contains an NSA approved security microprocessor called ''Capstone'' ( MYK-80) that implements the Skipjack encryption algorithm. The original Fortezza card (KOV-8) is a Type 2 product which means it cannot be used for classified information. The most widely used Type 1 encryption card is the KOV-12 Fortezza card which is used extensively for the Defense Message System (DMS). The KOV-12 is cleared up to TOP SECRET/SCI. A later version, called KOV-14 or Fortezza Plus, uses a Krypton microprocessor that implements stronger, Type 1 encryption and may be used for information classified ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
