Introduction

What is driving Electronic Commerce and e-Government solutions? The answer is simple: useful applications and user-friendly yet secure solutions that can deliver operational cost savings. Smartcards, used for providing digital signatures for Electronic Commerce (EC), never caught on in any significant volume for the mere fact that there are very few smartcard readers around, which makes such solutions very expensive. However, there is an alternative

RSA, a short recap

In a public key scheme, and for the sake of simplicity, assume a public scheme based on encryption-decryption (as opposed to e.g. DSA, the Digital Signature Algorithm, where the digital signature generated by the secret key is verified to satisfy a mathematic equation using the corresponding public key), you have two mathematical functions, called keys, the secret key S and the public key P

Introduction

It is well-known and appreciated by most users - even if often ignored(!) - that if you choose a weak password, you are exposing yourself to various risks. Whether your password is used for encryption of confidential data or just for access control doesn't really matter, so let's assume for a minute that it is actually used to encrypt your data - or perhaps to encrypt a key that is used to encrypt your data. The situation you are in is that

In 2004, Intel, Nokia, Panasonic, and Samsung among others announced plans for a licensing and compliance framework called Content Management License Administrator (CMLA) (see www.cm-la.com). This body was formed to address necessary business concerns and enable rapid delivery of high-quality digital content to mobile handsets and other devices that deploy Open Mobile Alliance (OMA).

CMLA's goal is to provide vendors and service providers with clear