Exploring The Impact Of Diffie-Hellman On Internet Transactions Security

In the 1970s, Martin Hellman and Whitfield Diffie wrote the recipe for one of today's most widely used security algorithms in a paper called "New Directions in Cryptography. The paper mapped out the Diffie-Hellman key exchange, a major advancement in Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology that allows for secure online transactions and is used in such popular protocols as the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Secure Shell (SSH). In 2000, they received the prestigious Marconi Foundation award for their contributions.

With the world increasingly dependent on the Internet for commerce and a financially-motivated underground of malcode writers working overtime to exploit its weaknesses, there's been plenty of debate over how cryptography must evolve to meet new threats. In this two-part feature, Diffie and Hellman discuss the threats that concern them most and where they think the technology they helped advance is headed.

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