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Anyone designing network protocols of any type, or managing a network, needs to understand security. But it tends to be an abstruse science, where the academics focus on the mathematics of the cryptography and formal proofs, and standards-focused people stress the syntax of their particular standard.
This tutorial demystifies the field, and focuses on a conceptual understanding of the pieces that someone who isn't wanting to specialize in cryptography, and yet does want to understand the implications of security on network protocols, needs to know. This tutorial gives an intuitive understanding of the basic cryptographic tools, and focuses on what their functional differences are. For instance, what, if anything, is the difference between the problems and threats in the wireless environment, vs the problems and threats addressed through Internet protocols such as SSL or IPsec? What is the difference between authentication systems based on secret keys, public keys, or identity providers? If one is adding cryptographic protection to a protocol, how can you handle changing keys without breaking a connection? How can you ensure that old packets from previous conversations, or when a sequence number wraps around, do not get mistaken for current packets?
Bio: Radia Perlman is a Fellow at Sun Microsystems Laboratories.
Many of her algorithms and protocols are fundamental
to today's networks. She's especially known for the
spanning tree algorithm which is the fundamental technology in "bridging"
and today's switched Ethernet. Ironically, recently she has been designing
and standardizing TRILL (TRansparent Interconnection of Lots of Links), intended
to replace spanning tree bridging.
She also designed the IS-IS protocol, and many of the fundamental algorithms
that make today's link state protocols (OSPF as well as IS-IS) scalable and robust.
She has also made significant contributions to network
security, including credentials
download, key management, authentication and authorization models, and
assured delete.
She is the author of "Interconnections: Bridges, Routers, Switches, and
Internetworking Protocols",
and coauthor of "Network Security: Private Communication in a Public
World". Both books are widely used as textbooks
as well as reference books for engineers. She was
awarded a lifetime achievement award from Usenix. Holding about 90
patents, she was named SVIPLA (Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Law
Association)
Inventor of the Year. She has a PhD from MIT in computer science, and an
honorary doctorate from KTH, Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology.
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