New technology developed at Monash significantly cuts the computing and network resources needed to send a secure message.

By Stuart Heather

Security and privacy of information are two of the major challenges of the information age. Business relies increasingly on the electronic transmission and storage of data, while consumer surveys show a growing concern about personal data on networks like the internet.

At Monash University's Peninsula campus, the Laboratory for Information and Network Security (LINKS) is at the forefront of international research into better ways of maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of electronically-transmitted data.

These are crucial issues when financial transactions such as credit card sales are involved. A transaction should be tamper-proof, remain confidential and confirm the identities of the participants. It is also an advantage to do all this at the least possible cost.

Current technologies use a two-stage process of sending electronic 'signatures' and encrypting the signature and transaction itself, but a new LINKS technology called 'Signcryption' combines these stages into one radically new, smaller package.

Less transmission time

The founding director of LINKS, Dr Yuliang Zheng, says Signcryption cuts significantly the computing and network resources needed to send a secure message. "With millions of transactions a day, all the tiny savings add up to a considerable commercial advantage in less transmission time, bandwidth, computing power and storage," says Dr Zheng.

The savings from Signcryption technology have particular relevance to the booming growth in mobile internet devices (PDAs and next-generation mobile phones).

LINKS is also being recognised by international data security experts as one of the few centres of excellence in developing other network security technologies with e-commerce applications, including new versions of electronic cash for payments over the internet.

SPEED is a small and fast data encryption program which works in a complementary way with Signcryption and HAVAL, a 'hashing' or message- compressing technology.

LINKS is a consultant to industry on improving smart card security (smart cards are credit card-like devices which have a small processing unit embedded in them).

"Smart cards have been found to be vulnerable to attack in perhaps surprising non-intrusive ways such as monitoring their power usage to extract secret keys," says Dr Zheng. LINKS is developing countermeasures.

Safety on-line

Another LINKS project is tackling a medical application involving sensitive privacy issues. When patients are hospitalised, their general practitioners need to exchange information with hospital medical staff.

However, Dr Zheng says it is not as simple as providing every GP with a computer and a modem to connect with a hospital database. "Access to each patient's medical record has to be restricted and controlled so that doctors get the information they need but the patient's privacy is also respected."

		For more information about LINKS network security technologies, contact Dr Yuliang Zheng on +61 3 9904 4196 or email yuliang.zheng@infotech.monash.edu.au