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Identity Based Encryption (IBE)

Published by in security on October 16th, 2006

Lazy days are just perfect for me to catch up with reading. This Saturday, as I was browsing through the Internet reading up on new (at least for me) trends and technologies, I came across a recent I-D on a scheme called Identity Based Encryption (IBE) here. The premise and applicability of this technology seemed pretty interesting, so I read more here, here and other places. This technology is currently being pioneered by a relatively new company, called Voltage Security.I don’t claim to understand complex mathematics, so I am going to restrict my comments on its applicability. Simply put, IBE is not a complete replacement of existing asymmetrical cryptographic algorithms. It allows a mechanism where an arbitrary string could be used by the ‘sender’ as a means to encrypt a message. Based on that identity string, the receiver can obtain a private key to decrypt it, as long as the receiver can satisfactorily prove to some ‘Key Server’ that it is the rightful owner of that ‘arbitary identity’ string. This eliminates the need for certificate exchanges before a communication takes place in traditional PKI schemes. This makes more sense when we apply a deployment model to it. Consider for example,

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Conveniences of the future

Published by in offbeat, voip on October 13th, 2006

Okay, not a technology post, really. Just some light-hearted cynicism. We haven’t had one of those posts for a while now. Life is not all about technology, ya know ? Yes, yes, I know, with the advent of the all pervasive IP pipe, you are going to able able to wave a hand and discover your friend’s contact from google with its advanced mindreader engine. You will be able to click on a webpage and call your friend (let’s not worry about minor details like how your friend’s contact would be on the web in the first place and whether he really wants that or not). You will be able to discover his presence and call him when he is free and all that good stuff. Ofcourse, there is IM as well, and you could just IM me your contact. Great stuff! But in the meantime, let us assume that a vast majority of the users, who still use a phone as we know it, start getting used to this new world… After all ,why blame them ? Most of the devices I see today have a dialpad on them, even if it happens to be a soft-phone. So till

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Its not VoIP, AJAX, Web 2.0 – its SAAS (Software as a Service)

Published by in voip, world 2.0 on October 6th, 2006

The topic itself is not that new. Anyone who is no one has in the past posted at least some sort of ramble regarding how either AJAX is a cure for cancer, or, how it has been tried in the past, and has and will miserably fail. Amidst all the hooplah and badly thought out articles, I read one here, which I believe the author has put thought into. I liked it. In the past year, I’ve been spending a lot of time on how to effectively merge the ‘web 2.0’ world (to re-use a much used term) into the world I think I know relatively well, the VoIP world. Here is the problem: most of the people busy adding “2.0”, “3.0” etc. to marketing terms don’t spend too much time putting their arms around what the model of entry/execution/exit really is and focus only on the technologies. I remember a conversation with a friend a few months ago, where in a moment of excitement, he exclaimed “The client is interested in new technologies such as AJAX, google maps, presence, IM, RSS, voip and presence. Can we slap together something that shows a group of people located on google maps,

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SIP and Skype, P2P and Supernodes – what a melee

Published by in voip on October 2nd, 2006

Gaaah. I happened to bump into Slashdot today and read this:“…is that when you install the Skype client, it will drain system resources by running as a supernode from time to time”and finally concluding that the author will more likely use SIP over Skype. Implictly implying that with SIP, you are free from such issues ! Let’s get the facts straight: P2P is an architecture, SIP is a protocol. Skype is a product, and Skype uses its own proprietary protocol (you can call it ‘Skype Protocol’ if you want). A SuperNode system forms a fundamental design choice of many existing P2P networks, including Skype, Kazaa, Grokster and several other massively scaled networks. Today, most of SIP’s deployment uses a centralized architecture. In other words, all your SIP phones register with some central server and some central proxy. Your calls are routed through them. If they fail, you cannot reach other users, or, will have to attempt to call them directly (not as simple, because the person who is sitting in your buddy list as sippal@myisp.com may actually be user457@001dxp.bbcppcspool.myisp.com and this complex ID is mapped to its simpler one by the proxy /location server that went down. There is current

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© Arjun Roychowdhury. My personal opinions only.