A Development in Security Software

[R. A. Hettinga]

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/07/technology/07SECU.html?todaysheadlines=&pagewanted=print&position=top



August 7, 2002
A Development in Security Software
By THE NEW YORK TIMES

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6 - A group of Bell Labs computer researchers will
describe new network security software on Wednesday intended to protect
personal digital information and increase security when connecting to
remote computers and Web sites.

The technology, designed for individual and corporate use, is significant
because it does not require the centralized structure now necessary with
many existing software security systems. Moreover, it could become a widely
used and free alternative to similar software that is being developed by
companies like Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.

The two programs, Factotum and Secure Store, will be described in a
technical paper to be given by the researchers at the Usenix computer
security conference scheduled to begin on Wednesday in San Francisco.

The researchers said they had solved the problem of storing a diverse
collection of personal information - like user names, passwords and digital
network credentials - used to identify computer users to online merchants
and other electronic services.

The researchers at Bell Labs, part of Lucent Technologies, have previously
developed an operating system known as Plan 9, which is freely available as
an open source program. They have also written the two complimentary
security programs so that they can be easily converted for other operating
systems, like Windows, Macintosh or Unix.

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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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