Welome to the Internet, here's your private key

[Rick Smith at Secure Computing]

At 12:20 PM 2/4/2002, Bill Stewart wrote:

>A smartcard-only system probably _is_ too limited to generate keys,
>but that's the only realistic case I see.

Here are some manufacturer claims for the DataKey 330 smart card: average 
of 23 seconds to generate a 1,024-bit RSA key, average of 3 minutes to 
generate a 2,048-bit RSA key.

In practice this becomes one of those "installing something new" delays on 
your computer. You stick the smart card into the reader and watch the watch 
dial spin or the hourglass or whatever. Once it's done, the thing is 
"installed" and you're ready to go. Unsophisticated users may worry that 
they'll face the same delay the next time it's plugged in, but presumably 
people will learn from experience.

Of course, you don't want to use such a key to protect a set of closely 
held encryption keys that protect critical data, since you'll lose the data 
if the smart card gets damaged or breaks down.


Rick.
smith at securecomputing.com            roseville, minnesota
"Authentication" in bookstores http://www.visi.com/crypto/


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