IPSec/Internet Key Exchange Protocols - overview
Security Accomplishment | 2001 - 2002
IBM researchers: Hugo Krawczyk
Where the work was done: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
What we accomplished: Krawczyk (pictured) was responsible for foundational work analyzing key-exchange protocols on the Internet, which would allow secure, private communication, e.g., between a person and a bank, or between two people.
Related links: Paraphrasing Security Analysis of IKE's Signature-Based Key-Exchange Protocol at the Crypto'2002 Conference: Krawczyk believed that his main goal was to "provide a cryptographic analysis of IKE [Internet Key-Exchange] and the underlying SIGMA protocols. The practical interest in his analytical work was natural, given the wide deployment and use of IKE, and the fact that authentication via signatures is the most common mode of public-key authentication used in the context of IKE. Yet the more basic importance of his work was its contribution to a further development of a theory that supports the analysis of complex and more functional protocols as required in real-world applications.
Image Credit: RSA Conference