Various perspectives were aired by the distinguished panel of speakers at the second session in UniForum's Security Seminar Series, held on Jan. 11 at the Westin Hotel in Santa Clara, CA. The well-attended session addressed the issue "Encryption: Is This The Key to Data Security?" and was chaired by Dr. Bob Baldwin of RSA Data Security of Redwood City, CA. It examined the range of different applications made possible by cryptography.
The panel presented a number of well-informed opinions. Taher El Gamal, chief scientist for Netscape of Mountain View, CA, spoke on "Security Issues and Internet Applications," focusing on the current status of commerce on the net and what the near future may hold. Chini Krishnan, product marketing manager with Terisa Systems in Menlo Park, CA, gave an overview of what Internet security really means and what can be done to achieve it. Peter Williams, chief architect at VeriSign, explained digital certificates and IDs. John Gilmore of the Electronic Frontier Foundation presented an outline of the practical and political aspects of export controls on cryptography. Dr. Whit Diffie, distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems of Mountain View, CA, discussed the social implications of encryption technology. The lively session revealed the paucity of easy answers to the security dilemma, as well as the tremendous interest in the subject on the part of the industry.
The third session in UniForum's Security Seminar Series, "Firewalls, the Internet and the Web: How Vulnerable Are We When We Communicate Electronically?" is scheduled for Jan. 25 at the same location, and also promises to be a spirited forum on the subject of information security.