Securing a transmission channel between two remote computers with secure shell and implementing cryptography on smart card

Abstract

Communication plays a very important and indeed a crucial part in our daily lives. Electronic mail, data transfer, and the development of the Internet have changed the way the world communicates. As the Internet grows in popularity and therefore also in size, more and more transmissions take place, mainly because the technology is more readily available and applications have become more user friendly, allowing entry to less sophisticated users over a broad spectrum. Intertwined herewith, is the significant increase in business related use and transmission of critical data, ultimately leading to a significant increase in security risks. This has attracted and encouraged the entry of common criminals with a high level of computer based skills. Most data transfers are mainly text based, not secure and vulnerable to various forms of security risks. The open and distributed structure of the Internet has caused this major global security problem - for businesses and the individual. In the case of an individual, a security breach is localised, whereas with businesses the implications are far reaching. Leakage of intellectual property, confidential information and/or financial information could greatly harm businesses and their stakeholders. This presentation looks at a model that uses SSH for securing an insecure channel like Internet, whilst integrating smart cards for client authentication and encryption and decryption of data