The role of the network in implementing security and privacy

Information is the fundamental currency of modern society. It is, therefore, vital to address the contemporary issues of security and privacy of information and, by extension, the security and privacy of the entities associated with the information. A promising solution is to use the network to create trust relationships at its end points while serving the security and privacy needs of its clients. The contemporary notions of security and privacy are deeply convoluted. Privacy is a fundamental right in most countries. Protecting an individual’s privacy in this sense is the same as exercising the right to personal security. Exercising this right can protect an individual from unwarranted attention. Doors and locks are manifestations of this approach. Currently, physical doors and locks are further augmented with electronic surveillance systems. Security and privacy often assume contradictory objectives in bilateral and multilateral transactions. The notion of a transaction is broad. Likewise, the notion of the entities involved in a transaction is also broad: the entities could be individuals or inanimate objects such as files that contain information or processes that seek to access information. The transaction could be a bilateral exchange of information in real-time between two individuals or simply the access of archival information such as a newspaper article or a video clip posted on YouTube. The privacy interests of the individual who attempts to access information are, in these cases, diametrically opposed to the security interests of the individual and the entity that owns the information. In general, the party that initiates a transaction would like to give as little information about itself as possible to safeguard its privacy. For example, a customer who visits a bank