Resumen
The article focuses on the probable target area for hackers. The remarkable growth of computer networks, with many new groundbreaking applications such as e-commerce, e-government, and digital libraries, are also susceptible to illegal data loss and information leak which make them highly insecure. It reports that a hacker can corrupt data, steal sensitive information, or masquerade as another user. The article informs that to protect data one may use cryptographic mechanisms such as digital signatures. Digital signatures require two keys: a public key and a secret key. The number of hackers can be quite large, depending upon the incentives such as network used for wholesale transactions, contract signing, and similar activities. It advises that a secure authentication infrastructure must be reliable, robust, and survivable. It is emphasized that clearly there is a trade-off between the security requirements and the complexity of an authentication infrastructure. Hierarchical structures sacrifice security for managerial convenience and achieve efficiency by single-path authentications.