What with one thing and another, I forgot about this piece until just now, when I went to update the Web page for that column series (www.pelicancrossing.net/hpkcols.htm - it’s the interviews column I do for the Inquirer). In it, Nicko van Someren, founder and CTO of nCipher, talks about the problem of key management: as crypto systems proliferate, dealing with keys is becoming a major issue.Natiurally, nCipher has a solution it would be happy to sell people, but that’s not the point: the point is more that every new security system we adopt comes with a complex management cost. This is true at all levels, from the major corporation that has a server tied up for a day just changing keys at all its sites throughout the world to the individual at home who locked down their Airport so tightly they now can’t remember how to open a connection for a guest who wants to use the Internet. These costs are part of why humans, who prefer easy lives, bypass security or turn it off rather than be hassled…

wg