Here's an interesting press release from France Telecom. It will be interesting to see if this changes internet volumes in a meaningful way.
PARIS -- France Telecom R&D has launched an exclusive trial spanning 5,000 customers who will use prepaid cards for secure shopping on the Internet. The innovative solution provides an attractive alternative to electronic payment via bank or credit cards. The solution also guarantees the anonymity of consumers, preventing their names from being added to databases. The new solution, known as "Ticket Surf", consists of a scratch card with a password for online transactions. To use the card people simply enter the password on a participating partner site and click. They can then select their purchase and pay immediately. The card password is checked on the Ticket Surf platform to approve the transaction and debit the corresponding amount. Once the credit has been exhausted the card is disposed of. Volunteer customers who signed up for the trial received a 15-euro card that they use via a special France Telecom portal until November 30. The first Ticket Surf service available is sending SMS (Short Message Service) messages via the Web to cellphones. "By providing this extremely flexible means of payment France Telecom aims to energize the e-commerce market. This is an excellent lever to multiply the volume of online transactions. A significant number of content providers are very interested in the concept and we're already looking at the development of combined prepaid Internet services and phone cards," says Gilles Moro, project manager at France Telecom R&D. >From: "Trei, Peter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: David Howe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Email List: Cypherpunks" ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "'David E. Weekly'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: RE: One time pads >Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 14:50:03 -0400 > > > David E. Weekly[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > > > Naive question here, but what if you made multiple one time pads (XORing > > them all together to get your "true key") and then sent the different >pads > > via different mechanisms (one via FedEx, one via secure courier, one via > > your best friend)? Unless *all* were compromised, the combined key would > > still be secure. > > > > As for PKI being secure for 20,000 years, it sure as hell won't be if > > those > > million-qubit prototypes turn out to be worth their salt. Think more >like > > 5-10 years. In fact, just about everything except for OTP solutions will > > be > > totally, totally fucked. Which means that you should start thinking >about > > using OTP *now* if you have secrets you'd like to keep past when an > > adversary of yours might have access to a quantum computer. I'd put 50 > > years > > as an upper bound on that, 5 years as a lower. > > > > -d > > >Not quite right. My understanding is that quantum >computing can effectively halve the length of a >symmettric key, but that does not take it down to zero. > >Thus, a 256 bit key would, in a QC world, be as secure >as a 128 bit key today, which is to say, pretty good. > >It's the asymmetric algorithms which have problems. > >Peter _________________________________________________________________ Surf the Web without missing calls! Get MSN Broadband. http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/freeactivation.asp
