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Abstract. Much research on Internet security has concentrated so far
on generic mechanisms such as firewalls, IP authentication and protocols
for large scale key distribution. However, once we start to look at
specific applications, some quite different requirements appear. We set
out to build an infrastructure that would support the reliable electronic
distribution of books on which doctors depend when making diagnostic
and treatment decisions, such as care protocols, drug formularies and
government notices. Similar requirements will be essential for other areas
of human activities such as electronic commerce.
We initially tried to implement a signature hierarchy based on X.509 but
found that this had a number of shortcomings. We therefore developed
an alternative way to manage trust in electronic publishing, that has a
number of advantages which may commend it in other applications. It
does not involve the use of export-controlled cryptography; it uses much
less computational resources than digital signature mechanisms; and it
provides a number of features that may be useful in environments where
we are worried about liability. Yet another alternative involves use of one-time signatures. We have actually implemented one-time signatures for one version of the medical publishing system. This system initially used the familiar X.509 and RSA based signature mechanisms; the move to one-time signatures enabled considerable simplifcation, cost reduction and performance improvement. We believe that similar mechanisms may be appropriate for protecting other information that changes slowly and remains available over long time periods. Book and journal publishing or legal announcements
in general appear to be strong candidates.
POI PURL-based Object Identifier
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/distributed-systems/poi/
This document describes the PURL-based Object Identifier (POI) - a simple specification for resource identifiers based on the PURL system. The use of the POI is closely related to the use of the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) and with the OAI identifier format (oai-identifiers) used within that protocol.
The POI has been developed with the following criteria in mind:
- the use of currently deployed technologies,
- simplicity of assignment,
- the ability to assign POIs in a distributed environment without compromising the uniqueness of assigned identifiers,
- the delivery of a 'resolver' service for POIs that (where possible) builds on the existing investment in OAI repositories.
The primary intention of the POI is as a relatively persistent identifier for resources that are described by metadata 'items' in OAI-compliant repositories. Where this is the case, POIs are not explicitly assigned to resources - a POI exists implicitly because an OAI 'item' associated with the resource is made available in an OAI-compliant repository. However, POIs can be explicitly assigned to resources independently from the use of OAI repositories and the OAI-PMH if desired. As such, the POI can be seen as a possible mechanism for implementing cool URIs.
A separate document provides some POI resolver guidelines 5. All POI assigners are strongly encouraged to configure the PURL system to resolve their POIs.