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Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David O'Berry who wrote (25128)	1/25/1999 10:33:00 AM
From: ToySoldier	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Hold on there BubbaLui! Digital Me has more security than most systems for the most part because NDS has a Certificate Authority function/object built into it. So when you log into Digital Me with a User ID and Password (regardless of the workstation that you use) NDS will authenticate you and you will receive a Certificate. This means that NDS will make sure that you are who you say you are. As is the case in most systems - you MUST make sure that your password is kept private and is not easy to figure out. Once you are authenticated, your communication will be encrypted and secure (similar to connecting to a bank service via the web). You are correct that the ultimate solution is through Bio systems and/or Security Token systems BUT most clients do not have that capability nor will they in the short term (i.e. does your PC/notebook have a BIO input device built into it? - I know that my notebook and every other PC I have walked up to currently does not have an input device like that). So in years to come maybe we will see Bio or Security Token input devices built onto every client but until that happens, the Digital Me security is about as good as the industry can provide on a large scale offering. Toy

To: David O'Berry who wrote (25128)	1/25/1999 10:50:00 AM
From: Paul Fiondella	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42771

Two possibilities -1- Novell picks a smartcard authentication company to partner with and pushes their product out into the world with Digital Me (Ecommerce version). Novel establishes the identity vault and makes the product available to consumers and vendors. (Still requires partnering with a Mastercard/Visa Amex type company) -2- Novell develops a digital identity compatible with NDS and distributes the software to all authentication companies so that they can create NDS compatible encrypted id numbers as the output of whatever local authentication smartcard system they produce. In both cases the result is the same. Authentication at the local level to get access to the digital identity and get authority to initiate a transaction. Local authentication really only serves the purpose of hiding the id number from being stolen. One would still need a verification process at the digital identity vault for incoming transactions unless the card were issued from the vault and the verification system was compatible with verification at the vault. Once again I want to explain why the vault and the concept of a trusted repository for your digital identity on the network is important. As commercial sites require more information in order to convince themselves that you are you, and require that you given them your ss#, your address, telephone, your DOB, your mother, brother, father and sister, and your credit card number(s), all of these pieces of information eventually become more public. The act of disclosing them to a commercial source makes them more public. Eventually you cannot establish your digital identity with any of this information. Because it will be less possible to use these methods of verification in the future, ecommerce will become risky for vendors. The basic idea of an identity vault is to limit verification to the vault site and thus prevent disclosure of your personal information to the public as a "necessary" aspect of ecommerce. This frees the internet and ecommerce of the verification process. Combining the vault with billing (Novell and Mastercard etc.) also simplifies the billing process for vendors. This would be a tremendous step forward for ecommerce. Only Novell has a way to do it currently. But they better get on internet time with this one!