17-12-2012, 02:54 PM
E-CASH PAYMENT SYSTEM
CASH PAYMENT.doc (Size: 138.5 KB / Downloads: 36)
INTRODUCTION
With the onset of the Information Age, our nation is becoming increasingly dependent upon network communications. Computer-based technology is significantly impacting our ability to access, store, and distribute information. Among the most important uses of this technology is electronic commerce: performing financial transactions via electronic information exchanged over telecommunications lines. A key requirement for electronic commerce is the development of secure and efficient electronic payment systems. The need for security is highlighted by the rise of the Internet, which promises to be a leading medium for future electronic commerce.
Electronic payment systems come in many forms including digital checks, debit cards, credit cards, and stored value cards. The usual security features for such systems are privacy (protection from eavesdropping), authenticity (provides user identification and message integrity), and no repudiation (prevention of later denying having performed a transaction) .
The type of electronic payment system focused on in this paper is electronic cash. As the name implies, electronic cash is an attempt to construct an electronic payment system modelled after our paper cash system. Paper cash has such features as being: portable (easily carried), recognizable (as legal tender) hence readily acceptable, transferable (without involvement of the financial network), untraceable (no record of where money is spent), anonymous (no record of who spent the money) and has the ability to make "change." The designers of electronic cash focused on preserving the features of untraceability and anonymity. Thus, electronic cash is defined to be an electronic payment system that provides, in addition to the above security features, the properties of user anonymity and payment untraceability..
WHAT IS ELECTRONIC CASH?
We begin by carefully defining "electronic cash." This term is often applied to any electronic payment scheme that superficially resembles cash to the user. In fact, however, electronic cash is a specific kind of electronic payment scheme, defined by certain cryptographic properties. We now focus on these properties.
Electronic Payment
The term electronic commerce refers to any financial transaction involving the electronic transmission of information. The packets of information being transmitted are commonly called electronic tokens. One should not confuse the token, which is a sequence of bits, with the physical media used to store and transmit the information.
We will refer to the storage medium as a card since it commonly takes the form of a wallet-sized card made of plastic or cardboard. (Two obvious examples are credit cards and ATM cards.) However, the "card" could also be, e.g., a computer memory.
A particular kind of electronic commerce is that of electronic payment. An electronic payment protocol is a series of transactions, at the end of which a payment has been made, using a token issued by a third party. The most common example is that of credit cards when an electronic approval process is used. Note that our definition implies that neither payer nor payee issues the token.l
Classification of e-Cash
E-Cash could be on-line, or off-line. On-Line E-Cash refers to amount of digital money kept by your E-Cash issuers, which is only accessible via the network. Off-line E-Cash refers to digital money which you keep in your electronic wallet or other forms of off-line devices. Another way to look at E-Cash is to see if it is traceable or not. On-line credit card payment is considered as a kind of "Identified" E-Cash since the buyer's identity can be traced. Contrary to Identified E-Cash
E-Cash Security
Security is of extreme importance when dealing with monetary transactions. Faith in the security of the medium of exchange, whether paper or digital, is essential for the economy to function.
There are several aspects to security when dealing with E-cash. The first issue is the security of the transaction. How does one know that the E-cash is valid?
Encryption and special serial numbers are suppose to allow the issuing bank to verify (quickly) the authenticity of E-cash. These methods are suseptible to hackers, just as paper currency can be counterfeited. However, promoters of E-cash point out that the encryption methods used for electronic money are the same as those used to protect nuclear weapon systems. The encryption security has to also extend to the smartcard chips to insure that they are tamper resistant. While it is feasible that a system wide breach could occur, it is highly unlikely. Just as the Federal Government keeps a step ahead of the counterfeiters, cryptography stays a step ahead of hackers.
E-Cash Security
Security is of extreme importance when dealing with monetary transactions. Faith in the security of the medium of exchange, whether paper or digital, is essential for the economy to function.
There are several aspects to security when dealing with E-cash. The first issue is the security of the transaction. How does one know that the E-cash is valid?
Encryption and special serial numbers are suppose to allow the issuing bank to verify (quickly) the authenticity of E-cash. These methods are suseptible to hackers, just as paper currency can be counterfeited. However, promoters of E-cash point out that the encryption methods used for electronic money are the same as those used to protect nuclear weapon systems. The encryption security has to also extend to the smartcard chips to insure that they are tamper resistant. While it is feasible that a system wide breach could occur, it is highly unlikely. Just as the Federal Government keeps a step ahead of the counterfeiters, cryptography stays a step ahead of hackers.