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Case: Nutcase & DigiBooks


An imaginary software company, Nutcase Communications, has decided to enter the booming sector of secure online communications and business transactions. With their highly praised NutSurfer software products they enter the world market and rapidly gain a broad international customer base for their application.

All network traffic in the commercial secure version of NutSurfer is protected with symmetric encryption. Because of the export regulations in U.S., the secure version of the NutSurfer is sold overseas with short encryption keys (40 bits). A group of crackers in Russia finds a security hole in the NutSurfer's security protocol and use it to transfer substantial amount of funds from Finnish bank accounts to accounts in Switzerland. The Finnish bank demands compensation from Nutcase, but they claim not to be liable of any damage occurred.

Nutcase decides to implement their own public-key based on the commercial key distribution and certification system. However, the keys distributed are not accepted universally, since a similar service is offered by governmental organisation, U.S. Library of Congress Copyright Office. Neither of these authorities are recognised in Finland, because European Union has formed their internal regulations for key management. As a result of this conflict, the electronic transactions between trading parties in Finland and in U.S. do not use the digital signatures at all. Nutcase continues to advertise their universally secure service.

Finnish customer claims that he has not ordered the electronic products from a digital bookstore, DigiBooks, located in U.S. In fact, he has looked for interesting items at a digital library located in Philippines that has extensive coverage of all works offered by digital bookstores in U.S. The Finnish customer pays a small annual library fee to have a user license to the digital library in Philippines. Digital copyright law used in U.S. does not apply in Philippines.

The digital books contain hidden code to send a message to the authorised distributor (DigiBooks) about the Finnish reader. DigiBooks charges the price of the books from the Finnish customer. He is furious, demands refund, and sues DigiBooks. Both, the Finnish customer and DigiBooks sue Nutcase for not offering the level of security required. Lawyers smile and wrap up their sleeves...


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mtu@cs.hut.fi - 04 DEC 95