PRESENTED BY:
DAVID MAHER 
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER,
INTERTRUST

The first keynote speaker set the tone for the conference by underscoring the importance of Smallest, Fastest, Strongest, drawing parallels between what is needed in the digital rights management industry and what is needed in cryptographic systems. Maher discussed the evolution of digital rights management (DRM) and the need for efficient and strong cryptography in the new DRM model.

He explained how the DRM industry’s early emphasis on copy protection led to roadblocks and a draconian attitude towards protecting content. Today, the industry is driving towards integration of media services with electronic commerce services. Maher explained how this shift in thinking is only possible with granularity. He showed that by breaking DRM into functional tiers and studying the relationships within the device and services tiers (what he referred to as nodes and links) industry players can better understand the issues, remove barriers and promote interoperability. Functional tiers could include ‘home and enterprise gateways’ and ‘home and personal networks and devices’.

Essential to the node system is a signing mechanism that establishes a trusted relationship between each node. That is, at each node in the system, efficient cryptography is needed to quickly establish integrity and authentication of signed objects to determine if a user is part of the domain and if a device can use the content.

As systems become more distributed and dynamic as described above, there is a greater demand for faster, smaller and stronger public key distribution systems to secure content and rights while promoting interoperability.