Key Management Overhead Research Articles

Networking secure electronic funds transfer at point of sale

There is growing interest in the concept of electronic funds transfer at point of sale, i.e. the replacement of cash in everyday shopping transactions with an all-electronic alternative. Such an alternative must be highly secure. Prevention of fraud depends on secure overall network design incorporating cryptographic techniques. Various secure network topologies are possible, but the best operational characteristics result from a network-optimized approach. This takes advantage of intelligent traffic concentrators to maximize network flexibility and growth, while minimizing routing and key-management overheads. The concept is illustrated with an example transaction message protocol.