NH ISIG meeting, Tuesday, July 7, 1998 On the Internet, Even Dogs Need to be Authenticated.

[Jerry Feldman]

When: Tuesday July 7, 1998, 6:30 PM 
Where: Nashua, NH Public Library, 2 Court St, Nashua, NH. 
Featuring: Peter Cassidy, director of research at TriArche Research Group
Topic:  "On the Internet, Even Dogs Need to be Authenticated." 

You've probably seen the New Yorker cartoon of a dog sitting at a keyboard
explaining to another mutt: "On the Internet no one knows you're a dog."
Sure, anonymity and pseudonymity are important precipitates of the new
electronic communications technology.  Yet Web space's potential for
commerce will not be fully realized until it has analogues of the
identification systems we take for granted in the physical world. Wal-Mart
may not care if you're a dog - but understand this Bowser: the company
won't accept your check or extend credit for a bag of Dog Chow until the
company can certify your identity and your creditworthiness. The NH iSig
is presenting consultant, analyst and writer Peter Cassidy to discuss the
politics and technology of on-line certification authorities at its July 7
meeting in Nashua.  His talk is titled, "On the Internet, Even Dogs Need to be 
Authenticated."  Everyone from the U.S. Post Office to brand-new tech 
companies are competing to develop on-line authentication services, often called 
Certification Authorities, to take a nick from every transaction that goes through 
the Web.  Mr. Cassidy will discuss these certification authorities, their theoretical 
roles, the hierarchical authentication models many of these competitors are
developing and the distributed authentication schemes that he believes
will inevitably displace them. 

Peter Cassidy, director of research at TriArche Research Group, a business
development consultantcy, <http://www.triarche.com> has conducted research
programs in security systems for a number of private clients and for
larger consulting firms such as Giga and Dataquest before founding
TriArche in 1996.  As an industrial writer his work has appeared The
Economist, ForbesASAP, WIRED, Silicon Strategies, Software Developer and
Publisher Magazine, Telepath Magazine, Bankers Monthly, American Banker,
CFO Magazine, NetscapeWorld, CIO Magazine and Datamation Magazine.  Mr.
Cassidy has been interviewed about computer and telephony security issues
on several broadcast radio programs in the United States and,
appropriately enough, on C|Net Radio, an international Internet-based
audio network.  Mr. Cassidy was a co-founder of the Digital Commerce
Society of Boston which sponsors monthly talks on e-commerce issues to
give language to the possibilities held out by today's technologies and to
imagine the future.
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Everyone Welcome, No Memberships or Fees to attend! 

For more information contact Ken Adams <director at nh-isig.org> 
Or  Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org> 
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Directions to the Nashua Public Library (Plenty of free parking after 5PM)  map: 
http://www.nh-isig.org/gifs/map.jpg 

Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
New Hampshire Internet SIG Meeting Coordinator
http://www.nh-isig.org
http://gaf.ne.mediaone.net