HP and Hitachi are to conduct joint work on key security
and privacy technology issues.
The HP and Hitachi research collaboration will focus on two
primary themes: authenticating users and devices to improve
security inside networks, and the use of digital signatures to
guarantee the authenticity of document content.
The first theme, said the pair, is being addressed to tackle
hacking, computer viruses and worms. To combat these threats, HP
and Hitachi researchers are investigating how to ensure that
computers used to access corporate networks remotely – from home or
from a hotel room, for instance – are appropriately authorised.
The researchers are interested in developing technologies for a
secure infrastructure that manages communications based on the
authentication of the integrity of both the PC and the user.
This approach will take advantage of authentication technologies
such as Hitachi’s Certificate Validation Server (CVS) and the HP
ProtectTools Embedded Security PC solution.
The researchers will investigate practical ways to deploy
“trusted computing” technology in corporate settings. The goal of
the project is to significantly improve IT infrastructure security,
while at the same time using lower-cost technology.
The focus of the second theme, content security research, is to
address the problem of how to guarantee the integrity of documents
and data by using digital signatures while allowing changes to be
made to them.
For example, it may be necessary to delete sensitive data such
as names and company secrets from a document for reasons of privacy
or confidentiality, yet show that the visible portion of the
document is authentic.
This process is regularly applied to documents affected by the
US Freedom of Information Act and similar laws in other countries.
The two companies said this type of technology could also help
ensure the authenticity and integrity of audit trails – an
important issue for companies complying with legislation such as
Sarbanes-Oxley.
Content security could also be used to demonstrate the integrity
of audit trails - for example to third-party auditors - while still
retaining confidentiality and privacy of the data contained
within.
“This collaboration highlights HP’s and Hitachi’s common
interest in security research and our aim to bring about secure
systems and infrastructure technologies for modern enterprise
needs,” said Dick Lampman, HP senior vice-president of
research.
The research will take place in both the US and Japan. A
timescale for introducing new security solutions as a result of the
research has not been set.