Secure Group Communications Over Data Networks

The ubiquitous nature of the Internet is enabling a new generation of - pUcations to support collaborative work among geographically distant users. Security in such an environment is of utmost importance to safeguard the pri­ vacy of the communication and to ensure the integrity of the applications. 'Secure group communications' (SGC) refers to a scenario in which a group of participants can receive and send messages to group members, in a way that outsiders are unable to glean any information even when they are able to intercept the messages. SGC is becoming extremely important for researchers and practitioners because many applications that require SGC are now widely used, such as teleconferencing, tele-medicine, real-time information services, distributed interactive simulations, collaborative work, grid computing, and the deployment of VPN (Virtual Private Networks). Even though considerable research accomplishments have been achieved in SGC, few books exist on this very important topic. The purpose of this book is to provide a comprehensive survey of principles and state-of-the-art techniques for secure group communications over data net­ works. The book is targeted towards practitioners, researchers and students in the fields of networking, security, and software applications development. The book consists of 7 chapters, which are listed and described as follows.

This book provides a concise survey of principles and state-of-the-art
techniques for secure group communications (SGC) over data networks.
It offers an overview of secure algorithms and protocols for group
communication linking areas such as applied cryptography and computer
networking. Also included is a coverage of challenges in deploying
secure group communication-based applications over wireless networks.
These challenges include the limited computational power of mobile
devices, susceptibility of wireless networks to intrusion and
unauthorized access and mobility of nodes in a wireless ad-hoc network
environment.

Secure Group Communications over Data Networks provides a wealth of
information for network architects, IT Professionals, computer
scientists, and advanced students of computer science and computer
engineering in the fields of networking, computer security and
software applications development.