Public-Key Cryptography: State of the Art and Future Directions

This report on the state of the art and future directions of
public-key      cryptography is published in accordance with the
terms of reference of the   European Institute for System
Security (EISS). The EISS was founded in 1988 by cabinet
resolution of the state government of Baden-W}rttemberg               and
its basic task is scientific research and knowledge transfer
in the field of security in telecommunications and computer
and information            systems.
This report gives the results of an EISS workshop on
public-keycryptography and contains seven chapters: an
introduction, the scope of the workshop, the topics chosen,
classification and description of the most      prominent
public-key systems, the dependence of public-key
cryptography on computational number theory, mistakes and
problems with public-key         systems, and a projection of needs
and requirements for public-key               systems.
It is addressed to all members of the computer                              science
community: systems developers, researchers, decision                        makers,
standardization committees, patent offices, and users                     and
customers of secure computer systems.