Identity-Based Encryption Comes of Age

Public-key technology is due for another round of useful innovations. On June 3 and 4, 2008, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) held the Applications of pairing based cryptography: identity based encryption and beyond workshop (www.nist.gov/ibe). Significantly, identity-based encryption (IBE) has now received enough interest to warrant such a workshop, which probably indicates the technology´s general acceptance. But a look at the history of public-key cryptography shows that IBE is just one of the many steps in the technology´s evolution.