DIMACS TR: 97-28

Identity Escrow



Authors: Joe Kilian and Erez Petrank

ABSTRACT

We introduce the notion of {\em escrowed identity}, an application of key-escrow ideas to the problem of identification. In escrowed identity, one party $A$ does {\em not} give his identity to another party $B$, but rather gives him information that would allow an authorized third party $E$ to determine $A$'s identity. However, $B$ receives a guarantee that $E$ can indeed determine $A$'s identity. We give protocols for escrowed identity based on the El-Gamal (signature and encryption) schemes and on the RSA function. A useful feature of our protocol is that after setting up $A$ to use the system, $E$ is only involved when it is actually needed to determine $A$'s identity.

Paper Available at: ftp://dimacs.rutgers.edu/pub/dimacs/TechnicalReports/TechReports/1997/97-28.ps.gz
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