The growth in computer literacy and the pervasiveness of networking means that business must give more attention to security aspects. In some instances inadequate security is inhibiting business development. Proprietary encryption solutions restricted to a particular application or business sector are expensive to deploy and maintain. The scale of deployment means that continuously upgrading minimum security, to keep pace with technology, cannot be cost justified or sustained. This leads to a requirement for high level security including strong cryptography.
Computer security requires strong authentication to clearly identify entities.
Only when this is in place will controls operate effectively. Strong authentication of the integrity of data is particularly required for safety critical applications. Both are required for secure electronic commerce. Adoption of the DSS is a step forward, however a global public key infrastructure to support it is missing. Significant reduction of operational costs of complex and diverse networks can only be achieved by reducing the number of application management systems.