ENCRYPTION OF ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS IN DIGITAL LIBRARIES: DOCUMENT PROTECTION OVER THE NETWORK

Abstract

Digital libraries provide mechanism for the distribution of electronic documents. The tasks of a digital library are not limited to establishing a secure communication channel, but extended to the protection of electronic documents even after the transfer. The solutions proposed in this area are based on the use of cryptographically secured containers. Therefore, the requirements are some mechanisms to ensure the security of documents (classified as well as non-classified) which can be distributed among end-users having varied requirements. The scope of this paper is not only limited to a particular library, but it will prove beneficial to all the libraries, because, unless its usability can be realized everywhere, the very existence of such a concept will be crippled. In this paper, document protection is discussed, which is to be wrapped in a secure cryptographic envelope with the help of MD5 and Hash Functions as well as Digital Signature Techniques.