Cryptography and Key Management

Abstract

When a packet is routed from the source to the destination, it is routed through many intermediate nodes. It is at the intermediate nodes where anyone at one of the machines that handle the packets could reassemble the packets that make up the EDI Interchange and could therefore read it, copy it, alter it, or delete it. In the case where an EDI Interchange is carried using the SMTP protocol, the case could arise where the message cannot be delivered to the final recipient, so that the message must be stored at an intermediate node. Once again, the message is susceptible to any number of security threats mentioned above.