’Zero knowledge’ may answer computer security question

In the age of the Internet, it's getting harder and harder to keep secrets. When you type in your password, there's no telling who might be watching it go by. New research at Cornell may offer a pathway to more secure. The answer is to not send sensitive information at all. Rafael Pass, associate professor of computer science, has developed a new protocol, or set of rules, to create what computer scientists call a "zero knowledge proof." "I think zero knowledge proofs are one of the most amazing notions in computer science," Pass said. "What we have done is to combine it with another notion - that it's easier to prove that a computation can be done correctly than it is to actually compute it." The result is a way to prove that you know something without saying out loud what it is you know. Instead of insecurely typing the password for your bank account, you just prove to the bank that you know the password.