Digital rights management systems and applications

Digital Rights Management

According to Arsenova (Technical aspects of Digital Tights Management) digital rights management (DRM) encompasses many technical functions for controlling accessibility. The major ones are summarized below.

DRM uses a cryptographic algorithm to encrypt content that needs a secret key - a particular phrase or string of numbers. Only the holder(s) of this key can unlock the content and read it. Often, a cryptographic system uses two keys -- a public key known to everyone and a private or secret key known only to the recipient of the message. For example, when Joe wants to send a secure message to Ann, he uses Anne's public key to encrypt the message and then Anne uses her private key to decrypt it. A digital certificate connects a person's identity with his/her public cryptographic key. The digital signatures are issued by certificate authorities that guarantee that a public key belongs to the person whose name is in the certificate.

Secure Sockets Layer and Transport Layer Security are cryptographic communication protocols for secure communications on the Internet. These protocols allow client/server applications to communicate in a way designed to prevent eavesdropping, tampering and message forgery. IPsec is a standard that provides security at the network layer by encrypting and/or authenticating IP packets.