SKIP-securing the Internet

Currently, two different approaches are being pursued for securing the Internet with respect to commercial use on a broad scale. The properties of these two approaches-application-coupled security vs. network-coupled security-are discussed and compared. We then focus on SKIP (Simple Key-management in the Internet Protocol) as an example of network-coupled security, and show how it can be used to provide easily upgradable `plug & play´ cryptographic security. Providing upgradable security is an ideal base for the employment of organically-growing security infrastructures, whose members still need to communicate with unsecured peers