Question: Hi Nam I was wondering wondering how you make networks more secure

Nam Tran answered on 20 Nov 2020:

Great question! There are a few ways to achieve that. Let me explain briefly how data is protected over networks first.

Normally if we want to protect our data over networks, transmitter and receiver need to get the same secrete key. This key is used to encrypt the data to be sent over networks. We have a way to ensure that no other users can get the same key.

The question is how the transmitter and receiver can get the same key. In many cases they will exchange the key through a separate channel. Because data encryption is not possible before the key is established, the channel is very insecure. In wireless networks, signals are broadcasted to everyone. This is where an attacker can sneak into and steal the key.

So, a possible way to enhance the security for wireless networks is to find a method such that the transmitter and the receiver can generate the same key themselves and don’t need to exchange the key to each other. Researchers (including myself) are working on a highly reliable protocol to achieve this.