Information Assurance for security protocols

Security protocols are used pervasively to protect distributed communications in the third Millennium. This motivates the need for a definition of Information Assurance for security protocols, which, to the best of our knowledge, is still missing. Such a definition is advanced in terms of the requirements that security protocols be analysed at the same time realistically, accurately and formally, notions that the existing literature only favours in separate contexts. The precise meanings of these terms are described by means of general considerations and concrete examples. The main goal of this paper is to draw attention to and raise concern on this novel but significant niche of computer security.