We propose an approach for constructing secret and private keys based on the long-known Slepian-Wolf code, due to Wyner, for correlated sources connected by a virtual additive noise channel. Our work is motivated by results of Csisz��r and Narayan which highlight innate connections between secrecy generation by multiple terminals that observe correlated source signals and Slepian-Wolf near-lossless data compression. Explicit procedures for such constructions and their substantiation are provided. The performance of low density parity check channel codes in devising a new class of secret keys is examined.

12 pages; 2 figures; The material in this paper was presented in part at the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, Adelaide, Australia, Sept. 2005, and at the Information Theory and Applications Workshop, San Diego, CA, Feb. 2006