December 2017 – SSL and internet security news

Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Populations Are Exploding

December 29, 2017 infossl

academicpapers, Security technology, squid

New research: “Global proliferation of cephalopods” Summary: Human activities have substantially changed the world’s oceans in recent decades, altering marine food webs, habitats and biogeochemical processes. Cephalopods (squid, cuttlefish and octopuses) have a unique set of biological traits, including rapid growth, short lifespans and strong life-history plasticity, allowing them to adapt quickly to changing environmental … Read More “Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Populations Are Exploding” »

Profile of Reality Winner

December 29, 2017 infossl

intelligence, leaks, Security technology, voting, whistleblowers

New York Magazine published an excellent profile of the single-document leaker Reality Winner. Powered by WPeMatico

The “Extended Random” Feature in the BSAFE Crypto Library

December 28, 2017 infossl

backdoors, cryptanalysis, cryptography, nsa, randomnumbers, Security technology, tls

Matthew Green wrote a fascinating blog post about the NSA’s efforts to increase the amount of random data exposed in the TLS protocol, and how it interacts with the NSA’s backdoor into the DUAL_EC_PRNG random number generator to weaken TLS. Powered by WPeMatico

Post-Quantum Algorithms

December 27, 2017 infossl

algorithms, contests, cryptography, nist, quantumcomputing, Security technology

NIST has organized a competition for public-key algorithms secure against a quantum computer. It recently published all of its Round 1 submissions. (Details of the NIST efforts are here. A timeline for the new algorithms is here.) Powered by WPeMatico

Acoustical Attacks against Hard Drives

December 26, 2017 infossl

academicpapers, denialofservice, hardware, Security technology

Interesting destructive attack: “Acoustic Denial of Service Attacks on HDDs“: Abstract: Among storage components, hard disk drives (HDDs) have become the most commonly-used type of non-volatile storage due to their recent technological advances, including, enhanced energy efficacy and significantly-improved areal density. Such advances in HDDs have made them an inevitable part of numerous computing systems, … Read More “Acoustical Attacks against Hard Drives” »

“Santa Claus is Coming to Town” Parody

December 25, 2017 infossl

humor, privacy, Security technology, surveillance

Funny. Powered by WPeMatico

Friday Squid Blogging: Gonatus Squid Eating a Dragonfish

December 22, 2017 infossl

Security technology, squid

There’s a video: Last July, Choy was on a ship off the shore of Monterey Bay, looking at the video footage transmitted by an ROV many feet below. A Gonatus squid was spotted sucking off the face of a “really huge dragonfish,” she says. “It took a little while to figure out what’s going on … Read More “Friday Squid Blogging: Gonatus Squid Eating a Dragonfish” »

Amazon’s Door Lock Is Amazon’s Bid to Control Your Home

December 22, 2017 infossl

amazon, feudalsecurity, internetandsociety, internetofthings, keys, Security technology

Interesting essay about Amazon’s smart lock: When you add Amazon Key to your door, something more sneaky also happens: Amazon takes over. You can leave your keys at home and unlock your door with the Amazon Key app — but it’s really built for Amazon deliveries. To share online access with family and friends, I … Read More “Amazon’s Door Lock Is Amazon’s Bid to Control Your Home” »