Month: September 2019

Supply-Chain Security and Trust

Posted on By infossl
china, essays, nationalsecuritypolicy, Security technology, supplychain, trust

The United States government’s continuing disagreement with the Chinese company Huawei underscores a much larger problem with computer technologies in general: We have no choice but to trust them completely, and it’s impossible to verify that they’re trustworthy. Solving this problem ­ which is increasingly a national security issue ­ will require us to both … Read More “Supply-Chain Security and Trust” »

Superhero Movies and Security Lessons

Posted on By infossl
Security technology

A paper I co-wrote was just published in Security Journal: “Superheroes on screen: real life lessons for security debates“: Abstract: Superhero films and episodic shows have existed since the early days of those media, but since 9/11, they have become one of the most popular and most lucrative forms of popular culture. These fantastic tales … Read More “Superhero Movies and Security Lessons” »

On Chinese “Spy Trains”

Posted on By infossl
china, espionage, essays, infrastructure, nationalsecuritypolicy, privacy, Security technology, surveillance

The trade war with China has reached a new industry: subway cars. Congress is considering legislation that would prevent the world’s largest train maker, the Chinese-owned CRRC Corporation, from competing on new contracts in the United States. Part of the reasoning behind this legislation is economic, and stems from worries about Chinese industries undercutting the … Read More “On Chinese “Spy Trains”” »

Russians Hack FBI Comms System

Posted on By infossl
fbi, hacking, russia, Security technology, tracking, trafficanalysis

Yahoo News reported that the Russians have successfully targeted an FBI communications system: American officials discovered that the Russians had dramatically improved their ability to decrypt certain types of secure communications and had successfully tracked devices used by elite FBI surveillance teams. Officials also feared that the Russians may have devised other ways to monitor … Read More “Russians Hack FBI Comms System” »

Crown Sterling Claims to Factor RSA Keylengths First Factored Twenty Years Ago

Posted on By infossl
Security technology

Earlier this month I made fun of a company called Crown-Sterling, for…for…for being a company that deserves being made fun of. This morning, the company announced that they “decrypted two 256-bit asymmetric public keys in approximately 50 seconds from a standard laptop computer.” Really. They did. This keylength is so small it has never been … Read More “Crown Sterling Claims to Factor RSA Keylengths First Factored Twenty Years Ago” »

A Feminist Take on Information Privacy

Posted on By infossl
power, privacy, Security technology, smartphones, surveillance, trust

Maria Farrell has a really interesting framing of information/device privacy: What our smartphones and relationship abusers share is that they both exert power over us in a world shaped to tip the balance in their favour, and they both work really, really hard to obscure this fact and keep us confused and blaming ourselves. Here … Read More “A Feminist Take on Information Privacy” »