Author: infossl

Collision Attacks Against 64-Bit Block Ciphers

Posted on By infossl
academicpapers, cryptanalysis, cryptography, keys, Security technology

We’ve long known that 64 bits is too small for a block cipher these days. That’s why new block ciphers like AES have 128-bit, or larger, block sizes. The insecurity of the smaller block is nicely illustrated by a new attack called “Sweet32.” It exploits the ability to find block collisions in Internet protocols to … Read More “Collision Attacks Against 64-Bit Block Ciphers” »

The NSA Is Hoarding Vulnerabilities

Posted on By infossl
cisco, dhs, edwardsnowden, essays, exploits, lies, nationalsecuritypolicy, nsa, Security technology, vulnerabilities, zeroday

The National Security Agency is lying to us. We know that because of data stolen from an NSA server was dumped on the Internet. The agency is hoarding information about security vulnerabilities in the products you use, because it wants to use it to hack others’ computers. Those vulnerabilities aren’t being reported, and aren’t getting … Read More “The NSA Is Hoarding Vulnerabilities” »

Confusing Security Risks with Moral Judgments

Posted on By infossl
academicpapers, children, psychologyofsecurity, riskassessment, risks, Security technology

Interesting research that shows we exaggerate the risks of something when we find it morally objectionable. From an article about and interview with the researchers: To get at this question experimentally, Thomas and her collaborators created a series of vignettes in which a parent left a child unattended for some period of time, and participants … Read More “Confusing Security Risks with Moral Judgments” »

Interesting Internet-Based Investigative Techniques

Posted on By infossl
anonymity, children, deanonymization, metadata, operationalsecurity, police, pornography, Security technology

In this article, detailing the Australian and then worldwide investigation of a particularly heinous child-abuse ring, there are a lot of details of the pedophile security practices and the police investigative techniques. The abusers had a detailed manual on how to scrub metadata and avoid detection, but not everyone was perfect. The police used information … Read More “Interesting Internet-Based Investigative Techniques” »

Research on the Timing of Security Warnings

Posted on By infossl
academicpapers, Security technology, securityawareness, securitypolicies

fMRI experiments show that we are more likely to ignore security warnings when they interrupt other tasks. A new study from BYU, in collaboration with Google Chrome engineers, finds the status quo of warning messages appearing haphazardly­ — while people are typing, watching a video, uploading files, etc.­ — results in up to 90 percent … Read More “Research on the Timing of Security Warnings” »