cryptography – Page 7 – SSL and internet security news

Dark Web Site Taken Down without Breaking Encryption

October 25, 2019 infossl

bitcoin, childpornography, cryptocurrency, cryptography, darkweb, forensics, Security technology

The US Department of Justice unraveled a dark web child-porn website, leading to the arrest of 337 people in at least 18 countries. This was all accomplished not through any backdoors in communications systems, but by analyzing the bitcoin transactions and following the money: Welcome to Video made money by charging fees in bitcoin, and … Read More “Dark Web Site Taken Down without Breaking Encryption” »

NordVPN Breached

October 23, 2019 infossl

breaches, certificates, cryptography, disclosure, encryption, keys, Security technology, vpn

There was a successful attack against NordVPN: Based on the command log, another of the leaked secret keys appeared to secure a private certificate authority that NordVPN used to issue digital certificates. Those certificates might be issued for other servers in NordVPN’s network or for a variety of other sensitive purposes. The name of the … Read More “NordVPN Breached” »

Calculating the Benefits of the Advanced Encryption Standard

October 22, 2019 infossl

aes, cryptography, historyofcryptography, nist, Security technology

NIST has completed a study — it was published last year, but I just saw it recently — calculating the costs and benefits of the Advanced Encryption Standard. From the conclusion: The result of performing that operation on the series of cumulated benefits extrapolated for the 169 survey respondents finds that present value of benefits … Read More “Calculating the Benefits of the Advanced Encryption Standard” »

Factoring 2048-bit Numbers Using 20 Million Qubits

October 14, 2019 infossl

academicpapers, cryptanalysis, cryptography, quantumcomputing, rsa, Security technology

This theoretical paper shows how to factor 2048-bit RSA moduli with a 20-million qubit quantum computer in eight hours. It’s interesting work, but I don’t want overstate the risk. We know from Shor’s Algorithm that both factoring and discrete logs are easy to solve on a large, working quantum computer. Both of those are currently … Read More “Factoring 2048-bit Numbers Using 20 Million Qubits” »

More Cryptanalysis of Solitaire

October 4, 2019 infossl

academicpapers, algorithms, cryptanalysis, cryptography, Security technology

In 1999, I invented the Solitaire encryption algorithm, designed to manually encrypt data using a deck of cards. It was written into the plot of Neal Stephenson’s novel Cryptonomicon, and I even wrote an afterward to the book describing the cipher. I don’t talk about it much, mostly because I made a dumb mistake that … Read More “More Cryptanalysis of Solitaire” »

The Doghouse: Crown Sterling

September 5, 2019 infossl

cryptography, doghouse, schneierslaw, Security technology, snakeoil

A decade ago, the Doghouse was a regular feature in both my email newsletter Crypto-Gram and my blog. In it, I would call out particularly egregious — and amusing — examples of cryptographic “snake oil.” I dropped it both because it stopped being fun and because almost everyone converged on standard cryptographic libraries, which meant … Read More “The Doghouse: Crown Sterling” »

John Paul Stevens Was a Cryptographer

July 19, 2019 infossl

courts, cryptography, historyofcryptography, privacy, Security technology, surveillance

I didn’t know that Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens “was also a cryptographer for the Navy during World War II.” He was a proponent of individual privacy. Powered by WPeMatico

Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Has Quantum Encryption Policy

July 12, 2019 infossl

blockchain, cryptography, encryption, nationalsecuritypolicy, quantumcomputing, Security technology

At least one presidential candidate has a policy about quantum computing and encryption. It has two basic planks. One: fund quantum-resistant encryption standards. (Note: NIST is already doing this.) Two, fund quantum computing. (Unlike many far more pressing computer security problems, the market seems to be doing this on its own quite nicely.) Okay, so … Read More “Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Has Quantum Encryption Policy” »

Applied Cryptography is Banned in Oregon Prisons

July 5, 2019 infossl

appliedcryptography, books, censorship, cryptography, prisons, Security technology

My Applied Cryptography is on a list of books banned in Oregon prisons. It’s not me — and it’s not cryptography — it’s that the prisons ban books that teach people to code. The subtitle is “Algorithms, Protocols, and Source Code in C” — and that’s the reason. My more recent Cryptography Engineering is a … Read More “Applied Cryptography is Banned in Oregon Prisons” »

Google Releases Basic Homomorphic Encryption Tool

July 2, 2019 infossl

cryptography, encryption, google, Security technology

Google has released an open-source cryptographic tool: Private Join and Compute. From a Wired article: Private Join and Compute uses a 1970s methodology known as “commutative encryption” to allow data in the data sets to be encrypted with multiple keys, without it mattering which order the keys are used in. This is helpful for multiparty … Read More “Google Releases Basic Homomorphic Encryption Tool” »