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Category: encryption – Page 52

Over the next 3 to 5 years you will see more and more in tech (medical/ bio, chip/ semiconductors, software, AI, services, platform, etc.) adopting QC in their nextgen products and services. We’re (as in Vern B. — D-Wave co-founder and CEO terms) in the Era of Quantum Computing. I highly urge techies to learn about QC so that you remain relevant.

Google is being driven by need to prevent the NSA from breaking into its system to access confidential personal data of its millions of users. On the other hand, the NSA is bent on cracking the tough encryption systems Google and other tech firms use to shield their information from them. Quantum computers will attain this aim for both Google and the NSA.

Google recently said it’s gotten closer to building a universal quantum computer. A team of Google researchers in California and Spain has built an experimental prototype of a quantum computer that can solve a wide range of problems and has the potential to be scaled up to larger systems.

The Google prototype combines the two main approaches to quantum computing. One approach constructs the computer’s digital circuits using quantum bits or qubits in specific arrangements geared to solve a specific problem. The other approach is called adiabatic quantum computing (AQC).

Continue reading “Google and NSA Competing to Build World’s Most Powerful Quantum Computer” | >

Glad that folks have awaken to the fact that QC is indeed coming and best to learn about this technology and make it part of the IT’s Future State.

http://www.welivesecurity.com/2016/06/14/quantum-computation

Cryptography-armageddon/

ESET’s Cassius Puodzius takes an in-depth look at cryptography, exploring quantum computing (one of the resources in the toolkit of cryptanalysts).

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In a feat that demonstrates the feasibility of using satellites to transmit uncrackable quantum messages, scientists have measured the quantum properties of photons sent to space and back again.

Physicists beamed the blips of light up to a satellite that reflected them back to Earth. Upon the photons’ return, the team, led by Paolo Villoresi of the University of Padua in Italy, observed a property known as quantum interference. That confirmed that the particles’ quantum traits remained intact over the 5,000-kilometer space voyage. The team reports the advance in a paper to be published in Physical Review Letters.

The technique could one day lead to quantum cryptography by satellite, allowing users to send snoop-proof encryption keys for encoding secret information. “It’s important for the sake of secure communication and advancement of physics,” says Villoresi. But that’s not the only reason he took on the challenge. “I can more honestly say that it’s cool.”

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“The individuals who do these types of attacks are well aware of the pressure points and pain points, economic-wise,” says Dr. John Hale, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Tulsa. “They know what they can extract, how much they can extract.

“They prey upon two things: an organization’s reliance on information systems and two, the common situation, where an organization is a little bit behind on backup procedures and policies to prevent these types of things. It really is easy pickings for the bad guys.”

Crypto ransomware is designed to encrypt data stored on the computer, making the data useless unless the user obtains the key to decrypt it. A message details the ransom, which is typically paid in digital currencies such as bitcoin. Locker ransomware locks the computer or device’s interface — save for the ability to interact with the hacker — and demands money to restore it.

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Steve Forbes sits across Brian Singer, a partner at William Blair, as Blair explains the potential of blockhain encryption to empower individuals. He also explains why credit card companies are beginning to embrace a technology that undermines their high fees.

https://youtu.be/CecpCepnkAU

Singer-Forbes

I am glad that D. Whyte recognizes “If quantum computers are developed faster than anticipated, certification would mandate insecure modules, given the time to approve and implement new quantum resistant algorithms. Worse, it is conceivable that data encrypted by a certified module is more vulnerable than data encrypted by a non-certified module that has the option of using a quantum-safe encryption algorithm.”

Because many of us who are researching and developing in this space have seen the development pace accelerated this year and what was looking like we’re 10 years away is now looking like we’re less than 7 years.

Dr. William Whyte, Chief Scientist for Security Innovation, a cybersecurity provider and leader in the 2015 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Security Awareness Training, will be presenting at the Fourth International Cryptographic Module Conference in Ottawa, Ontario.

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Privacy is practically a joke anymore.

A hacker known as “Peace” is selling what is reportedly account information from 117 million LinkedIn users. The stolen data is said to include email addresses and passwords, which a malicious party could use to gain access to other websites and accounts for which people used the same password.

LinkedIn says it has about 433 million members worldwide, so this data could represent 27% of its user base.

The hacker says the credentials were obtained during a LinkedIn data breach in 2012 that saw 6.5 million encrypted passwords posted online, according to Motherboard. But the leak now appears to be much larger than was thought at the time. Peace is selling the data for about $2,200 (5 bitcoin) on the Dark Web, the part of the internet accessible only with a special browser that masks user identities.

Continue reading “A hacker is reportedly selling the stolen emails and passwords of 117 million LinkedIn users” | >

Making Holographic Apps more secured and efficient.

Since its birth, holograms have been extensively used to serve security systems and related purposes. The making of a hologram, dissecting it to pieces and again rejoining the blocks involves a steady orientation of lenses which encodes the information with depth perception that could be deciphered later according to requirement.

It’s hard to imagine a 21st century city running smooth without an immense use of holograms, small or big sized 2D cards with 3D engraved pictures that are present in credit cards, grocery objects, books, biomedical devices and in other objects requiring retrievable information to be stored.

In terms of concealing product information, these sticker based fancy stuffs were up to the mark, until technology escalated beyond imagination. Even a previously measured safe encryption suffered from threat and these tools became fragile. Researchers initialized various approaches to hit the safest and complex path, among which nanotechnology had an answer in store for them. A research team from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences had recently forced polarization to concise holograms, comprising of tiny light-polarization sensitive nanostructures to generate numerous ones depending upon the polarization configuration of light.

Continue reading “Nanotechnology To Make Holographic Applications More Secure And Efficient” | >

The question breaks down into two parts:

  1. For what public benefit? —and—
  2. No, it cannot be achieved in this way

Governments are in the business of regulating certain activities—hopefully in an effort to serve the public good. In the case of business methods and activities, their goal is to maintain an orderly marketplace; one that is fair, safe and conducive to economic growth.

But regulation that lacks a clear purpose or a reasonable detection and enforcement mechanism is folly. Such regulation risks making government seem arbitrary, punitive or ineffective.

QR Code_CRYPSA-001«— This is money. It is not a promissory note, a metaphor, an analogy or an abstract representation of money in some account. It is the money itself. Unlike your national currency, it does not require an underlying asset or redemption guarantee.

Bitcoin is remarkably resistant to effective regulation because it is a fully distributed, peer-to-peer mechanism. There is no central set of books, no bank to subpoena, and no central committee to pressure (at least not anyone who can put the genie back into the bottle). In essence, there is no choke point or accountable administrative party.

Sure—it is possible to trace some transactions and legislate against ‘mixers’ and other anonymization methods—but there is no way to prevent a transaction before it occurs or to know the current distribution of assets. Bitcoin can exist as a printed QR code and it can be transmitted from a jail cell with a blinking flashlight. Sending bitcoin from Alice to Bob has no intermediary. Settlement requires only that one of the parties eventually has access to the Internet. But, there is no credit authority or central asset verification. [continue below image]…

feral_cat_mating-02-ts

If you are thinking of legislating against the use of Bitcoin, you might as well pass laws to ban the mating of feral cats or forbid water from seeping into underground basements. These things are beyond the domain of human geopolitics. You can try to shape the environment (e.g. offer incentives to cats and water levels), but you cannot stop sex or seepage.

Fortunately, Bitcoin is not a threat to governments—not even to spending or taxation. A gross misunderstanding of economics and sociology has led some nations to be suspicious of Bitcoin, but this improper perception is abating. Governments are gradually recognizing that Bitcoin presents more of an opportunity than a threat.

I have written more extensively on this issue:

Philip Raymond is co-chair of Cryptocurrency Standards Association, MC for The Bitcoin Event in NY and board member for Lifeboat Foundation. This fall, he will teach Cryptocurrency and The Blockchain in Massachusetts.