Apple’s iMessage text messaging replacement and chat service has frustrated U.S. federal agents looking to get access to suspect communications, a new report from CNET reveals. According to government documents obtained by the news source, iMessage and its encryption are not vulnerable to existing methods used by the DEA, meaning that in a recent February 2013 investigation in particular, it was… → Read More
Earlier this year French entrepreneur Ramine Darabiha called for a cypherpunk revival. Looks like he might be getting his wish.
Cryptosphere is a new darknet now under development. A darknet is a private and/or anonymous network, sometimes using the public internet for connectivity. Silk Road, a marketplace for illegal drugs, is probably the most famous. You can’t use Cryptosphere yet, but… → Read More
Given that enabling PGP encryption is as easy as ticking a few boxes in both Mac OS X and Windows, it’s no surprise that the authorities are now increasing their efforts to combat the scourge of people wanting to keep their private data private. For starters, new Secret Service recruits are given a one-week crash course in computer forensics, presumably so agents will be able to say with… → Read More
There were a bunch of USB keys sent out to gaming outlets today, with no return address and only a cryptic message. What could it mean? Is Majestic coming back? Are aliens trying to contact gaming press outlets? → Read More
Bruce Schneier wrote a great piece on the unencrypted Predator drone video feeds, noting that the drones were built for a post-Soviet, pre-insurgent era and that encryption, in the case of a live feed, is more of a problem than a threat. → Read More
I mentioned a newly released hardware encrypted USB flash drive last week, and promised a full review. Here it is! The Lexar JumpDrive SAFE S3000 FIPS is a hardware-encrypted USB drive that satisfies U.S. government computer security standard FIPS 140-2 Level 3. “Physical security mechanisms required at Security Level 3 are intended to have a high probability of detecting and responding to… → Read More
USB media represents a double-edged sword: on the one hand, data portability is an extremely useful thing; but on the other hand, data portability can be a gigantic liability for your business operations. You can try to train your users not to put sensitive data on USB drives, but chances are that convenience will win out over security, and your data will slip out on USB media anyway. And then… → Read More
Researchers in Japan have developed an attack against WiFi Protected Access when using the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) that can successfully break the encryption in less than a minute. If you’re using WPA with TKIP, switch to AES, or step up to WPA2. → Read More
Break out the siren.gif! One of those security research types demonstrated last week how he was able to get around SSL authentication, enabling him to collect private information—Gmail login/passwords, credit card numbers, and the like—with very little trouble at all. It’s not a flaw in SSL itself, but a flaw in the way people use the Web. → Read More
Fujitsu just announced a 500GB, 5400RPM SATA drive for portable applications with full disk encryption, a boon to the paranoid. The drive supports 256-bit AES. No pricing but expect it in heavy duty laptops soon. → Read More
“According to the United States FBI, a notebook computer is stolen every 53 seconds.” Also, twenty million kids are eaten by bats every second. That’s not according to the FBI, but it’s still relevant. Moving on, it appears that as the notebooks (of all sizes and persuasions) begin piling up in our society, there are predictably more and more lost. In an effort to predict… → Read More
Encryption scares a lot of people – me included – because it’s based on really complicated mathematics. Thankfully, the state of encryption software has advanced sufficiently in the last couple of years that it’s pretty easy for laypeople like us to take advantage of the protection it offers. Just like you don’t shop online without a secured HTTPS connection, you… → Read More
[photopress:blackarmor_lr.jpg,full,center] Product Name: Seagate BlackArmor encrypted++ portable hard drives Description: A 160GB portable hdd with government-level encryption. That’s only good if you put faith in our government to be competent. Price: $150 In-store date: Q1 2008 Site: Seagate Why it’s cool: Because people are paranoid about their data being compromised while… → Read More
I’ve seen a Colossus up close at the Smithsonian, and I loved the thing. It was huge, bigger than a bus, and was built specifically to decode encrypted Nazi transmissions towards the end of WWII, and it was very good at its task. So good, in fact, that some insanely fun-minded people are rebuilding one specifically to repeat the task. To up the ante, they’re pitting it against a modern… → Read More
Our paranoid UK readers who rock 128-bit encryption on every file will be happy to know that Vodafone UK will be bringing encryption to text messages. The company recently announced plans to bring an encrypted SMS service to customers. Partnering with Broca, Vodafone will use Broca’s SAMS technology to ensure that all messages are encrypted. No word yet on what kind of encryption will be… → Read More
, TiVo describes use of an encryption key technique that has so many possible combinations that the ability to crack it could take billions of years of number crunching. TiVo has developed technology to create a link between a host and a local hard drive using an encryption key to lock down any access by you, the user, unless the code can be correctly identified. This concept builds upon the… → Read More
Now you’ve gone and done it, Digg users. Sure, you all had fun posting the encryption key—E-I-E-I-O or whatever the hell it is—all over the place thinking, gosh darn it, I’d like to see the AACS fuzz come after me. Well here they come, you little revolutionaries. → Read More
Wow, OK, don’t mess with nerds (’cause they’re real brave as long as they’re behind their keyboards, you see.) This whole HD DVD encryption thing has now jumped the shark, with respected newspapers now reporting on the so-called Digg riots of 2007. In celebration of this shark jumping, here’s a sampling of some of the more creative ways that folks have implemented the… → Read More
The nerds cried foul and Digg acquiesced. Digg’s founder—and deity to many—Kevin Rose just posted an explanation for all the shenanigans that happened yesterday regarding HD DVD encryption key stories being pulled. The short of it, Digg has a policy of removing stories from the front page that it deems could get it into legal trouble—porno, piracy, and here, encryption… → Read More
Since I’m not Canadian, I’m a little out of the loop on what Rogers has been up to. According to TorrentFreak, the ISP banned BitTorrent traffic due to excessive bandwidth consumption. Enter encryption and for the next year, everyone is safe. Now in an effort to curb encrypted Bit Torrent traffic, Rogers has started to throttle all encrypted transfers. That means your secure e-mail… → Read More
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