New Anonymous Phone Service
A new anonymous phone service allows you to sign up with just a zip code. [...]
Showing only posts tagged encryption. Show all posts.
IACR Nullifies Election Because of Lost Decryption Key
The International Association of Cryptologic Research—the academic cryptography association that’s been putting conferences like Crypto (back when “crypto” meant “cryptography”) and Eurocrypt since the 1980s—had to nullify an online election when trustee Moti Yung lost his decryption key. For this election and in accordance with the …
Book Review: The Business of Secrets
The Business of Secrets: Adventures in Selling Encryption Around the World by Fred Kinch (May 24, 2004) From the vantage point of today, it’s surreal reading about the commercial cryptography business in the 1970s. Nobody knew anything. The manufacturers didn’t know whether the cryptography they sold was …
Signal’s Post-Quantum Cryptographic Implementation
Signal has just rolled out its quantum-safe cryptographic implementation. Ars Technica has a really good article with details: Ultimately, the architects settled on a creative solution. Rather than bolt KEM onto the existing double ratchet, they allowed it to remain more or less the same as it had been …
A Surprising Amount of Satellite Traffic Is Unencrypted
Here’s the summary : We pointed a commercial-off-the-shelf satellite dish at the sky and carried out the most comprehensive public study to date of geostationary satellite communication. A shockingly large amount of sensitive traffic is being broadcast unencrypted, including critical infrastructure, internal corporate and government communications, private citizens’ voice …
Digital Threat Modeling Under Authoritarianism
Today’s world requires us to make complex and nuanced decisions about our digital security. Evaluating when to use a secure messaging app like Signal or WhatsApp, which passwords to store on your smartphone, or what to share on social media requires us to assess risks and make judgments …
Mis-issued certificates for 1.1.1.1 DNS service pose a threat to the Internet
People in Internet security circles are sounding the alarm over the issuance of three TLS certificates for 1.1.1.1, a widely used DNS service from content delivery network Cloudflare and the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) Internet registry. The certificates, issued in May, can be used …
Encryption Backdoor in Military/Police Radios
I wrote about this in 2023. Here’s the story : Three Dutch security analysts discovered the vulnerabilities—five in total—in a European radio standard called TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio), which is used in radios made by Motorola, Damm, Hytera, and others. The standard has been used in radios …
Jim Sanborn Is Auctioning Off the Solution to Part Four of the Kryptos Sculpture
Well, this is interesting: The auction, which will include other items related to cryptology, will be held Nov. 20. RR Auction, the company arranging the sale, estimates a winning bid between $300,000 and $500,000. Along with the original handwritten plain text of K4 and other papers related …
“Encryption Backdoors and the Fourth Amendment”
Law journal article that looks at the Dual_EC_PRNG backdoor from a US constitutional perspective: Abstract : The National Security Agency (NSA) reportedly paid and pressured technology companies to trick their customers into using vulnerable encryption products. This Article examines whether any of three theories removed the Fourth Amendment’s requirement …
Using Signal Groups for Activism
Good tutorial by Micah Lee. It includes some nonobvious use cases. [...]
Cybersecurity takes a big hit in new Trump executive order
Cybersecurity practitioners are voicing concerns over a recent executive order issued by the White House that guts requirements for: securing software the government uses, punishing people who compromise sensitive networks, preparing new encryption schemes that will withstand attacks from quantum computers, and other existing controls. The executive order (EO …
Windows 11’s most important new feature is post-quantum cryptography. Here’s why.
Microsoft is updating Windows 11 with a set of new encryption algorithms that can withstand future attacks from quantum computers in a move aimed at jump-starting what’s likely to be the most formidable and important technology transition in modern history. Computers that are based on the physics of …
Florida Backdoor Bill Fails
A Florida bill requiring encryption backdoors failed to pass. [...]
Gmail unveils end-to-end encrypted messages. Only thing is: It’s not true E2EE.
When Google announced Tuesday that end-to-end encrypted messages were coming to Gmail for business users, some people balked, noting it wasn’t true E2EE as the term is known in privacy and security circles. Others wondered precisely how it works under the hood. Here’s a description of what …
Google unveils end-to-end messages for Gmail. Only thing is: It’s not true E2EE.
When Google announced Tuesday that end-to-end encrypted messages were coming to Gmail for business users, some people balked, noting it wasn’t true E2EE as the term is known in privacy and security circles. Others wondered precisely how it works under the hood. Here’s a description of what …
More Countries are Demanding Backdoors to Encrypted Apps
Last month, I wrote about the UK forcing Apple to break its Advanced Data Protection encryption in iCloud. More recently, both Sweden and France are contemplating mandating backdoors. Both initiatives are attempting to scare people into supporting backdoors, which are—of course—are terrible idea. Also: “ A Feminist Argument …
An iCloud Backdoor Would Make Our Phones Less Safe
Last month, the UK government demanded that Apple weaken the security of iCloud for users worldwide. On Friday, Apple took steps to comply for users in the United Kingdom. But the British law is written in a way that requires Apple to give its government access to anyone, anywhere …
UK Demanded Apple Add a Backdoor to iCloud
Last month, the UK government demanded that Apple weaken the security of iCloud for users worldwide. On Friday, Apple took steps to comply for users in the United Kingdom. But the British law is written in a way that requires Apple to give its government access to anyone, anywhere …
The importance of encryption and how AWS can help
February 12, 2025: This post was republished to include new services and features that have launched since the original publication date of June 11, 2020. Encryption is a critical component of a defense-in-depth security strategy that uses multiple defensive mechanisms to protect workloads, data, and assets. As organizations look …
Trusted Encryption Environments
Really good—and detailed— survey of Trusted Encryption Environments (TEEs.) [...]
Trusted Execution Environments
Really good—and detailed— survey of Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs.) [...]
UK Is Ordering Apple to Break Its Own Encryption
The Washington Post is reporting that the UK government has served Apple with a “technical capability notice” as defined by the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act, requiring it to break the Advanced Data Protection encryption in iCloud for the benefit of law enforcement. This is a big deal, and something …
DeepSeek iOS app sends data unencrypted to ByteDance-controlled servers
A little over two weeks ago, a largely unknown China-based company named DeepSeek stunned the AI world with the release of an open source AI chatbot that had simulated reasoning capabilities that were largely on par with those from market leader OpenAI. Within days, the DeepSeek AI assistant app …