Nick Breese, a senior security consultant at Auckland, Australia-based Security-assessment.com, has come up with a way to drastically increase the processing capability of cracking passwords.Now I really want one of these...
By implementing common ciphers and hash functions using vector computing, Breese has pushed the current upper limit of 10--15 million cycles per second -- in Intel-based architecture -- up to 1.4 billion cycles per second.
The possibility that there is a backdoor in one of the officially recommended random number generators (RNGs) used to create encryption keys, has caused two well-known encryption experts to declare the scheme to be useless.
If you thought using an Apple with Mac OS was safe from all the nasties out there, think again!!! Even though the risk is lower for Mac OS compared to Windows, you still need to take the proper precautions.
In the words of many Windows antimalware developers, OS X users can feel a little less smug about their security after a new piece of OS X malware was discovered circulating on various fake codec sites. As would be expected, this news is beginning to receive fairly widespread coverage across the Internet, though more coverage has been received in recent days on arguments about whether the Leopard firewall is fundamentally flawed or not (probably not).Read more
Those tempted to download software cracks to unlawfully activate software from a trial mode into a paid mode have been warned that they may be unknowingly installing hacking tools onto their system.
Security features that Apple Inc. added to Leopard look great on paper, but in practice most are half-baked or useless, experts said Wednesday. And none of those features, good or bad, will make a whit of difference in how safe Mac users are when they hit the Internet.
"If security was the deciding factor, I wouldn’t be using my MacBook. But it’s not [the deciding factor]. The MacBook, and the tools on it, that’s what is."
"The cat and mouse game between hackers and Apple takes another move, with news that Apple’s new Leopard operating system has already been successfully installed on Windows PCs.
The OSx86 Scene forum has released details of how Windows users can migrate to Apple’s new OS, without investing in new hardware -- even though installing Leopard on an PC may be counter to Apple’s terms and conditions."
A new "unbreakable" encryption method will be keep votes safe for citizens in the Swiss canton (state) of Geneva in the country's upcoming national elections, officials said Thursday.
The city-state will use quantum technology to encrypt election results as they are sent to the capital on Oct. 21, said Nicolas Gisin of the University of Geneva.
Uruguay's government this week announced the results of a study indicating that XO computers from the One Laptop Per Child project were a better value for the nation's schoolchildren than Intel's similar offering, the Classmate PC. The next step is likely to be a purchase agreement between OLPC and Uruguay for at least 100,000 laptops. Though nothing has been finalized yet, when asked what needs to happen for formal agreement to occur, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte simply says, "business closure."
The Linux-based eX2 in-flight entertainment system (IFE) from Panasonic Avionics was the big winner at this year's Avion Awards, sponsored by an IFE trade group. The Best Overall IFE awards went to Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways, all running variants of eX2.
The idea of tapping fiber optic cables aren't new but I was surprised to find out how easy and cheap it was to do from this article. Apparently you can do with less than $1000 of equipment.
The funny thing about it is that I can clearly remember when I did my bachelors degree, lecturers always stress on how secure fibre optics is and that it cannot be tapped like copper wires. This perception sends out a totally wrong message and people tend to forget about the physical security of fibre optics unlike the copper wires. Thus under the wrong assumption, they pay less attention to secure the information sent over fiber channels with encryption.
This articles shows how easy it is to do and also suggests the use of encryption or a fiber intrusion detection device. One particular Fiber Optic IDS stated in the whitepaper is the INTERCEPTOR.
Article: Protect your network against fiber hacks
Whitepaper: Fiber Optic Intrusion Dete ction Systems
