Interesting: Who are these certificate authorities? At the beginning of Web history, there were only a handful of companies, like Verisign, Equifax, and Thawte, that made near-monopoly profits from being the only providers trusted by Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. But over time, browsers have trusted more and more organizations to verify Web sites. Safari and Firefox now trust more…  Read More →

American officers are manning a new post of duty at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport in an effort to help identify potential terrorists or other high-risk passengers heading to the United States. Officers from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Immigration Advisory Program began Thursday. In addition to the Paris airport,  U.S. officers are working This story comes to us via Homeland Security – National Terror Alert. National... 

I wanted to help put some of you in the mindset of a DoD person when reading recent news, namely Defense official discloses cyberattack and Pentagon considers preemptive strikes as part of cyber-defense strategy , both by Washington Post reporter Ellen Nakashima. I’ll assume you read both articles and the references. Deputy Defense Secretary Lynn’s article (covered by the first Post story) is significant, perhaps for reasons that... 

A creepy caricature of Google CEO Eric Schmidt drives an ice cream truck in this video produced by a consumer group targeting the search giant for its data collection practices. The video is part of a lobbying effort by Consumer Watchdog to get the government to create a so-called “Do Not Track Me” list “to prevent online companies from gathering our personal information , just as Congress had the Federal Trade Commission create... 

A phone-hacking scheme involving British royals and reporters working for one of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspapers went far beyond what was previously disclosed and prosecuted, according to The New York Times . Andy Coulson, currently media advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron, is accused of having encouraged the hacking during his tenure as editor of Murdoch’s News of the World paper. According …  Read More →

Amazon.com just posted my five star review of Hacking Exposed: Wireless, 2nd Ed by Johnny Cache, Joshua Wright and Vincent Liu. From the review : I reviewed the first edition of Hacking Exposed: Wireless (HEW) in May 2007, and offered four stars. Three years later I can confidently say that Hacking Exposed: Wireless, 2nd Ed (HEW2) is a solid five star book. After reading my 2007 review, I believe the authors took my suggestions seriously, …  Read More →

Clever: Quantum cryptography is often touted as being perfectly secure. It is based on the principle that you cannot make measurements of a quantum system without disturbing it. So, in theory, it is impossible for an eavesdropper to intercept a quantum encryption key without disrupting it in a noticeable way, triggering alarm bells. Vadim Makarov at the Norwegian University of…  Read More →

This is beyond stupid: The Pentagon is contemplating an aggressive approach to defending its computer systems that includes preemptive actions such as knocking out parts of an adversary’s computer network overseas—but it is still wrestling with how to pursue the strategy legally. The department is developing a range of weapons capabilities, including tools that would allow “attack and exploitation of…  Read More →

United States prosecutors have charged the leader of the Pakistani Taliban,  Hakimullah Mehsud, in the attack that killed seven CIA employees at an American base in Afghanistan last December. Mehsud, believed to be in the tribal areas of Pakistan and head of the group known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, was charged with conspiracy to kill Americans This story comes to us via Homeland Security – National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert  Read More →

After a daylong standoff, authorities shot and killed an armed man wearing an explosive device who had taken three hostages at the Discovery Channel’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside the District of Columbia. Most of the hundreds of employees, including children at an on-site daycare center, had already been evacuated, police said. The station was airing its normal broadcast. The…  Read More →

After a daylong standoff, authorities shot an armed man wearing an explosive device who had taken three hostages at the Discovery Channel’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside the District of Columbia. Most of the hundreds of employees, including children at an on-site daycare center, had already been evacuated, police said. The station was airing its normal broadcast. The three hostages were safe and out of the building,... 

Fox News is reporting police in Maryland are responding to a hostage situation after reports that a man with a handgun entered the Discovery Channel headquarters building in Silver Spring and fired at least one shot. An official with the Montgomery County Police Department confirmed to Fox News that a man with an explosive device This story comes to us via Homeland Security – National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America’s... 

As part of NIST’s SHA-3 selection process, people have been implementing the candidate hash functions on a variety of hardware and software platforms. Our team has implemented Skein in Intel’s 32 nm ASIC process, and got some impressive performance results (presentation and paper). Several other groups have implemented Skein in FPGA and ASIC, and have seen significantly poorer performance. We…  Read More →

A civilian defense attorney hired recently by alleged WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning says the Army was so concerned about his client’s mental health prior to the alleged leaks that supervisors removed the bolt from his military weapon, disabling it. Attorney David Coombs told CNN, however, that other than sending Manning to a chaplain for counseling, the Army did little to address its concerns about him . “The unit has in fact... 

Twitter discontinued support for basic user authentication in third-party applications yesterday morning. Good. It’s always best to never share your password with a third-party. Even if you trust them, their database could be compromised, and your password along with it. The discontinuation of basic user authentication also removes the vector of brute force password attacks via Twiter’s API. All third-party applications must now use...