Tuesday, May 31, 2016

The Fourier Transform is a formula (algorithm) that plays an important role in our digitization of the analog world.  Here is a nice, short article on it: gizmodo.com

Thursday, May 26, 2016

5G, the next generation of cell (mobile) communication, is coming.  Here is a brief article of the 5 Mythons About 5G

Friday, May 20, 2016

How much does phone meta-data reveal about individuals?  That has been the pressing question after Snowden revelations about NSA data collection.  A recent study from Stanford  http://news.stanford.edu/ showed that significant personal information can be gleaned from only meta-data -- supporting those who argue that collecting meta-data is not innocuous.  It is interesting that the title says "surprising", but it wasn't a surprise to many (including me).

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Online Voting: 30 states offer it, but the Dept. of Homeland Security cyber-division “does not recommend the adoption of online voting for elections at any level of government at this time.”  It is a bad idea for so many reasons. Here is a good article on it.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/  It is ironic that many state legislatures are passing laws that make voting more difficult in the name of preventing voter fraud while leaving this huge backdoor wide open for fraud on a scale that would dwarf any existing fraud by orders of magnitude.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

NIST has announced that it will begin work on a new asymmetric cryptographic algorithm that is resistant to attack by quantum computers (https://www.schneier.com/).

Much of the Internet is currently secured by asymmetric cryptography (https://support.microsoft.com/).  Quantum computers, currently in their infancy, will eventually be able to break current asymmetric cryptography putting large parts of Internet commerce in jeopardy.

Friday, May 6, 2016

Skimmers scan credit card magnetic strips for account information and are usually accompanied by a pin camera to record the PIN as it is being typed.  To better hide the skimmer they are being inserted into the ATM machine slot.  Krebs reports: http://krebsonsecurity.com/  (Skimmers have also appeared inside gas pumps -- unlike ATMs gas pumps are easy to open.)

Here is a posting about finding a skimmer in Bali.  The details are interesting: https://trustfoundry.net

He found it because he jiggles ATM pieces to test for skimmers and cameras -- they are designed to be easily snapped into place and retrieved.

Takeaway: use your free hand to cover the keyboard as you type in your PIN

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Bruce Schneier has a excellent article on Credential Stealing as an attack vector -- possibly the most important one.  Sood and my work on how banks are robbed was about credential stealing.  What is credential stealing?  Stealing someone's account and password.  Yup, that is the most common way in. Not zero-days.