Robert Morris, a pioneer in the field of computer security, early major contributor to the UNIX operating system, and father of Robert Tappan Morris (author of the Morris Worm), has
died at 78.
NYT [more inside]
posted by fireoyster
on Jun 29, 2011 -
23 comments
On May 13, security advisories published by
Debian and
Ubuntu revealed that, for over a year, their OpenSSL libraries have had a major flaw in their
CSPRNG, which is used by
key generation functions in many widely-used applications, which caused the "random" numbers produced to be extremely predictable.
[lolcat summary] [more inside]
posted by finite
on May 16, 2008 -
81 comments
This is an ironic tale of the consequences of inept application of cryptographic tools.
Or is it? Dan Egerstad, a Swedish hacker, gained access to hundreds of computer network accounts around the world, belonging to various embassies, corporations and other organizations. How did he do it?
Very easily: by sniffing exit traffic on his
Tor nodes.
[more inside]
posted by Anything
on Dec 4, 2007 -
27 comments
Fun with Fingerprint Readers. A Japanese cryptoanalyst recently found that he could reliably fool biometric fingerprint scanners using only gelatin like that found in gummy bears. Not only could he create a fake finger using the original, he was also successful in fooling the scanners based on a gelatin mold of a fingerprint lifted from a piece of glass.
posted by kaefer
on May 15, 2002 -
9 comments
How to Think About Security from Bruce Schneier's Cryptogram. It's a brief discussion with a five point filter to use when evaluating security measures. Good food for thought and best of all, he echos many things I've already spouted off about airport security...
posted by shagoth
on Apr 16, 2002 -
2 comments