Open source security software also helps criminals. For example TrueCrypt being free and easy to modify has lowered entry barriers for establishing criminal and cyber-espionnage operations (the same applies, well to Bitcoin software!). Example: Operation Potato Express. A fully functional clone of TrueCrypt was since at least 2011 distributed from Russian web sites such as …
Researchers at UCL and in the US claim that the current systems for e-government citizen/user authentication (for example when dealing with taxes or public services), are deeply FLAWED. The main issue raised is that the current systems which are under roll-out in the UK and the US are very poorly engineered with respect to central server/hub …
Continue reading ‘Should One Be Able to Undetectably Impersonate Citizens?’ »
The White House has appointed a well known crypto currency expert Ed Felten from Princeton University Computer Science department. This is a good sign, this means that an informed scientific debate, intellectual honesty and common sense have a chance to survive in the crypto currency world. I have started to doubt about it. Felten has many …
On the V-Day and the 70th anniversary of defeating the Nazi Germany, we need to remember how much this victory was owed to code breakers at Bletchley Park and elsewhere. UCL code breaking competition On this day it is my pleasure to announce the winners of the 2015 UCL Code Breaking competition. The winners are: Joint …
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New paper in a series of how to solve Elliptic Curve Discrete Log Problem (ECDLP) in characteristic 2 with sub-exponential complexity. More results on this topic are expected. Remark: it seems to me that the main assumption about degree falls and solvability which is at the heart of this paper, is simply entirely wrong. Recent developments: …
The final report can be found here. The report identifies 4 major vulnerabilities, 2 of them are judged of high severity and are as follows: The most commonly used windows versions of TrueCrypt were found to have a specific problem with calling the function CryptAcquireContext which is used in Truecrypt exclusively for the purpose of …
Another theft in a series: nearly 2 millions of dollars are missing from the BTER exchange. A specific transaction created by the thief can be found here. The theft took place on 14 Feb 2015. [added later] Another theft of some 250,000 USD has occurred at another Chinese exchange on 27 Jan 2015. Here some Internet posts …
A wind of change is blowing inside the bitcoin community. For many many years the dominant ideology in bitcoin community was that open source software such as bitcoin is “secure”, and that you need to trust the infinite wisdom of the crowd who will find all the bugs and fix them, the wisdom of the …
Continue reading ‘The Era of Irresponsibility Is Coming to An End?’ »
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Dr Sue Black [UCL, saving the Bletchley Park activist] explains how much the true story of breaking Enigma during the WW2 is not at all what the movie shows us, and explains that though so many things in the movie are just totally historically inaccurate, it would be somewhat very difficult to tell the real story …
Continue reading ‘Imitation Game Movie – Is A Single Fact Related By This Movie Actually True?’ »