• New cyber initiative to put Israel’s Beer-Sheva region on the world’s cyber map

    Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is a central component of the new CyberSpark initiative, an ecosystem with all the components which will allow it to attain a position of global leadership in the cyber field. The CyberSpark initiative is the only complex of its type in the world – a government-academic-industry partnership which includes Fortune 500 companies and cyber-incubators, academic researchers and educational facilities, as well as national government and security agencies. The CyberSpark Industry Initiative will serve as a coordinating body for joint cyber industry activities with government agencies, the Israel Defense Force (IDF), and academia.

  • Moving cybersecurity technologies from the lab to the real world more expeditiously

    Through the Department of Homeland Security’s Transition to Practice (TTP) program, cybersecurity technologies developed at Sandia National Laboratories — and at other federal labs — now stand a better chance of finding their way into the real world. The TTP program, spearheaded by DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), helps move federally funded cybersecurity technologies into broader use. Getting research discoveries and new technologies over the so-called “valley of death” — the gap between early, promising research on one side and technology that’s in use on the other — is a pressing need in the national lab community.

  • Day of commercially available quantum encryption nears

    If implemented on a wide scale, quantum key distribution technology could ensure truly secure commerce, banking, communications, and data transfer. Los Alamos National Laboratory signs the largest information technology agreement in the lab’s history which aims to bring quantum encryption to the marketplace after nearly twenty years of development at the national-security science laboratory.

  • Virginia welcomes cybersecurity start-ups to a state-backed business accelerator

    Earlier this week, MACH37, a business accelerator for cybersecurity start-ups in Virginia, welcomed a new group of companies one year after it was launched to help establish the state as a hub for cybersecurity firms. The three-month program, funded with state money, offers a $50,000 investment and access to a network of mentors to companies that can turn their ideas into viable businesses.

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  • SWAMP: Improving software assurance activities

    The Software Assurance Market Place, or SWAMP, is an online, open-source, collaborative research environment that allows software developers and researchers to test their software for security weaknesses, improve tools by testing against a wide range of software packages, and interact and exchange best practices to improve software assurance tools and techniques.

  • Squiggly lines may be the future of password security

    As more people use smart phones or tablets to pay bills, make purchases, store personal information, and even control access to their houses, the need for robust password security has become more critical than ever. A new study shows that free-form gestures — sweeping fingers in shapes across the screen of a smart phone or tablet — can be used to unlock phones and grant access to apps. These gestures are less likely than traditional typed passwords or newer “connect-the-dots” grid exercises to be observed and reproduced by “shoulder surfers” who spy on users to gain unauthorized access.

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  • Logging in securely without passwords

    Passwords are a common security measure to protect personal information, but they do not always prevent hackers from finding a way into devices. Researchers are working to perfect an easy-to-use, secure login protection that eliminates the need to use a password — known as zero-interaction authentication.

  • Snowden revelations spur a surge in encrypted e-mail services

    The Edward Snowden revelations about National Security Agency(N.S.A) surveillance programs have fueled a surge of new e-mail encryption services. “A lot of people were upset with those revelations, and that coalesced into this effort,” said the co-developer of a new encrypted e-mail service which launched last Friday. The company notes that its servers are based in Switzerland, making it more difficult for U.S. law enforcement to reach them.

  • Researchers crack supposedly impregnable encryption algorithm in two hours

    Without cryptography, no one would dare to type their credit card number on the Internet. Security systems developed to protect the communication privacy between the seller and the buyer are the prime targets for hackers of all kinds, hence making it necessary for encryption algorithms to be regularly strengthened. A protocol based on “discrete logarithms,” deemed as one of the candidates for the Internet’s future security systems, was decrypted by École polytechnique fédérale de Lausann (EPFL) researchers. Allegedly tamper-proof, it could only stand up to the school machines’ decryption attempts for two hours.

  • New algorithm revolutionizes cryptography

    Researchers have solved one aspect of the discrete logarithm problem. This is considered to be one of the “holy grails” of algorithmic number theory, on which the security of many cryptographic systems used today is based. They have devised a new algorithm which calls into question the security of one variant of this problem, which has been closely studied since 1976.

  • NIST removes cryptography algorithm from random number generator recommendations

    Following a public comment period and review, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has removed a cryptographic algorithm from its draft guidance on random number generators. Before implementing the change, NIST is requesting final public comments on the revised document, Recommendation for Random Number Generation Using Deterministic Random Bit Generators. The revised document retains three of the four previously available options for generating pseudorandom bits needed to create secure cryptographic keys for encrypting data. It omits an algorithm known as Dual_EC_DRBG, or Dual Elliptic Curve Deterministic Random Bit Generator.

  • Major step toward stronger encryption technology announced

    Researchers the other day announced the first successful trial of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology over a live “lit” fiber network. The trial paves the way for more advanced research into QKD, the next frontier of data encryption technology, which will deliver even greater levels of network security.

  • Inspired by nature, researches develop “unbreakable” security codes

    A revolutionary new method of encrypting confidential information has been patented by scientists who have been inspired by their discoveries from human biology, which model how the heart and lungs coordinate their rhythms by passing information between each other. A mathematical model based on the complex interaction between these organs has now been transferred to the world of modern communications.

  • Making quantum cryptography suitable for mobile phones

    Secure mobile communications underpin our society and through mobile phones, tablets and laptops we have become online consumers. The security of mobile transactions is obscure to most people but is absolutely essential if we are to stay protected from malicious online attacks, fraud and theft. Researchers have shown how it is possible to make the resources necessary for quantum cryptography less bulky and expensive, and thus more suitable for mobile handsets.

  • Quantum cryptography to help us keep our secrets secret

    In the history of secret communication, the most brilliant efforts of code-makers have been matched time and again by the ingenuity of code-breakers. Sometimes we can even see it coming. We already know that one of today’s most widely used encryption systems, RSA, will become insecure once a quantum computer is built. An article in Nature reviewing developments in quantum cryptography describes how we can keep our secrets secret even when faced with the double challenge of mistrust and manipulation.