• Satellite telephony is unsafe

    In some regions of the world standard cell phone communication is still not available; in war zones, developing countries and on the high seas, satellite phones are used instead; the system, using an encryption algorithms of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), was considered unbreakable; in less than an hour, and with simple equipment, researchers found the crypto key which is needed to intercept telephone conversations

  • Sandia addresses complex DNS vulnerabilities

    A Sandia researcher has developed a visualization tool to help network administrators within the federal government and global IT community better understand Domain Name System Security (DNSSEC) and also help them troubleshoot problems

  • Signcryption technology tightens cybersecurity

    Signcryption is a data security technology by which confidentiality is protected and authenticity is achieved seamlessly at the same time; it has now been formally recognized as an international standard by the International Organization of Standardization (ISO)

  • New Apple facial recognition tech could make passwords obsolete

    Passwords could become a thing of the past for Apple iPhone and iPad users; the tech company recently revealed a patent application for what it is calling “Low Threshold Face Recognition,” a tool that would allow users to unlock their phones by simply picking up the device and pointing it at their face

    • view counter

  • DHS, Idaho lab win cybersecurity innovation award

    The Controls Systems Security Program (CSSP) at DHS and Idaho National Laboratory have created a series of training programs for managerial and technical people in the critical infrastructure sector that are packed with up-to-date information on cyber threats and mitigations for vulnerabilities

  • $3 million NSF grant for research into assured data provenance

    The National Science Foundation supports funds new cyber security research into assured data provenance, the discipline of computer science concerned with the integrity and privacy of data sources, contents, and successive transformations

    • view counter

  • Interface could help Facebook members limit security leaks

    Researchers develop a sign-up interface for Facebook apps could help members prevent personal information — and their friends’ information — from leaking out through third-party games and apps to hackers and identity thieves

  • A Winner in DARPA’S Shredder Challenge competition

    A small team from San Francisco won the $50,000 first prize in DARPA’s Shredder Challenge, a competition among teams trying to reconstruct shredded documents; in total, the winning team spent nearly 600 man-hours developing algorithms and piecing together documents that were shredded into more than 10,000 pieces

  • Overcoming full disk encryption in digital investigations

    The increasing use of full disk encryption (FDE) can significantly hamper forensic digital investigations, potentially preventing access to all digital evidence in a case

  • New iOS Forensic Toolkit circumvents iOS 5 security measures

    While Apple gave a minor facelift to the whole security system in iOS5, it made significant changes regarding keychain protection, replacing the encryption algorithm entirely; but criminals thinking they can thus use the latest iPhone and iPad devices to store information may want to think again, as a new information acquisition solution cracks the latest iOS5 security measures

  • Google making search more secure

    Google is enhancing its default search service for signed-in users; over the next few weeks, many users will find themselves redirected to https://www.google.com (note the extra “s”) when they are signed in to their Google account; this change encrypts their search queries and Google’s results page

  • L-3, Virginia Tech in cybersecurity partnership

    L-3 Communicationshas formed a cooperative partnership in cybersecurity research and development with Virginia Tech’s Ted and Karyn Hume Center for National Security and Technology; the company says that this new partnership will enhance L-3’s ability to deliver innovative national security solutions

  • Software restricts access to sensitive to specific locations

    Researchers have created software to remotely put smart phones under lockdown — an innovation that could aid labs doing sensitive research, secure government and military facilities, and keepers of medical records

  • Living bacteria for perfect encryption system

    Researchers have developed fluorescent bacteria that encode secret messages, creating, in effect, a living invisible ink; this method could be harnessed for secret communications as well as for anti-counterfeiting; messages may be encoded by genetically engineering bacteria to produce fluorescent colored proteins, then printing them in a grid

  • AntiSec hacks IRC Federal, posts passwords online

    Last Friday, AntiSec, a prominent hacking group, announced that it had successfully infiltrated the servers of IRC Federal; the company has contracts with several major government agencies including the Department of Justice, the Army, Navy, and NASA; in an announcement on their website, AntiSec wrote, “We laid nuclear waste to their systems, owning their pathetic Windows box, dropping their databases and private emails, and defaced their professional looking website”