Anyone knows that the best way to keep a secret is never to share it with anyone. Which works fine for your own most personal secrets, but it’s not very useful when you have to share with at least one other, such as in cyber-security. One such need, of enormous importance in the IoT, is authentication; are you who you claim to be? Seas of… Read More
Anybody who’s ever read the iconic MAD magazine would be familiar with the wordless Spy vs Spy cartoon. First published in January, 1961, it features two agents involved in stereotypical and comical espionage activities. One is dressed in white, and the other in black, but they are otherwise identical. A parody of the political… Read More
No doubt many who read this article have heard the expression “You can’t get there from here…” It’s most often attributed to New Englanders – primarily residents of Maine – to describe a route to a destination that is so circuitous and complex that one needn’t bother embarking on the journey.
In the context of the business world, the… Read More
I read with interest the US Chamber of Commerce’s assessment of the Made in China (MIC) 2025 plan to transform the world’s most populous nation into an Advanced Manufacturing leader. MIC 2025 covers 10 strategic industries that China identifies as critical to economic growth in the 21[SUP]st[/SUP] century, including next-gen… Read More
A root of trust, particularly a hardware root of trust, has become a central principle in well-architected design for security. The idea is that higher layers in the stack, from drivers and OS up to applications and the network, must trust lower layers. What does it help it to build great security into a layer if it can be undermined… Read More
It was 1976 when distinguished scholars Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman published the first practical method of establishing a shared secret-key over an authenticated communications channel without using a prior shared secret. The Diffie-Hellman methodology became known as Public Key Infrastructure or PKI.
That was… Read More
I have a lot of friends in the real estate industry, and two of the most common sales tactics are to create “curb appeal,” and to “stage” the interior of the residence being sold. Curb appeal, of course, refers to making the home looks as appealing as possible upon first impression. Update the landscaping. Add flowers. Make sure the… Read More
Two-factor authentication has become commonplace for those of us determined to keep the bad guys at bay. You first request entry to a privileged site through a user-name/password, which in turn sends a code to your mobile device that you must enter to complete your admission to the site (there are other second factor methods, but… Read More
In the past year, I’ve written numerous articles that have a common theme: the security world is badly broken as crypto schemas developed in the 90’s are no defense for today’s sophisticated hackers. For the most part, my blogs have been very well received, and have been picked up and posted by multiple sites and publications worldwide.… Read More
CNN: International, Final Report. Wednesday, December 25th, 2019 : The events that have unfolded in the last 72 hours have devastated the entire civilized world, and have left society as we know it on the brink of collapse. I’m told that our networks are now shutting down, and that the report I am about to file will be likely be the final… Read More
