July 6, 2022

Ars Technica: The cryptopocalypse is nigh! NIST rolls out new encryption standards to prepare

Ars Technica: The cryptopocalypse is nigh! NIST rolls out new encryption standards to prepare. “In the not-too-distant future—as little as a decade, perhaps, nobody knows exactly how long—the cryptography protecting your bank transactions, chat messages, and medical records from prying eyes is going to break spectacularly with the advent of quantum computing. On Tuesday, a US government agency named four replacement encryption schemes to head off this cryptopocalypse.”

Research & Opinion 0
June 9, 2022

WIRED: How a Saxophonist Tricked the KGB by Encrypting Secrets in Music

WIRED: How a Saxophonist Tricked the KGB by Encrypting Secrets in Music. “IN 1985, SAXOPHONIST Merryl Goldberg found herself on a plane to Moscow with three fellow musicians from the Boston Klezmer Conservatory Band. She had carefully packed sheet music, reeds, and other woodwind supplies, along with a soprano saxophone, to bring into the USSR. But one of her spiral-bound notebooks, lined with staves for hand-notating music, contained hidden information.”

Other Things I Think Are Cool 0
March 29, 2022

Wolfram Blog: Classical Ciphers to Digital Signatures

Wolfram Blog: Classical Ciphers to Digital Signatures. “Today, I am happy to announce a new, free interactive course, Introduction to Cryptography, that will help students around the world get a grasp on the variety of topics this vast field offers. The Wolfram Language allows the course to deliver unique hands-on material and address questions such as ‘How can I secretly transmit information between two people?’ and ‘How do cryptocurrencies operate without a central authority?’”

New Resources 0
July 8, 2021

Stanford Medicine: Stanford researcher’s cryptography can preserve genetic privacy in criminal DNA profiling

Stanford Medicine: Stanford researcher’s cryptography can preserve genetic privacy in criminal DNA profiling. “Crime scene DNA analysis can help identify perpetrators, but current methods may divulge the genetic information of innocent people. Cryptography can protect genetic privacy without hampering law enforcement, Stanford researchers say.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
June 11, 2021

VentureBeat: USC and Stanford launch Starling Lab to protect human rights with decentralization

VentureBeat: USC and Stanford launch Starling Lab to protect human rights with decentralization. “The University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation and Stanford University have partnered on The Starling Lab, which will be dedicated to using decentralized tools based on cryptography and blockchain to advance the cause of human rights.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
December 6, 2020

Marine archaeologists catch a break on the bottom of the Baltic Sea: A 75-year-old Enigma Machine (The Register)

The Register: Marine archaeologists catch a break on the bottom of the Baltic Sea: A 75-year-old Enigma Machine . “Divers clearing out a sprawl of abandoned fishing nets stuck in the Baltic Sea discovered more than they bargained for when they spotted an Enigma Machine, a device that encrypted secret messages used by the Germans in World War II.”

Research & Opinion 0
November 9, 2020

Columbia University: New Tool Detects Unsafe Security Practices in Android Apps

Columbia University: New Tool Detects Unsafe Security Practices in Android Apps. “Computer scientists at Columbia Engineering have shown for the first time that it is possible to analyze how thousands of Android apps use cryptography without needing to have the apps’ actual codes. The team’s new tool, CRYLOGGER, can tell when an Android app uses cryptography incorrectly—it detects the so-called ‘cryptographic misuses’ in Android apps. When given a list of rules that should be followed for secure cryptography—guidelines developed by expert cryptographers and organizations such as NIST and IETF that define security standards to protect sensitive data—CRYLOGGER detects violations of these rules.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
August 23, 2019

Gizmodo: You Won’t See Quantum Internet Coming

Gizmodo: You Won’t See Quantum Internet Coming. “Despite the fancy name, the ‘quantum internet’ won’t be some futuristic new way to navigate online. It won’t produce any mind-blowing new content, at least not for decades. The quantum internet will look more or less the same as the internet you’re using now, but scientists and cryptographers hope it could provide protection against not only theoretical threats but also those we haven’t dreamed up yet.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
May 17, 2019

Ars Technica: No, someone hasn’t cracked the code of the mysterious Voynich manuscript

Ars Technica: No, someone hasn’t cracked the code of the mysterious Voynich manuscript. “There are so many competing theories about what the Voynich manuscript is—most likely a compendium of herbal remedies and astrological readings, based on the bits reliably decoded thus far—and so many claims to have deciphered the text, that it’s practically its own subfield of medieval studies. Both professional and amateur cryptographers (including codebreakers in both World Wars) have pored over the text, hoping to crack the puzzle.”

Research & Opinion 0
February 12, 2019

Wired: A New Tool Protects Videos From Deepfakes and Tampering

Wired: A New Tool Protects Videos From Deepfakes and Tampering. “Video has become an increasingly crucial tool for law enforcement, whether it comes from security cameras, police-worn body cameras, a bystander’s smartphone, or another source. But a combination of ‘deepfake’ video manipulation technology and security issues that plague so many connected devices has made it difficult to confirm the integrity of that footage. A new project suggests the answer lies in cryptographic authentication.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
May 12, 2018

New Atlas: FontCode hides letters within letters

New Atlas: FontCode hides letters within letters. “While it’s already possible to relay information via barcodes or QR codes, those codes are entirely visible when included in a document. Using Columbia University’s FontCode system, however, users can hide messages within unrelated text via virtually-invisible changes to the displayed letters.”

Research & Opinion 0
January 30, 2018

University of Alberta: Using AI to uncover ancient mysteries

University of Alberta: Using AI to uncover ancient mysteries. “Computing scientists at the University of Alberta are using artificial intelligence to decipher ancient manuscripts. The mysterious text in the 15th century Voynich manuscript has plagued historians and cryptographers since its discovery in the 19th century. This ancient mystery made its way to the artificial intelligence community, where computing science professor Greg Kondrak was keen to lend his expertise in natural language processing to the search. Kondrak and his graduate student Bradley Hauer set out to use computers for decoding the ambiguities in human language using the Voynich manuscript as a case study. Their first step was to address the language of origin, which is exquisitely enciphered on hundreds of delicate vellum pages with accompanying illustrations.”

Research & Opinion 0
February 25, 2017

PC World: Google’s Collision Shakes Up Computer Cryptography

PC Magazine: Google’s Collision Shakes Up Computer Cryptography. “after years of trying, Google found a way to crack the SHA-1 cryptographic hash function, a security building block that enables digital signatures and HTTPS encryption. Cracking SHA-1 requires creating a cryptographic hash collision, which is essentially when a single hash, or ‘digest’ applies to two different files.”

Security & Legal Issues 0

The ResearchBuzz Firehose is regular RB content presented as individual posts.
For digest-type posts a couple of times a day, please visit ResearchBuzz.

Want to know how to best use the Firehose for content discovery?
Check out this handy article.

Get RB Firehose Via EMail

Enter your email address to subscribe to ResearchBuzz Firehose and get a firehose of new posts straight to your email.

Join 2,018 other subscribers

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Latest ResearchBuzz Gizmos