Here is a question that keeps me up at night…

Is the San Bernardino iPhone just locked or is it properly encrypted?

Isn’t full encryption beyond the reach of forensic investigators? So we come to the real question: If critical data on the San Bernardino iPhone is properly encrypted, and if the Islamic terrorist who shot innocent Americans used a good password, then what is it that the FBI thinks that Apple can do to help crack this phone? Doesn’t good encryption thwart forensic analysis, even by the FBI and the maker of the phone?

In the case of Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone, the FBI doesn’t know if the shooter used a long and sufficiently unobvious password. They plan to try a rapid-fire dictionary attack and other predictive algorithms to deduce the password. But the content of the iPhone is protected by a closely coupled hardware feature that will disable the phone and even erase memory, if it detects multiple attempts with the wrong password. The FBI wants Apple to help them defeat this hardware sentry, so that they can launch a brute force hack—trying thousands of passwords each second. Without Apple’s help, the crack detection hardware could automatically erase incriminating evidence, leaving investigators in the dark.

Continue reading “Is San Bernardino iPhone Fully Encrypted?” »

Very concerning news for the US security; we’ll see how the US responds. Remember, our largest hackers in the US is China; so we’ll need to determine what this means as well as how vulnerable we are.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/969692.shtml

China’s stock markets have been stabilizing in recent days after the rollercoaster ride at the start of the year. And one bright point has been stocks related to quantum communications, showing renewed investor interest in the new technology, which will play an important role in creating a safety net for the increasingly information technology-savvy economy.

Continue reading “China’s newest tech can offer quantum of security” »

FBI not able to hack a phone is really starting to make them look really bad. Granted Apple has created a more advance encryption format on their phones; however, FBI is supposed to be a lot more advance than this.

Why would you want your smart phone encrypted? To protect the information on it should it get lost or stolen, and to ensure no one has tampered with your data.

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I have mentioned in my previous posts about the Quantum Internet work that Los Alamos has been leading; today Los Alamos has been awarded a patent on their Quantum Communication (QC) Optical Fiber.

Whitewood received a Notice of Allowance for a patent application that addresses issues that arise when employing quantum communications techniques to share cryptographic material over fiber networks.

ArcPoint Strategic Communications.

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Another article just came out today providing additional content on the Quantum Computing threat and it did reference the article that I had published. Glad that folks are working on this.

The NSA is worried about quantum computers. It warns that it “must act now” to ensure that encryption systems can’t be broken wide open by the new super-fast hardware.

In a document outlining common concerns about the effects that quantum computing may have on national security and encryption of sensitive data, the NSA warns that “public-key algorithms… are all vulnerable to attack by a sufficiently large quantum computer.”

Continue reading “NSA Plans to ‘Act Now’ to Ensure Quantum Computers Can’t Break Encryption” »

NSA states it must act now against the “Quantum Computing Threat” due to hackers can possess the technology. I wrote about this on Jan 10th. Glad someone finally is taking action.

The National Security Agency is worried that quantum computers will neutralize our best encryption – but doesn’t yet know what to do about that problem.

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I do commend Sacramento for trying to put controls in place to reduce human trafficking; will it work?

What if banning smartphone encryption could stem the rising tide of human trafficking, a form of modern-day slavery from which perpetrators force victims to engage in commercial labor services or sex acts against their will?

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Continue reading “Ex-NSA Boss Says FBI is wrong on Encryption” »

It’s an interesting idea, if not an original one. (it’s not) The problem is that, military grade encryption or not, it would be a single point of failure that could compromise your on AND offline security in one fell swoop.

Fugitive presidential candidate John McAfee is going back to his roots with a new security product that he calls “a f—ing game changer.”

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