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NEWS ABOUT: encryption

FBI Wants You to Crack Code in 12-Year-Old Murder

They're hoping amateur puzzle fans can solve notes found on St. Louis man

(Newser) - The FBI’s best cryptanalysts haven’t been able to crack a mysterious code found in the pocket of a murder victim 12 years ago—so they’re hoping you can do it. Ricky McCormick, 41, was found dead in a Missouri field in 1999, and the bizarre notes in... More »

German Hacker Cracks Cell Phone Code

Expert warns 80% of cell phones lack proper protection

(Newser) - A German hacker says he and his team have managed to crack the code that has protected most of the world's cell phone conversations for over 20 years. Karsten Nohl told a hackers' conference in Berlin that cracking the encryption code for GSM communications—which secures 80% of cellular communications—... More »

New Software Can Delete Emails Permanently

Software scatters encryption keys among temporary BitTorrent nodes

(Newser) - Email is inherently insecure, because it has a long shelf-life—even deleted messages can be stored infinitely on the email service of the sender or recipient. Now a team of scientists is poised to unveil software later this month to make them disappear for keeps, reports the Economist. “Vanish”... More »

200-Year-Old Presidential Code Cracked

Mathematician unravels cipher that stumped Jefferson

(Newser) - A code that stumped Thomas Jefferson and other cryptologists for over two centuries has finally been cracked, the Wall Street Journal reports. The cipher—sent to Jefferson in 1801 by mathematician Robert Patterson as an example of the perfect code—piqued the interest of defense cryptologist Lawren Smithline, who tackled... More »

Prez's Pimped-Out BlackBerry Nearly Ready

The NSA begins final tests on encryption software this month

(Newser) - President Obama’s super-secure, high-powered new BlackBerry could soon get the thumbs-up from the National Security Agency, which is about to begin final tests on its encryption software. The president could be texting, emailing, calling and Facebooking other high-security personnel—like Michelle O.—within months, the Washington Times reports,... More »

Prez Will Keep His BlackBerry

Spy-proof smartphone tech means Obama won't have to give up beloved 'BarackBerry'

(Newser) - Security agents aren't going to have to pry the BlackBerry out of Barack Obama's hands after all, Marc Ambinder reports in the Atlantic. A government agency has added super-encryption technology to a standard BlackBerry, which the president will be allowed to use for routine and personal messages. It's not known... More »

Google Agrees to Give Viacom Encrypted Data

YouTube visitor data will be 'anonymized' before release

(Newser) - In a deal reached last night, Google has agreed to hand over YouTube user data Viacom had demanded in its copyright lawsuit, but only after replacing user names and IP addresses with unique substitutes to protect users’ privacy, the Wall Street Journal reports. The move will allow Viacom and other... More »

Pirate Bay Treasure: Total Web Encryption for Privacy

Project could protect all data exchanged between computers from prying eyes

(Newser) - The founders of hugely popular torrent site Pirate Bay have announced ambitious plans to develop technology to encrypt all web traffic to ensure users absolute privacy, reports NewTeeVee. "Transparent end-to-end encryption for the internet"—or IPETEE—would protect all information sent from or received by a PC, including... More »

Eavesdropping on Internet Calls Is Easy

Researchers find potential encryption security problems

(Newser) - Not only are most Internet phone calls not encrypted, but a bandwidth-saving technique could undermine encryption once it’s implemented. Researchers at Johns Hopkins found that a compression method called variable-bit-rate encoding makes it possible for eavesdroppers to identify given phrases in an encrypted VoIP call 50% of the time,... More »

Open-Source Security Flaw Exposes Millions

Encryption error went undetected for nearly 2 years

(Newser) - A programming error discovered last week makes at least four open-source operating systems and 25 applications vulnerable to hacking, and a patch distributed to fix it doesn’t solve the problem. Worse, the vulnerability can extend to computers not even running the deficient code, reports Technology Review. The mistake went... More »

Patients' Info Swiped Along With Laptop

Unencrypted data on 2,500 government study subjects missing

(Newser) - A government laptop loaded with personal medical info on thousands of patients just “fell through the cracks,” a top exec with an NIH subsidiary says. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute machine was stolen Feb. 23, apparently at random, from an employee’s car trunk. None of... More »

Website Offers Post-Mortem Security

Departed users can leave wills, photos, passwords to family

(Newser) - Think of it as a safe deposit box for the dearly departed: A website in California allows subscribers to store digital versions of important stuff—wills, photos, credit card numbers, bicycle lock combinations, you name it—so beneficiaries don't have to scramble after the funeral, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.... More »

Data Encryption Isn't So Secure, After All

Researchers find easy method to steal protected information

(Newser) - Accessing encrypted data can be as simple as chilling a computer memory chip, according to a Princeton research group. The researchers were able to break through encryption in Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems, reports the New York Times, calling into question the security methods that companies, government agencies, and... More »

Congressional Report Blames TSA for Botched Website

Site lacked basic security features

(Newser) - The TSA awarded a website design and maintenance contract to a firm with whom an administration official had close personal and professional ties, ComputerWorld reports. The site, meant to handle individual requests to have names removed from the TSA’s no-fly list, lacked even rudimentary encryption mechanisms and was not... More »

Why IT Isn't Buying the iPhone

It's hard to accomodate this vogue

(Newser) - Your company's IT department isn't just being snotty when it refuses to support iPhones. Fortune runs down 10 ways Apple's new baby is problematic for business:
  1. Your infrastructure has to be configured to get business email and calendars
  2. It won't support third-party apps
  3. You can't encrypt data or otherwise secure
... More »

Stores Expose Customer Credit Card, Personal Data to Hackers

Major retailers neglect anti-theft encryption

(Newser) - Major US and European retailers routinely transmit sensitive data, including customer credit card and Social Security numbers, over wireless networks wide open to hackers. A recent undercover study by a wireless data security firm found half of stores in major shopping areas either exchanged data without anti-hacking encryption or used... More »

iPhone Update Enrages Owners

Apple plays hardball as update shuts down all hacked phones, not just unlocked ones

(Newser) - Apple’s latest firmware update doesn’t just shut down unlocked iPhones as threatened; it shuts down all phone hacks, including homemade applications, ringtones created by third parties,  and the ability to use the phone as a drive. Even some unhacked phones have become completely inoperable. That’s enraged... More »

French Government Develops BlackBerry Allergy

Security concerns prompt ban for top-level officials

(Newser) - BlackBerrys may feel like tools of high-tech spycraft, but they're not—or so the manufacturer is attempting to convince the French government. Worried that American intelligence could intercept transmissions from the addictive devices, the government has renewed an apparently futile 18-month-old ban on high-level officials' use, according to the Times ... More »

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