Monthly Archives: March 2014

Encryption business booms as privacy, security concerns rise

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By: Agence France-Presse March 29, 2014 10:20 AM

InterAksyon.com means BUSINESS

NEW YORK - Investors are pumping millions of dollars into encryption as unease about data security drives a rising need for ways to keep unwanted eyes away from personal and corporate information.

Major data breaches at Target and other retailers that have made data security a boardroom issue at companies large and small.

And stunning revelations of widespread snooping by US intelligence agencies have also rattled companies and the public.

For venture capital, that has opened up a new area of growth in the tech business.

In February, Google Ventures led a $25.5 million round of venture funding for Atlanta-based Ionic Security, a three-year old company that works in encryption, which scrambles data before it is shipped or stored.

Other encryption companies, including Toronto-based PerspecSys and San Jose, California-based CipherCloud, have announced major fundings.

The funding rush could hearken a "golden age" of encryption, as one expert puts it. But the industry also faces barriers to a tool that until recently was not a hot commodity.

Concerns about encryption range from practical challenges, such as the difficulty users have to search their encoded data, to government opposition towards encryption.

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Encryption business booms as privacy, security concerns rise

Ask Slashdot: How To Handle Unfixed Linux Accessibility Bugs?

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dotancohen (1015143) writes "It is commonly said that open source software is preferable because if you need something changed, you can change it yourself. Well, I am not an Xorg developer and I cannot maintain a separate Xorg fork. Xorg version 1.13.1 introduced a bug which breaks the "Sticky Keys" accessibility option. Thus, handicapped users who rely on the feature cannot use Xorg-based systems with the affected versions and are stuck on older software versions. Though all pre-bug Linux distros are soon scheduled for retirement, there seems to be no fix in sight. Should disabled users stick with outdated, vulnerable, and unsupported Linux distros or should we move to OS-X / Windows?

The prospect of changing my OS, applications, and practices due to such an ostensibly small issue is frightening. Note that we are not discussing 'I don't like change' but rather 'this unintentional change is incompatible with my physical disability.' Thus this is not a case of every change breaks someone's workflow."

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Ask Slashdot: How To Handle Unfixed Linux Accessibility Bugs?

European Researchers Reveal The Physics Of The Secret

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March 27, 2014

[ Watch the Video: Keeping Secrets in a World of Spies and Mistrust ]

Peter Suciu for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Is it really a secret if researchers share it? In the March 27 issue of Nature, the weekly international journal of science, researchers Artur Ekert and Renato Renner revealed what physics can tell us about keeping our secrets secret.

This comes after high profile revelation that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been spying on emails, phone calls and other means of communications. Numerous companies have denied allegations of assisting the NSA, but a report from January suggested spy agencies might not just be listening in on phone calls or monitoring Internet browsing. Radio waves are also a secret technology being monitored by the NSA, redOrbit reported back in January.

Is nothing safe?

In the paper, titled The Ultimate Physical Limits of Privacy, the authors noted:

Among those who make a living from the science of secrecy, worry and paranoia are just signs of professionalism. Can we protect our secrets against those who wield superior technological powers? Can we trust those who provide us with tools for protection? Can we even trust ourselves, our own freedom of choice? Recent developments in quantum cryptography show that some of these questions can be addressed and discussed in precise and operational terms, suggesting that privacy is indeed possible under surprisingly weak assumptions.

Ekert, who is the director of the Centre for Quantum Technlogy, professor of quantum physics at the University of Oxford, UK, suggested in a statement, Recent developments in quantum cryptography show that privacy is possible under stunningly weak assumptions about the freedom of action we have and the trustworthiness of the devices we use.

Ekert is also a Lee Kong Chian Centennial Professor at the National University of Singapore.

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European Researchers Reveal The Physics Of The Secret