Category Archives: Cryptography

Global quantum communications: No longer the stuff of fiction?

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Neither quantum computers nor quantum cryptography will become prevalent technologies without memory systems able to manipulate quantum information easily and effectively. The Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw has recently made inroads into popularizing quantum information technologies by creating an atomic memory with outstanding parameters and an extremely simple construction.

Following years of tests in physics laboratories, the first quantum technologies are slowly emerging into wider applications. One example is quantum cryptography - an encryption method providing an almost full guarantee of secure data transmission, currently being introduced by military forces and banking institutions. Processing quantum information and sending it over long distances has so far been severely limited due to a lack of adequate memories. A solution is now within reach: the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw (FUW), Poland, has created a fully-functioning atomic memory with a simple, reliable construction and numerous potential applications, including in telecommunications.

"The greatest challenge in the construction of our quantum memory was the precise selection of system parameters that would allow it to save, store and read quantum information effectively. We have also found a novel way of reducing noise during detection," says Dr. Wojciech Wasilewski (FUW).

Contemporary fiber-optic communications involve the transmission of classical information using laser light propagated inside optical fiber cables. Attenuation causes the light signal in the optical fiber cable to weaken as the distance it travels increases. When long optical fiber cables are used, laser amplifiers multiplicating photons are placed along them at intervals of approximately 100 km. These turn a weak signal comprising a low number of photons into a strong signal with high numbers of photons.

However, in quantum communications it is the individual photons and their quantum states that are important. Here signal amplification of the signal does not simply mean increasing the number of photons, but rather preserving their original, undisturbed quantum states. Unfortunately, quantum information cannot be duplicated with impunity: performing any measurement of the quantum state of the photon will inevitably affect its original state. The impossibility of quantum cloning, co-discovered by the Polish physicist Prof. Wojciech urek, places fundamental limitations on the operations that can be conducted on quantum information.

In 2001, a team of physicists from the University of Innsbruck and Harvard University proposed the DLCZ quantum transmission protocol, making it possible to send quantum information over long distances. Under this protocol, quantum information reaching each relay point along the channel must be stored there for a sufficiently long time to ensure that attempts at transmitting it to the next node are successful, as confirmed via a normal signal. In such a protocol, therefore, a key role is played by quantum memory in which quantum information needs to be stored for a sufficiently long time.

"Until now, quantum memory required highly sophisticated laboratory equipment and complex techniques chilling the systems to extremely low temperatures approaching absolute zero. The atomic memory device we have been able to create operates at far higher temperatures, in the region of tens of degrees Celsius, which are significantly easier to maintain," notes Radek Chrapkiewicz, doctoral student at the Faculty and co-author of the paper in the journal Optics Express.

The main element of the memory device constructed by the University of Warsaw physicists is a glass chamber 2.5 cm in diameter and 10 cm long, with rubidium-coated sides, filled with a noble gas. When the tube is heated gently, rubidium pairs fill the inside, with the noble gas restricting their movement and thereby reducing noise. When quantum information is stored in such a memory, photons from the laser beam "imprint" quantum states on many rubidium atoms. Other photons are emitted at the same time; their detection confirms that the information has been saved. Information stored in the memory can then be retrieved using another specially selected laser pulse.

To record and retrieve quantum information, the researchers used advanced methods of light filtering (patent pending) and an innovative camera of their own design. This camera, able to detect individual photons, is characterized by extremely low noise levels and a speed tens of times higher than existing cameras.

"The stability of the quantum information stored in our memory lasts from a few microseconds up to tens of microseconds. You'd be forgiven for asking how such short-lived memory could be useful at all, but bear in mind that it depends on the application. In telecommunications, microsecond timescales are sufficient to conduct several attempts at transmitting a quantum signal to the next relay station," stresses Micha Dbrowski, a doctoral student from the Faculty.

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Global quantum communications: No longer the stuff of fiction?

Bluink Adds FIDO U2F Security Key Functionality to Injector with Elliptic Technologies’ Cryptography

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Ottawa, ON (PRWEB) November 26, 2014

Bluink Ltd, the leading innovator in smartphone based digital identity management and strong authentication, today achieved FIDO Alliance Universal Second Factor (FIDO U2F) Ready status for its Injector (http://password-injector.com) mobile identity product, allowing Injector users to securely login to U2F supported online services.

Bluink has partnered with Elliptic Technologies to use its portable Ellipsys cryptographic libraries in Injector to provide a robust, trusted and fully compliant FIDO U2F solution. Injector already provides users with unparalleled convenience and security by managing static and one-time passwords while automating logins to machines, applications, networks and online services. Now with FIDO U2F, the same solution will also allow public key authentication to supporting online services, making Injector a truly universal secure authenticator.

FIDO U2F represents a significant step forward in web authentication. With the number of passwords that users need to have nowadays and the increasingly massive data breaches re-sulting from cyber attacks, password-based authentication is becoming a huge risk to individuals and businesses, said Larry Hamid, CTO of Bluink. FIDO authentication eliminates the need for passwords and we want Injector users to benefit as soon as possible.

Elliptic is a big believer in, and early supporter of, the FIDO U2F standards as an effective way to eliminate the risks of weak, overused passwords so commonly exploited in web attacks. Bluinks Injector replaces weak user identities with strong cryptographically authenticated indentities, with unguessable randomly generated passwords as a fallback for legacy services. Elliptic is proud to work with Bluink to bring this product to life, said Ogi Brkic, Elliptic VP of Marketing and Business Development. Injector makes it simple for people to protect their online identities with world class cryptography. Thanks to the ready portability of Ellipsys, Bluink will be able to offer Injector support on all the popular platforms quickly, easily and reliably.

The FIDO U2F capability in Injector will be released on iOS and Android before the end of this year.

About Injector Injector is a smartphone based identity manager and Bluetooth USB dongle that provides strong authentication and logins to almost anything.

About Bluink Bluink is an Engineering and Product Development company focused on security and solutions that leverage the power of mobile devices. From Injector to the award winning Shift-IT scheduling solutions, Bluinks products make peoples lives more secure, efficient and mobile.

About Ellipsys Cryptography Middleware Ellipsys Cryptography Middleware is a CAVP certified cryptographic library that is highly configurable for size or speed optimization. Ellipsys is written in portable C code and also includes platform specific optimizations for ARM, x86, x86_64 and PowerPC. Ellipsys contains a plug-in architecture for easy integration and offload of hardware devices.

About Elliptic Technologies Elliptic Technologies is a leading provider of security solutions for the connected world for chipset vendors, device manufacturers, service and content providers. Elliptics highly integrated solutions enable the most efficient silicon design and highest security levels for some of the worlds most popular products in markets such as mobile, networking, home entertainment, automotive, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Elliptic is leading the world in DRM and link protection solutions with flagship technology tVaultTM for downloading and sharing premium content between multiple devices, including Microsoft PlayReady, DTCP-IP and HDCP SDKs built for trusted execution environments used in consumer electronics.

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Bluink Adds FIDO U2F Security Key Functionality to Injector with Elliptic Technologies’ Cryptography

Inside The Cicada 3301 Cabal

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This story contains interviews with Tekknolagi, the student who solved the Cicada 3301 puzzle.

In January I wrote a story about the one person who is known to have made it further down the Cicada 3301 rabbit hole than anyone elseand my inbox has never been the same since.

For those that dont know, Cicada 3301 is a mysterious Internet puzzle that appears online every January. It consists of a highly complex series of riddles and enigmas that stretch from the digital world out into the real world. To solve these riddles you need to have expert skills in a varying range of disciplines including steganography, cryptography, and ancient Mayan numerology, as well as detailed understandings of 18th century European literature and even cyberpunk speculative fiction. And that was just for last years puzzle.

Thousands of cybersleuths try to solve Cicada each January (there have been three annual puzzles since 2012) but none are known to have solved it completely. And in this case, its not the journey that matters. The makers of Cicada promise "enlightenment" to those who can make it to the end. But whats more baffling than each riddle, or what "enlightenment" awaits those who solve them all, are the people behind Cicada.

No one knows if Cicada is a single person or a group of individuals, though evidence from the puzzle points to Cicada being more than one brilliant individual. The sheer scale of the riddles transcends cyberspace and requires participants to call dummy phone numbers set up in the real world and travel to up to 14 different countries to find QR codes that have been physically taped to telephone poles. This suggests Cicada is indeed a global network of individualsa cabal no one knows anything about.

And its this "unknown cabal" hypothesis that gets peoples minds racing as much as the Cicada 3301 puzzle itself. If Cicada is a group, how many members there are? Where they are based? What are their ultimate motives?

Which brings me back to my inbox...

Since writing my original story about Joel Eriksson, a cryptosecurity researcher from Sweden who was, until now, the only known person to make it further than any other in solving the Cicada 3301 puzzle, I get a few emails each week from people alleging they have information on who Cicada are.

Some emails are obviously fake. Theyre from fantasists that want to pretend they hold the hidden knowledge everyone desires. Some emails are downright strange, like the email I received a few weeks ago from a person who said he worked "for a component of the Intelligence Community of a 5-eyes country" and that this intelligence agency had reason to believe Cicada "may be the same group that was behind the 2007 cyberattacks in the Baltics." Then there are the emails that say Cicada are aliens, terrorists, Barack Obama.

But every once in a while Ill get an email that has the air of believability about it. These emails give me enough of a kick to look into not only the claims they make, but to investigate the person whos made them.

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Inside The Cicada 3301 Cabal

Hackfest 2014: Nadim Kobeissi presented "miniLock – Advances in Usable Cryptography" – Video

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Hackfest 2014: Nadim Kobeissi presented "miniLock - Advances in Usable Cryptography"
Hackfest 2014: Nadim Kobeissi presented "miniLock - File encryption software that does more with less" Slides: Talk description: http://www.hackfest.ca/conf2...

By: Hackfest HF

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Hackfest 2014: Nadim Kobeissi presented "miniLock - Advances in Usable Cryptography" - Video