Category Archives: Cryptography

SF Bitcoin Devs Seminar: Cryptography Methods to Guarantee Payment Anonymity – Video

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SF Bitcoin Devs Seminar: Cryptography Methods to Guarantee Payment Anonymity
Talk will be about how these concepts work in guaranteeing anonymous payments Blind signatures One-way accumulators Zero-knowledge proofs Ring signatures (They are used in...

By: Taariq Lewis

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SF Bitcoin Devs Seminar: Cryptography Methods to Guarantee Payment Anonymity - Video

Revving up fluorescence for superfast LEDs

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Duke University researchers have made fluorescent molecules emit photons of light 1,000 times faster than normal -- setting a speed record and making an important step toward realizing superfast light emitting diodes (LEDs) and quantum cryptography.

This year's Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for the discovery of how to make blue LEDs. While the discovery has had an enormous impact on lighting and displays, the slow speed with which LEDs can be turned on and off has limited their use as a light source in light-based telecommunications.

In a new study, engineers from Duke increased the photon emission rate of fluorescent molecules to record levels by sandwiching them between metal nanocubes and a gold film.The results appear online October 12 in Nature Photonics.

Above: an artist's representation of light trapped between a silver nanocube and a thin sheet of gold. When fluorescent molecules -- shown in red - are trapped between the two, they emit photons up to 1,000 times faster than normal.

"One of the applications we're targeting with this research is ultrafast LEDs," said Maiken Mikkelsen, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at Duke. "While future devices might not use this exact approach, the underlying physics will be crucial."

Mikkelsen specialises in plasmonics, which studies the interaction between electromagnetic fields and free electrons in metal. In the experiment, her group manufactured 75-nanometer silver nanocubes and trapped light between them, greatly increasing the light's intensity.

When fluorescent molecules are placed near intensified light, the molecules emit photons at a faster rate through an effect called Purcell enhancement. The researchers found they could achieve a significant speed improvement by placing fluorescent molecules in a gap between the nanocubes and a thin film of gold.

To attain the greatest effect, Mikkelsen's team needed to tune the gap's resonant frequency to match the color of light that the molecules respond to. With the help of co-author David R. Smith, the James B. Duke Professor and Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke, they used computer simulations to determine the exact size of the gap needed between the nanocubes and gold film to optimise the setup.That gap was 20 atoms wide.

"We can select cubes with just the right size and make the gaps literally with nanometer precision," said Gleb Akselrod, a postdoc in Mikkelsen's lab and first author on the study. "When we have the cube size and gap perfectly calibrated to the molecule, that's when we see the record 1,000-fold increase in fluorescence speed."

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Revving up fluorescence for superfast LEDs

Cloud Computing Security Strategy Includes Cryptography

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The movement of data and software services to the cloud has left some businesses feeling less secure. Skyhigh Networks brought together academic experts for the first industry-focused cryptography advisory board to provide insights on using encryption schemes as part of cloud computing security, Becca Lipman reports on Wall Street & Technology.

Secure Cloud Data Through Encryption

The use of encryption means control of business files and data remains with the firm, while the cloud services provider independently handles software and infrastructure. Encryption is applied at the data source, and decryption occurs only when an accessing application or user has been authenticated. The cloud service handles the encrypted data without having access to the contents.

The addition of cryptographic techniques to cloud services comes with complications and cannot be applied naively in all cases. If the wrong encryption is employed, computational overhead can increase by orders of magnitude. Encryption cannot be paired with cloud services that require detailed data access to perform required functions, such as data transformation or detailed analytics. As Lipman notes, the advisory board's value is in avoiding inappropriate technology choices, and the focus is on selecting from existing encryption strategies rather than inventing new techniques to reduce service costs.

Big Security for Midsize Business via the Cloud

Academic advisory boards can be viewed as a metaphor for how the shared service delivery model tilts the playing field to favor midsize businesses by providing resources that were once reserved for large businesses alone. Efforts by cloud service providers to increase cloud computing security is one of the biggest advantages gained by midsize businesses that engage with cloud computing. Business size is no longer a determining factor in whether a business can access cutting-edge knowledge outside of its core business. Through the application of cryptographic techniques, the public cloud can become a more secure option for midsize businesses than developing in-house abilities.

Acting on Cloud Advice

Access to advice for improved data security may be an advantage of cloud services, but it still requires the businesses and their IT professionals to act on the advice. In the case of encryption, it must be employed consistently to be effective. The business is responsible for assessing security against disadvantages, such as computational overhead or limits to remote access and data sharing with partners. Data governance can be used to determine the appropriate level of security to apply to certain files and data. Encryption becomes another tool for the business to deploy as part of a larger cloud computing security strategy.

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

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Cloud Computing Security Strategy Includes Cryptography