Category Archives: Cryptography

First Cryptography Advisory Board Formed for Cloud Security

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Skyhigh Networks assembles a board of cryptography experts to consider a range of academically vetted cryptographic solutions that do not reduce functionality.

A group of accomplished experts in cryptography research have announced they are forming what is believed to be the first industry-focused Cryptography Advisory Board. The board will provide oversight of encryption schemes for cloud security to ease the adoptionof cloud services.

Data security continues to be one of the major hurdles preventing companies from moving data to the cloud, and for good reason. Enterprises worry about cloud data breaches, NSA surveillance, and court orders that can subpoena documents holding sensitive information (with which many cloud providers willingly comply). Increasingly, firms want to secure files with encryption tohinder outside parties who access sensitive documents from being able to read them.

The problems that the industry is starting to solve are very challenging, says board member Ari Juels, professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, and former chief scientist of RSA. When companies place data in the cloud itsup to the cloud providers to make sure policies are enforced. Theres growing interest in the industry to take back power from cloud providers, and that creates some technical tensions. Cryptography helps, but it has to be implemented well, and rigorously.

[Read more about cloud encryption: Encrypting Cloud Email Isnt as Easy as You'd Think.]

The board will collaborate with Skyhigh Networks, a firm that analyzes the risks of cloud applications and helps organizations build security strategies. The board will ensure Skyhigh is aware of the world of development in academic research and have available toit the latest research and technologies relevantto its business.

Juels says, rather than invent technologies from scratch, the board wants to make sure businesses are incorporating solutions properly and rigorously into product, with strong security guarantees on behalf of their customers. Its easy to get cryptography wrong, he says. Its hard to build a cryptography scheme well and robustly.

Most of todays encryption implementations have significant drawbacks, he explains. Homomorphic encryption seemed to solve all problems as it made it possible to perform general computations over encrypted data, but it proved too inefficient. For example, a provider can manage email without actually seeing it, or store corporate data and perform analytics on it but not actually see it. However the computational overhead is on the order of10 million versus ordinary unencrypted software. It also solves a narrow subset of problems as it doesnt consider that clients increasingly want shared relationships with their cloud providers data.

Newer encrypted hardware solutions allow data to be managed in a trustworthy environment, but it assumes the cloud provider isnt able to tamper with the pieces.

The board will consider a range of cryptographic approaches looking for practical schemes that do not reduce functionality, including search, sort, and format validation.

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First Cryptography Advisory Board Formed for Cloud Security

MegaCryption PC/IX v2.0 Offers Enhanced Cryptographic Options and Simplified End User Experience

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Naples, FL (PRWEB) October 02, 2014

Advanced Software Products Group, Inc. (ASPG) has released version 2.0 of MegaCryption-PC and MegaCryption-IX, the fastest growing encryption tool for file cryptography on Windows, Unix, and Linux computers. MegaCryption-PC, for Windows, and MegaCryption-IX, for Unix and Linux, may be freely distributed for use on Windows, Unix, or Linux systems and are compatible with both OpenPGP and S/MIME cryptography standards. MegaCryption-PC and MegaCryption-IX include an intuitive graphical user interface, and also a command-line interface for power-users.

The new release of MegaCryption-PC/IX v2.0 offers broader compatibility with popular cryptographic systems used on many operating platforms. Designed for compatibility with GnuPG v2.0 and MegaCryption-z/OS, the MegaCryption-PC/IX v2.0 supports more symmetric algorithms, larger asymmetric key sizes, X.509 keys, as well as S/MIME and CMS cryptography. Users of MegaCryption-PC may now operate file encryption and decryption seamlessly by using the familiar Windows Explorer File Manager dialog. MegaCryption-PC/IX v2.0 includes an updated GUI interface as well.

While MegaCryption-PC/IX previously featured comprehensive key management, MegaCryption-PC/IX v2.0 introduces a configuration manager to facilitate site security policies and user preferences. MegaCryption-PC/IX v2.0 intuitively selects the appropriate format for encryption based on the type of public key selected by the user. These features are ideal for new users of cryptography or expert cryptographers who prefer strong cryptography that is simple to use.

Another security enhancement within MegaCryption-PC/IX v2.0 is the pin-entry secure passphrase tool. The pin-entry tool improves security for using passwords and passphrases with the file cryptography and key management programs in MegaCryption-PC/IX. Users must have the authority to access secret files and also authenticate their access to a secure key before operating decryption or digital-signature features. Without the appropriate access permission and key-authentication, end users will be unable to operate secure file operations using MegaCryption-PC/IX.

As a file-level cryptography tool, MegaCryption-PC/IX provides a comprehensive approach to compressing and encrypting virtually any file in your Windows, Unix, or Linux environment while complementing any communication level encryption process you may already have in place. MegaCryption-PC/IX can be used as a stand-alone product or interoperate with MegaCryption-z/OS on the mainframe to protect sensitive data throughout the enterprise.

Interested parties may read more about the MegaCryption-PC/IX for Windows, Unix, and Linux, or MegaCryption for z/OS software on the ASPG web site. Free trials of the software are also available.

About Advanced Software Products Group For nearly 30 years, ASPG, an IBM and Microsoft partner, has produced award-winning software for data centers worldwide, specializing in data security, storage administration, and systems productivity. ASPG is pleased to provide solutions for a majority of the GLOBAL 1000 data centers.

For more information about ASPG, please contact our Sales Team by phone at 800-662-6090 (Toll-Free) or 239-649-1548 (US/International), 239-649-6391 (fax) or email at aspgsales@aspg.com. You can also visit the ASPG website at http://www.aspg.com.

Press Contact: David Vertin, Director of Marketing Advanced Software Products Group, Inc. 3185 Horseshoe Drive South, Naples, FL 34104 Phone: 239.649.1548 Fax: 239.649.6391 Email: david.vertin(at)aspg(dot)com

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MegaCryption PC/IX v2.0 Offers Enhanced Cryptographic Options and Simplified End User Experience