Category Archives: Encryption

Mexican Army Cipher Wheel – state of the art encryption 100 years ago – Video

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Mexican Army Cipher Wheel - state of the art encryption 100 years ago
This encryption machine was used during the time of conflict between Mexico and the USA shortly before World War I. It uses 5 disks that convert letters into 2 digit numbers based on a key...

By: dj51florida

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Mexican Army Cipher Wheel - state of the art encryption 100 years ago - Video

Getting Started with Hashing in SQL Server

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Introduction

In my most recent articles, Ive talked about encryption in detail and demonstrated its usage at the entire database level with Transparent Data Encryption and at the column level with granularcell level encryption. In this article, I am going to discuss hashing in SQL Server and how it is different from encryption.

Encryption brings data into a state which cannot be interpreted by anyone who does not have access to the decryption key, password, or certificates. Though encryption does not restrict the access to the data, it ensures if data loss happens, then in that case data is useless for the person who does not have access to the decryption keypasswordcertificates. On the other hand, Hashing brings a string of characters of arbitrary size into a usually shorter fixed-length value or key that represents the original string and acts as a shortened reference to the original data. A slight change in the input string of characters produces a completely different hashed output.

To meet the demands of regulatory compliance and corporate data security standards, SQL Server allows you to enable encryption at the columncell level or on the entire database level whereas hashing can be used for several purposes for example:

Encryption is bidirectional, which means data encrypted can be decrypted back to the original string if you have access to the correct decryption key, whereas hashing is unidirectional, which means hashed data cannot be reversed back to the original string.

SQL Server has the HASHBYTES inbuilt function to hash the string of characters using different hashing algorithms. The supported algorithms are MD2, MD4, MD5, SHA, SHA1, or SHA2. The hashed data conforms to the algorithm standard in terms of storage size i.e. 128 bits (16 bytes) for MD2, MD4, and MD5; 160 bits (20 bytes) for SHA and SHA1; 256 bits (32 bytes) for SHA2_256, and 512 bits (64 bytes) for SHA2_512. SHA2_256 and SHA2_512 algorithms are available in SQL Server 2012 and later versions.

The stronger hash function you use, the more storage space it takes, and performance is slower but it provides a stronger hash value with minimal chance of hash collision (generating the same hashed output for two different input string of characters). Hence, its recommended to use hashing algorithms depending on your workload and data to hash by making it an appropriate trade-off.

The example below, demonstrates the use of the HASHBYTES function to do hashing using MD5 algorithm. As mentioned before, a slight change in the input string of characters produces a completely different hashed output and this is what you could see in the second column. The only difference between input for the first column and input for the second column is an extra space at the end of the input string in the second input string:

No matter how many times you do the hashing, the hashed output will remain same for the same set of input strings and same hashing algorithm:

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Getting Started with Hashing in SQL Server

Virtru launches business email encryption service for Google Apps

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Email encryption startup Virtru has launched a version of its service for businesses using Google Apps, a market segment that the company thinks is showing increased interest in secure communications.

Google Apps has some 30 million users, which is growing as companies become more comfortable with software-as-a-service, said Virtru co-founder John Ackerly.

Virtru aims to make email encryption easier to set up and use. It uses a browser extension to encrypt content and attachments, which can be sent through mainstream email providers such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Google.

The service also allows for fine control over messages. The encryption key for a message can be revoked, cutting off access. Message forwarding can also be restricted by managing access to its decryption key. Messages can also be tagged with an expiration time.

Virtru encrypts content in the Trusted Data Format (TDF), which Ackerlys brother and Virtru cofounder Will developed while working for the U.S. National Security Agency.

Theopen-source formatis akin to a secret ZIP file and is widely used in the U.S. intelligence community. Unlike other encryption program such as PGP, TDF also allows attachments to be encrypted.

Virtru is also HIPPA compliant, a mandatory standard for U.S. health care providers handling sensitive information.

Virtru for Business will be free to try until later in the year no matter how many users, Ackerly said. After that period ends, Ackerly expects pricing for the baseline product to be around US$2.50 per user per month, with volume discounts.

The company will also offer other paid-for modules, such as data leakage protection and a white-label optionfor additional fees, he said.

The goal herein the classic disruptive senseis to be a lot cheaper and dead simple, Ackerly said.

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Virtru launches business email encryption service for Google Apps

Breen enters Encryption in Haskell invitational

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For Monmouths crown jewel, the $1 million William Hill Haskell Invitational, trainer Kelly Breen has elected to throw his horses hat into the Haskell ring, as he recently announced that Encryption will join the Grade 1 battle.

Were throwing him into the deep end, Breen said in a Monmouth Park press release. Hes going to run in the Haskell. As of right now, all systems are go. The horse is doing tremendous. I think we have a solid field of horses for the Haskell, but were going to go after them.

With the addition of Encryption, the William Hill Haskell now boasts a likely field of nine impressive runners, including filly and winner of the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Mother Goose (G1) Untapable, and Classic placed runners Social Inclusion and Medal Count. The rest of the Haskells probable field is Just Call Kenny, Albano, Irish You Well, Bayern and Wildcat Red.

A 3-year-old colt by Exchange Rate out of the Bahri dam Mystic Soul, Encryption has made each of his four career starts at Monmouth Park and has hit the board in each. In his last race, the Long Branch Stakes on July 5, Encryption broke from the rail and ran a close third to fellow Haskell runners Irish You Well, the winner of the race, and Just Call Kenny.

I think the post position cost us a little bit, said Breen, who is one of Monmouths top trainers. [Jockey Paco Lopez] felt as if we had to go. After the race he said, Id like to rate him a bit, and maybe it will be a good thing for him. Theres a lot of speed in the Haskell, so hopefully Paco is right.

Lopez, who is currently Monmouth Parks leading jockey, will return aboard Encryption as he travels a mile and an eighth along Monmouths main track in the William Hill Haskell.

Theres going to be plenty of speed in the race, Breen said. The horse coming up from Florida, [Wildcat Red], will have some speed. Id like to say that we can learn something from the Long Branch. Encryption has rated in the morning. It should be a pretty hot pace between Bayern, Untapable and Wildcat Red. Its a highly heated pace race, and if Paco is right and we have enough horse, well have a chance.

A Stoneway Farm color-bearer, Encryption has not posted a published work since the Long Branch, and Breen said that there is not much left to do to prepare for the July 27 race. Most likely, hell open gallop tomorrow, Breen said. It wont be a public workout because itll be too slow. Itll just be a two-minute lick, and thats all were going to do before the Haskell.

Breen, who lives in Howell, knows something about winning big races. He is a Triple Crown winner, having saddled 2011 Belmont Stakes winner Ruler on Ice.

The William Hill Haskell will be televised live on NBC and is part of the Breeders Cup Win and Youre In Series, with the victor getting an automatic berth to the $5 million Breeders Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 1.

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Breen enters Encryption in Haskell invitational

Wilson’s Weekend Whine: Snowden’s call for online encryption is sad but necessary

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It was quite a coup for HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth). At the 2014 hacker event, Hope X, in New York City this weekend, Edward Snowden delivered a speech to those in attendance, advocating the use of encryption online. The former NSA analyst was not at the event himself -- he's still holed up in Moscow -- but he called on those present to help to protect privacy online. Speaking via a video link Snowden said: "You in this room, right now have both the means and the capability to improve the future by encoding our rights into programs and protocols by which we rely every day".

It was a great piece of work keeping the presentation a secret. There were, of course, fears that Snowden's appearance would somehow be thwarted: "We had to keep this bombshell quiet til the last minute since some of the most powerful people in the world would prefer that it never take place." There were certainly risks involved, but it was a risk worth taking. "[Snowden's] revelations of the massive NSA surveillance programs confirmed the suspicions of many and shocked those who havent been paying attention".

Speaking to the Guardian last week, Edward Snowden said that "Any communications that are transmitted over the internet, over any networked line, should be encrypted by default. Thats what last year showed us." Having helped to enlighten the world about online surveillance, Snowden has now expressed something of a shift in focus. The whistle has been well and truly sounded. Now is the time for something to be done. The hissing and moaning is all well and good, but now there is a call to arms. However loudly and frequently complaints are made, the chances of invasive surveillance programs coming to an end are pretty slim. But this does not mean we have to accept things lying down. Snowden is calling for the development and adoption of easy to use techniques to counter surveillance.

One of the most obvious options here is to embrace encryption. Governments "don't like the adoption of encryption. They say encryption that protects individuals' privacies, encryption that protects the publics privacy broadly as opposed to specific individuals, encryption by default, is dangerous because they lose this midpoint communication, this midpoint collection".

Encryption. "That is what a lot of my future work is going to be involved in", Snowden promised at Hope X. There's no word on quite what form this will take, but his vocal opposition to what has been taking place made it clear that this is a man with a great deal of fight left in him. He will undoubtedly push for a system that is accessible for all, cheap and simple to implement, and difficult to circumvent.

Many people have said that internet users should expect their communication to be monitored, intercepted, violated. But why? The simple fact that surveillance is possible -- and, at the moment, relatively simple -- is not a justification. Nor is the assertion that terrorist attacks could be stopped. "Could" is the key word here. A large number of crimes could be prevented ahead of time if the government was to intercept every single letter sent through the postal system. It would be a mammoth task, for sure, but is it something people would stand for? Of course not. If it transpired that all of our phone bills, credit card statements, birthday cards, love letters, and anything else you sent or received through the mail was being read or scanned by the government there would be complete outrage. Would the fact that organized crime might be reduced soften the blow for you? Would that be enough for you to permit all of your paper-based mail to be read and stored? I sincerely hope not. I hope you all value your privacy, and indeed dignity, more than that.

But this is precisely what is happening online. It's communication in a different form, so why is the interception of electronic mail and other web traffic seen as more acceptable than intercepting regular mail? For me, there is no difference whatsoever -- aside from the fact that it is rather easier for agencies to secretly intercept electronic communications. If you learned your letters were being read, you would either stop sending them, or devise a code that you could use to communicate privately. It's heartbreakingly sad that we need to do the same online, but we do. This is not a matter of hiding your data from the government because you have something to hide, it's about protecting a basic human right: the right to privacy.

As Snowden said to the Guardian: "What last year's revelations showed us was irrefutable evidence that unencrypted communications on the internet are no longer safe and cannot be trusted. Their integrity has been compromised and we need new security programs to protect them. Any communications that are transmitted over the internet, over any networked line, should be encrypted by default. Thats what last year showed us". Snowden took unbelievable risks in making contact with the media with his initial revelations, but hopefully things will become easier for future whistleblowers. Also discussed at Hope X was SecureDrop, a system that can be used by those with information to share it with the media. Again, it is desperately sad that a system like this needed to be devised, but the need is there.

I'll leave the final word to Hope X who sums things up beautifully: "We are humbled to have [Edward Snowden] in our program, and hope the day will come when he's not confined to a video link and able to be as free as he is helping all of us to be".

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Wilson's Weekend Whine: Snowden's call for online encryption is sad but necessary

Net neutrality a key battleground in growing fight over encryption, activists say

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Plans to favor some Internet packets over others threaten consumers hard-won right to use encryption, a digital privacy advocate says.

Activists and tech companies fended off efforts in the U.S. in the 1990s to ban Internet encryption or give the government ways around it, but an even bigger battle over cryptography is brewing now, according to Sascha Meinrath, director of X-Lab, a digital civil-rights think tank launched earlier this year. One of the most contested issues in that battle will be net neutrality, Meinrath said.

The new fight will be even more fierce than the last one, because Internet service providers now see dollars and cents in the details of packets traversing their networks. They want to charge content providers for priority delivery of their packets across the network, something that a controversial Federal Communications Commission proposal could allow under certain conditions. Friday is the filing deadline for the first round of public comments on that plan.

Encrypted traffic cant be given special treatment because it cant be identified, Meinrath said. That could eliminate a major revenue source for ISPs, giving them a strong reason to oppose the use of encrypted services and potentially an indirect way to degrade their performance, he said. Meinrath laid out parts of this argument in a recent essay in the June issue of Critical Studies in Media Communication, called Crypto War II and written with tech policy activist Sean Vitka.

The U.S. government once sought to keep the countrys cryptographic technology to itself or to hold onto the keys to all encrypted data. Opponents won out and opened the door to encrypted services people use every day, such as shopping and email. But the ability to use encryption is under fire both from government and potentially from ISPs new business models, the essay said. The looming cryptography debate will also involve several other hot topics, including government surveillance spreading from networks into individual devices and the privacy of data generated by the Internet of Things, the authors wrote.

Net neutrality could be important to the use of encryption in at least two ways, according to Meinrath. For one thing, if broadband capacity is scarce on a busy service-provider network, and some traffic gets paid priority, then other traffic could suffer. Encrypted traffic is likely to get the short end of that deal. For example, a streaming video service that was encrypted and couldnt be prioritized might stall or have longer buffer times if it had to share a crowded pipe with favored video streams.

In addition, ISPs might start to block encrypted traffic in order to maintain their business model. For example, if carriers can discriminate among applications, they can make some exempt from a users data consumption cap. AT&T has already announced plans for such a service, called Sponsored Data, on its cellular data network. Among other things, this could allow content providers to cover the cost of delivering their data to consumers, making their content more attractive.

That concept may get more complicated if encryption comes into play, Meinrath said. For example, in some developing countries, Facebook and mobile operators together are offering cheap mobile data deals that only cover Facebook. There are encrypted services that can tunnel through Facebook to give users access to other service, but carriers will want to know if anyone is circumventing the exclusive Facebook deal.

The problem is that providers are going to say, We need to be able to know that youre not doing that, therefore we need to be able to ensure that you are not encrypting, he said.

All this doesnt necessarily spell doom for your favorite banking, health insurance or video chat sites. The implications are deeper and longer term, Meinrath said.

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Net neutrality a key battleground in growing fight over encryption, activists say