Since 1977, RSA public-key encryption has protected privacy and verified authenticity when using computers, gadgets and web browsers around the globe, with only the most brutish of brute force efforts (and 1,500 years of processing time) felling its 768-bit variety earlier this year. Now, three eggheads (or Wolverines, as it were) at the University of Michigan claim they can break it simply by tweaking a device’s power supply. By fluctuating the voltage to the CPU such that it generated a single hardware error per clock cycle, they found that they could cause the server to flip single bits of the private key at a time, allowing them to slowly piece together the password. With a small cluster of 81 Pentium 4 chips and 104 hours of processing time, they were able to successfully hack 1024-bit encryption in OpenSSL on a SPARC-based system, without damaging the computer, leaving a single trace or ending human life as we know it. That’s why they’re presenting a paper at the Design, Automation and Test conference this week in Europe, and that’s why — until RSA hopefully fixes the flaw — you should keep a close eye on your server room’s power supply.
I received this interesting news today from my friend Lance. he said that he have read of several instances where hardware was infected but this is the first time he seen it officially reported in a CERT alert. The Energizer DUO, a USB-powered battery recharger was distributing malicious code that infected windows systems.
The hardware device itself does not infect the computer. Instead the infection happens from the software that comes with the device. Energizer is currently working with CERT to learn how their software was infected. In addition, only 9 out of 42 anti-virus products were able to detect the virus.
Lesson learned, it does not matter where you get the software from, scan it before installing it. Be sure your policies are enforcing this.
Technical details about this trojan can be found here
The fastest brwoser on earth for windows platform has been released & you can download it from here.
Just a reminder of what’s new in this release:
1- New Look
2- HTML 5 + CSS 3 support
3- Private browsing
4- Superfast JavaScript engine
5- Smother graphic rendering
6- Privet browsing
7- Fully integrated with windows 7 superbar
Opera team released a new version of my favorite browser opera (Opera 10.5 beta 1). I really love the new GUI it’s simple and beautiful. Yes, there is some similarity between the look & feel of opera 10.5 and Google chrome but to me opera looks more elegant.
The benchmarks that i saw today says that Opera 10.5 beta 1 is the fastest browser it’s even faster than chrome v5 dev version. here is a short list of what’s new in Opera 10.5 beta 1
1- Redesigned interface (much better than opera 10.1)
2- HTML 5 + CSS 3 support
3- Private browsing
4- Much Much faster JavaScript engine
5- Smother graphic rendering
You can download it and try it from here ( http://www.opera.com/browser/next/) just rememeber it’s a beta version so don’t expect it to be bug free. Currently, Opera 10.5 beta 1 only available for windows platform.
Side Note: Sorry for the podcast delay i’m really really sorry but i’m busy with projects that I’m comittieted to deliver on time so it’s taking all my time for now the minute I have a space to breath I promise you that I will release the first episode of whatiknow podcast . Thank you for your understanding.
Ok I’m planning with my friend Gavin to release a podcast on weekly bases or monthly bases still not decided yet but the idea will see the light very soon I promise. The podcast in general will be about technology but some episodes will be more about risk management & information security.
Of course during the podcast we will have some amazing knowledgeable guests so stay tuned.
. Thank you for your understanding.
