Lexus cars may be vulnerable to viruses that infect them via mobile phones. Landcruiser 100 models LX470 and LS430 have been discovered with infected operating systems that transfer within a range of 15 feet.

Mobile virus infects Lexus cars

] The novel The Da Vinci Code is renewing interest in
] solving the puzzle of a cryptographic sculpture located
] at CIA headquarters. Only three people know the solution,
] but the sculptor now says two of them only think they
] know it.

Big front-page top-link article on Kryptos at Wired. Coolness. :)

I've been working with the reporter on this article for awhile now, and she really did her homework. I helped her get in touch with both Jim Sanborn and Ed Scheidt for interviews, and we tried really hard to get interviews with William Webster, Jim Gillogly, and even Dan Brown. I'm also pleased that the reporter posted an actual transcript of her Sanborn interview, since that gives us more to work with on analyzing his comments!

- Elonka :)

Wired News - New Sanborn Interview

I'm sure I saw this when it came out, but its a good hack. The glow from your monitor can probably be seen out of your window. If you slowed things down really slow it wouldn't appear as a glow, but rather a strobe, as the electron gun in your monitor sweeps across rows of phosphorus. If you recorded the flashes, and knew the rate at which the gun was sweeping, you could reproduce the image displayed on the screen. Nice...

Optical Emission Security FAQ

Decius wrote:
] ] Where does this leave us? MD5 is fatally wounded; its
] ] use will be phased out. SHA-1 is still alive but the
] ] vultures are circling. A gradual transition away from
] ] SHA-1 will now start. The first stage will be a debate
] ] about alternatives, leading (I hope) to a consensus among
] ] practicing cryptographers about what the substitute will
] ] be.
]
] Answer, not a 5 alarm fire, but if you write or maintain
] cryptography code you can still expect some work coming up.

Hal Finney has posted a nice writeup of Joux's SHA-0 result to the cryptography list. The implications are pretty significant for CHF design...

"Nevertheless, Joux's results cast doubt on the very strategy of building hashes out of iterating compression functions. It appears that there is no hope of creating hashes in this way which approximate the theoretical model of a random function, which is the usual design goal for hash functions. This will probably further motivate researchers to explore new directions in hash function design."

http://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography%40metzdowd.com/msg02611.html

RE: Followup on SHA-1 break

This lengthy and highly technical primer provides a gentle yet thorough introduction to elliptical key cryptography (ECC), said to be ideal for resource-constrained systems because it provides more "security per bit" than other types of asymmetric cryptography.

An Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) Primer

The prototype SenseCam takes an instant snap every time it spots changes in movement, temperature or light.

[...]

The camera uses accelerometers to detect motion, passive infrared to detect another human being, and digital sensors for light and temperature monitoring.

'Black box' cam for total recall

PASADENA, Calif. -- Imagine driving down a twisty mountain road on a dark foggy night. Visibility is near-zero, yet you still can see clearly. Not through your windshield, but via an image on a screen in front of you.

Such a built-in radar system in our cars has long been in the domain of science fiction, as well as wishful thinking on the part of commuters. But such gadgets could become available in the very near future, thanks to the High Speed Integrated Circuits group at the California Institute of Technology.

The group is directed by Ali Hajimiri, an associate professor of electrical engineering. Hajimiri and his team have used revolutionary design techniques to build the world's first radar on a chip--specifically, they have implemented a novel antenna array system on a single, silicon chip.

Caltech Engineers Design a Revolutionary Radar Chip

United States Patent 6,721,423

Lost cost countermeasures against compromising electromagnetic computer emanations

Abstract

A set of methods is specified whereby software reduces compromising electromagnetic emanations of computers that could otherwise allow eavesdroppers to reconstruct sensitive processed data using periodic averaging techniques. Fonts for screen display of text are low-pass filtered to attenuate those spectral components that radiate most strongly, without significantly affecting the readability of the text, while the character glyphs displayed are chosen at random from sets that are visually equivalent but that radiate differently. Keyboard microcontroller scan loops are also furnished with random variations that hinder reconstruction of the signal emanated by a keyboard. Drivers for hard disks and other mass-storage devices ensure that the read head is never parked over confidential data longer than necessary.

Lost cost countermeasures against compromising electromagnetic computer emanations

SecurityDocs.com is a directory of information security articles, white papers, and other documents that information security professionals find useful.

SecurityDocs.com

] NANOG actively works to produce sessions and seminars to
] help foster security on the Internet. All sessions are
] taped and converted to streaming media for all to use for
] their personal education. Slides are available for each
] session as well. Over time, this effort has generated a
] valuable online tutorial for engineers and others seeking
] to learn more about running a more secure network.

Wow. Nanog has developed an awesome collection of security presentations for previous conference.

NANOG Security Curriculum