Category Archives: Encryption

A 3-year probe of encrypted phones led to the seizure of hundreds of tons of drugs, prosecutors say – ABC News

International prosecutors say that investigations triggered by the cracking of encrypted phones three years ago have so far led to more than 6,500 arrests worldwide and the seizure of hundreds of tons of drugs

By

MIKE CORDER Associated Press

June 27, 2023, 6:51 AM ET

3 min read

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Investigations triggered by the cracking of encrypted phones three years ago have so far led to more than 6,500 arrests worldwide and the seizure of hundreds of tons of drugs, French, Dutch and European Union prosecutors said Tuesday.

The announcement underscored the staggering scale of criminality mainly drugs and arms smuggling and money laundering that was uncovered as a result of police and prosecutors effectively listening in to criminals using encrypted EncroChat phones.

It helped to prevent violent attacks, attempted murders, corruption and large-scale drug transports, as well as obtain large-scale information on organised crime, European Union police and judicial cooperation agencies Europol and Eurojust said in a statement.

The French and Dutch investigation gained access to more than 115 million encrypted communications between some 60,000 criminals via servers in the northern French town of Roubaix, prosecutors said at a news conference in the nearby city of Lille.

As a result, 6,558 suspects have been arrested worldwide, including 197 high-value targets. Seized drugs included 30.5 million pills, 103.5 metric tons (114 tons) of cocaine, 163.4 metric tons (180 tons) of cannabis and 3.3 metric tons (3.6 tons) of heroin. The investigations also led to nearly 740 million euros ($809 million) in cash being recovered and assets or bank accounts worth another 154 million euros ($168 million) frozen.

Police announced in 2020 they had cracked the encryption of EncroChat phones and effectively listened in on criminal gangs.

EncroChat sold phones for around 1,000 euros ($1,094) worldwide and offered subscriptions with global coverage for 1,500 euros ($1,641) per six months. The devices were marketed as offering complete anonymity and were said to be untraceable and easy to erase if a user was arrested.

French law enforcement authorities launched investigations into the company operating EncroChat in 2017. The probe led to a device being installed that was able to evade the phones' encryption and gain access to users' communications.

Authorities also have identified and detained some of the alleged leaders of the EncroChat provider, Carole Etienne, chief prosecutor at the judicial tribunal of Lille, told reporters.

Three people were arrested on June 22 in Spain and handed over to France on the basis of European arrest warrants," she said. "Other individuals have been located outside the European Union and have not yet been charged.

EncroChat is not the only secret communications network used by criminals that have been infiltrated by law enforcement authorities.

In March 2021, Belgian police arrested dozens of people and seized more than 17 metric tons (18.7 tons) of cocaine after cracking another encrypted chat system, called Sky ECC.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies went a step further and created an encrypted service ANOM that was marketed to criminals in a global sting that led to the arrest of more than 800 suspects and seizure of more than 32 metric tons (35.2 tons) of drugs, including cocaine, cannabis, amphetamines and methamphetamines.

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A 3-year probe of encrypted phones led to the seizure of hundreds of tons of drugs, prosecutors say - ABC News

The Role of Encryption in a Zero-Trust Security Strategy – CityLife

Exploring the Importance of Encryption in Implementing a Zero-Trust Security Strategy

In todays digital landscape, organizations face an ever-evolving array of cyber threats. As businesses continue to adopt cloud-based services, remote work, and digital transformation initiatives, the traditional security perimeter is becoming increasingly difficult to define and defend. In response to these challenges, many organizations are turning to a zero-trust security strategy to protect their sensitive data and assets. At the core of this approach is the concept of never trust, always verify, which emphasizes the need for strong encryption to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data.

Encryption is a fundamental component of a zero-trust security strategy, as it provides a robust layer of protection for sensitive data, both at rest and in transit. By encrypting data, organizations can ensure that even if unauthorized individuals gain access to their systems, they will be unable to read or modify the information without the proper decryption keys. This significantly reduces the risk of data breaches, as well as the potential damage that can result from such incidents.

One of the key principles of a zero-trust security strategy is the idea of least privilege, which dictates that users should only have access to the resources they need to perform their job functions. Encryption plays a crucial role in enforcing this principle, as it allows organizations to restrict access to sensitive data on a granular level. By implementing strong encryption and key management practices, businesses can ensure that only authorized individuals can access and decrypt specific data sets.

In addition to protecting data at rest, encryption is also essential for securing data in transit. As organizations increasingly rely on cloud-based services and remote work, the need for secure communication channels has become more important than ever. By encrypting data as it travels across networks, organizations can prevent eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle attacks, which can lead to data breaches and other security incidents.

Another important aspect of a zero-trust security strategy is continuous monitoring and verification of user activity. Encryption can play a role in this process by enabling organizations to track and monitor the use of encryption keys, as well as the access and modification of encrypted data. This can help businesses detect and respond to potential security threats in real-time, further reducing the risk of data breaches and other incidents.

In order to effectively implement encryption as part of a zero-trust security strategy, organizations must adopt a comprehensive approach to key management. This includes the secure generation, storage, and distribution of encryption keys, as well as the regular rotation and revocation of keys as needed. By maintaining strong key management practices, businesses can ensure the ongoing effectiveness of their encryption efforts and minimize the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data.

As cyber threats continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, the importance of encryption in a zero-trust security strategy cannot be overstated. By implementing strong encryption and key management practices, organizations can protect their sensitive data and assets, while also adhering to the principles of least privilege and continuous monitoring. In doing so, businesses can significantly reduce the risk of data breaches and other security incidents, while also maintaining the trust of their customers and partners.

In conclusion, the role of encryption in a zero-trust security strategy is paramount. As organizations continue to navigate the complexities of the digital landscape, the need for robust data protection measures will only grow. By embracing encryption as a core component of their security strategy, businesses can ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their data, while also fostering a culture of trust and accountability.

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How Application Allowlisting Combats Ransomware Attacks – Security Intelligence

Ransomware attacks are on the rise in both volume and sophistication. Triple extortion (a ransomware attack on one business leading to extortion threats on its business partners) is raising the cost of attacks. Ransomware-as-a-Service puts the means to attack in the hands of smaller criminal entities, making the tactic a commodity and not just the tool of masterminds. Its no surprise that ransomware attacks are now substantially more expensive to recover from than other types of data breaches.

Keeping attackers out of your systems altogether is ideal, but cyber criminals are persistent and inventive. So what can you do to stop ransomware attacks from succeeding?

Data encryption at all levels is a powerful measure and critical to implement with depth and weight. But it should be only part of a larger whole. You should consider augmenting encryption with additional controls that identify attackers at the application and process levels. This technique is known as application (or process) allowlisting.

Lets discuss why its necessary, how it works and how to use it.

A common cyberattack involves installing dummy applications on endpoints that look like common utilities Word, Adobe Photoshop or Slack, for example but which secretly encrypt and/or exfiltrate data. Phishing tactics are the most common way for these applications and trojan horses to find their way onto a system. Without realizing it, an employee may click a seemingly harmless link that installs malware on their device.

When one of these malware applications shows up on a desktop or in a directory, it avoids suspicion because the user assumes the app has always been there. However, a nefarious actor with access to the endpoint can deploy the malware, find valuable data and take it hostage. When a legitimate user tries to access the compromised data, a message appears demanding ransom and threatening to expose sensitive data online if they dont pay.

If you are unlucky enough to see such a message, it means your data is compromised. Your company should prepare to go down a long and expensive path of assessing the damage, weighing the options, managing the crisis and possibly sourcing the funds to pay the ransom. The negative impact of these actions is evident in ransom fees and consulting costs. Even if you pay the ransom, the decrypting program from the cyber extortionist might be painfully slow and prolong the time your business is offline, your mission is put on hold and your market reputation is damaged. In the best-case scenario, you have a robust data backup and restore capability, but disaster recovery is neither instantaneous nor 100% successful.

Encryption at every level is crucial. But if native encryption is weak, criminals can decrypt it with their own tools or ones they rent on the dark web (in the burgeoning and convenient Ransomware-as-a-Service marketplace). They can exfiltrate the data and in addition to halting your own business operations they can threaten to make sensitive data public and charge more for its safe return. So even if you can restore your business operations on your own, you still risk submitting to extortion to prevent public exposure of your data or stop it from being sold to the highest bidder.

In-line administrative tools, such as those native to a specific database, offer access controls. However, they generally dont include allowlisting and are limited in system and database coverage. Application allowlisting and granular policy-based access controls delivered by an enterprise solution are configured so that only authorized users and processes can read or write data. Those policies should be applicable across platforms to eliminate inconsistencies and gaps.

With mature application allowlisting capabilities, you have the power to specify which users and processes have the authority to access specific data resources. The result is that ransomware cannot read or write to protected files because the process signatures will not pass the control point that only allows authorized and known processes to access the data.

In other words, the malware will not be able to maliciously encrypt the underlying data, even if they know where it exists.

Sensitive data should, ideally, already be encrypted. That way even if malicious actors steal and exfiltrate the files, they are rendered useless as the criminals cannot decrypt them in a useful timeframe (or at all, if the encryption and key protection are strong). In other words, unreadable data has close to zero market value.

Allowlisting and encryption are indeed powerful, but you might be asking about the administrative and performance overhead. Administration is ideally done through a single management console that can span heterogeneous databases and system environments. This allows trained operators to apply policy consistently across the enterprise.

A modern data encryption solution should not incur significant performance overhead to protect files at this level and will lower processing impact by only decrypting data for authorized users and processes. No changes to applications or workflows should be necessary. If your current tool cant do this, it might be time to search for an alternative.

An added benefit of enforcing a high level of granularity is the improvement youll find in governance. Role-based access control improves your separation of duties posture, and detailed access logs will delight internal and external auditors.

A modern data security solution, such as IBM Security Guardium Data Encryption, will be able to enable policy creation based on multiple criteria more than just user ID and process. For example, policies can also include the specific resource being accessed, the type of action being performed (read, write, delete, etc.) and the time window permitted.

A key part of modern data security is knowing where your sensitive data resides and which users and processes or applications should have access to it. A repeatable data discovery and classification competency is mandatory. Once you have this knowledge, allowlisting becomes simple: apply allowlists by knowing your approved process and systems and block everything else by default. This may create the occasional oversight, but they should be the exception. In addition, your data security and administration team will be far less burdened with triage and remediation, which makes those oversights easy to address.

Some modern data security products can also have a learn mode enabled during deployment that can observe all processes that access encrypted files on a regular basis. That observed data can then be used as criteria to identify the trusted processes to add to the allowlist. With that control in place, any new process requesting access can be considered an exception and go through a change control process with the proper checks and balances.

A point-in-time intrusion detection or identification of a single compromised credential might just be a bump in the road for sophisticated cyber criminals, and they will not relent. The bottom line is that organizations need controls, technologies and trained personnel that address every link in the ransomware attack chain. Persistent, adaptable competencies focused on protection, like allowlisting and smart access controls, can provide the necessary defenses when other controls fail. When combined with encryption at all levels, they can provide you with defense in depth that is especially useful at the end of the attack chain.

Theres some satisfaction in knowing that if cyber criminals do penetrate defenses, the chamber holding the proverbial crown jewels will be empty.

Product Marketing Manager, IBM Security

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Silicon Valley startup SandboxAQ hired to beef up US military cyber security – The Economic Times

Artificial intelligence and quantum computing startup SandboxAQ on Tuesday said it has won a U.S. government contract for military cyber security in a deal that includes Microsoft and Deloitte & Touche as subcontractors. The contract is with the Defense Information Systems Agency which provides global communications infrastructure for the Department of Defense, the Silicon Valley firm said. SandboxAQ, which spun off from Alphabet last year, offers software that can scan systems and identify and replace encryption algorithms that can be broken with current technology and techniques or will likely be broken in the near term, SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary told Reuters. Researchers expect quantum computers to eventually be able to break today's encryption algorithms, and new cryptography techniques designed to withstand quantum computers have been introduced to prevent hackers from gathering encrypted data to decrypt in the future. "It's a great milestone for our company," Hidary said. "We needed additional complementary skill sets in our consortium. We turned to Deloitte and Microsoft as our subcontractors."

Microsoft is able to provide the infrastructure platform needed for deploying software to large organizations such as the Department of Defense and Deloitte has in-person services that can implement changes.

Earlier this year, SandboxAQ won a contract with the U.S. Air Force to research quantum navigation technology which could serve as an alternative to the Global Positioning System (GPS), which can be jammed.

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Silicon Valley startup SandboxAQ hired to beef up US military cyber security - The Economic Times

Signal: Here’s what Apple has to say on UK law opposed by … – Times of India

"At Apple, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right," the company said in an announcement while talking about new privacy features on the App Store earlier this month. And rightly so. The iPhone maker has joined WhatsApp and Signal in opposing the Uk's Online Safety Bill that could give powers to the regulators to allow scanning of encrypted messaging platforms like iMessage, WhatsApp and Signal for child abuse material.According to a report in BBC, Apple's stand comes as 80 organisations and tech experts have written to the UK's technology minister Chloe Smith to rethink the powers that the bill grants to the Office of Communications (or Ofcom)."End-to-end encryption is a critical capability that protects the privacy of journalists, human rights activists, and diplomats. It also helps everyday citizens defend themselves from surveillance, identity theft, fraud, and data breaches," Apple was quoted as saying. End-to-end encryption restricts anyone - even the company offering the service - except the sender and recipient to read the message."The Online Safety Bill poses a serious threat to this protection, and could put UK citizens at greater risk," the company said, adding that the bill should be amended to protect encryption."Apple urges the government to amend the bill to protect strong end-to-end encryption for the benefit of all," the company noted.The UK government's takeThe UK government, the Police, and some high-profile child protection charities argue that the end-to-end encryption prevents the authorities "and the firms themselves" from identifying the sharing of child sexual abuse material."Tech companies have a moral duty to ensure they are not blinding themselves and law enforcement to the unprecedented levels of child sexual abuse on their platforms," the government has previously said. Both WhatsApp and Signal have opposed the Bill in the past. A letter signed by Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp at Meta; Meredith Whittaker, president at Signal; and representatives from Threema, Element, Wire and Session apps was shared on Twitter back in April.In March, Cathcart said the company would rather be blocked in the UK than to weaken the privacy of encrypted messages under the Online Safety Bill, if asked by the government.Signal chief has also threatened that it could stop providing services in the UK if the bill required it to scan messages.

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5 Ways to Make Your Instant Messaging More Secure – Wired.co.uk

The actual number of chat messages sent each day is hard to come by, but with WhatsApp alone accounting for billions of users, you can imagine the sheer volume of ongoing conversations.

Not all of those messages involve anything particularly sensitive or private, but a lot of them doand you dont want those chats to be seen by anyone other than the intended recipients.

Good messaging hygiene might involve changing apps or tweaking a setting, but its important that you dont neglect it. These five recommendations can get you started.

Switch to End-to-End Encryption

When instant messenger chats are end-to-end encrypted, theyre essentially turned into impenetrable blocks of data. Only the devices of the person (or people) youre chatting with have the codes to unlock that data, which ensures no one else can read your messages while theyre in transit.

Not even the developers behind the software youre using can unlock that data, so if an unscrupulous employee wanted to take a peek at your chats, they wouldnt be able to. If law enforcement requested copies of the conversations, there wouldnt be anything useful to hand over to them.

Some instant messengers use end-to-end encryption, but not all of them do. End-to-end encryption is deployed by default for Signal, WhatsApp (for personal chats,) iMessage, and Google Messages (with RCS enabled.) Its also available as an option on Facebook Messenger and Telegram. If youre using anything else, check the providers policies and consider switching to something more secure.

Facebook Messenger lets you set messages to disappear.

Turn On Disappearing Messages

We mentioned that Facebook Messenger has the option of end-to-end encryption: To enable it, you need to make a conversation secret by tapping the info (i) button at the top of a chat in the mobile app, then choosing Go to secret conversation.

Once youre in that secret conversation, another feature becomes available: Disappearing messages. Tap the info button again and pick Disappearing messages, then choose how long messages should stick around after being read. This way of tidying up after yourself protects you against someone reading through your chats if they gain access to them or physical access to your device.

Facebook Messenger isnt the only app that offers this functionality: You can also find disappearing messages in WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram, among others. On iPhones, you can delete older conversations in the Messages app after choosing Messages and Keep Messages from Settings.

Lock Individual Conversations

To avoid an unwelcome visitor gaining access to your phone and all of your chats, one of the best things you can do is lock some or all of those chats behind a passcode or other locklike the protection on your phones lock screen.

WhatsApp makes this simple. You can lock the entire app via the Privacy menu in the app settings, or you can lock individual chats: Open the chat, tap the conversation name at the top of the screen, and then pick Chat lock. The options here will depend on the options on your phone (such as fingerprint lock and face recognition).

Other apps offer the ability to lock all of your chats, including Signal, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram, though for the moment the option to lock individual conversations is exclusive to WhatsApp.

Check Your Contact Options

Most instant messenger and social media apps let you control which other users are allowed to follow you, send friendship requests, communicate with you via direct messages, and so on. Tightening up these settings is another way to limit your exposure to the wider world and maximize the security of your chats.

Take Telegram, for example. Head to Privacy and Security in Settings, and you can control who is allowed to see your online status, your profile photo, the groups and channels youre in, and more. Other apps have similar options, so make sure you know what they are and what they do.

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5 Ways to Make Your Instant Messaging More Secure - Wired.co.uk

The Team Behind NextGen ATSC 3.0 OTA TV Explains Why DRM is Needed For Free OTA TV – Cord Cutters News

Over the last month, there has been a lot of talk about DRM in free over-the-air TV with the new ATSC 3.0 standard. Several companies, including Comcast, have started to encrypt TV stations they own that are broadcasting on the NextGen TV standard.

One of the features of ATSC 3.0 Nextgen TV is the ability to add content protection. This encryption prevents recording or even viewing of the stations unless you have a device with the right DRM. Sadly for most cord cutters there are only a couple of these devices on the market that do support this encryption, and most ATSC 3.0 tuners right now do not support it right now.

The good news is the older ATSC 3.0 tuners on the market without the encryption will soon get upgraded to support the DRM.

So why have encryption for free OTA TV that you get with an antenna? Anne Schelle recently wrote a letter explaining the need for DRM to help protect free OTA TV.

Here is how NextGen TV Descries the need for encryption of free OTA TV with ATSC 3.0 in a release sent to Cord Cutters News:

Developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard features vastly superior performance for broadcasters and viewers alike, and it also integrates technologies common in the telecommunications and internet industries. Along with improved reception, interactivity and advanced emergency information capability comes a security mechanism to prevent disruptions and content theft.

While pay-TV services like cable and satellite have been protected networks for some time, the reality is that nearly every website uses a seamless signing and authentication process to ensure consumers get what theyre expecting and hackers are kept out. Now, over-the-air TV broadcasting will finally have enhanced security just like many websites.

This security upgrade for television broadcasters is important since unprotected signals can easily be intercepted, deep faked and redistributed without permission. Courts have shut down these illegal schemes but it took years and cost the industry millions. Preventing this problem in advance can be accomplished with the essential security protocols and capabilities inherent in ATSC 3.0. Broadcasters must plan to take advantage of these capabilities to protect their signals and their content. These security safeguards will keep hacking and unauthorized redistribution at bay while giving consumers better pictures and enhanced audio.

Thankfully, the security layer already included in NEXTGEN TV is being enabled now and is supported by all of the television manufacturers selling NEXTGEN TV-certified receivers. The first upgrade accessory device, an ADTH receiver powered by certified Tolka software, is the first of several to win the NEXTGEN TV certification mark. Details for the consumer products can be found atWatchNextGenTV.com. The new security protocols are managed by the ATSC 3.0 security authority, A3SA.

With ATSC 3.0, broadcasters have access to layered security. This includes end-to-end encryption and secure delivery protocols, much like HTTPS that secures our internet browsing. Implementing these technologies makes the broadcast data resistant to spoofing or hijacking, making hijacking incidents much less likely. These technologies are invisible to the consumer, who simply tunes a channel like before to enjoy favorite shows.

While the enhanced security of ATSC 3.0 is a significant advantage for broadcasters, viewers can also reap substantial benefits by gaining easy access to great content that is distributed over-the-air for free. Along with a free broadcast rides an invisible layer of security.

If you are responsible for an ATSC 3.0 Host Station, then you are the first line of defense for keeping out the bad actors by ensuring then your transmission is encrypted and secure. Enabling security is the first step in preventing the theft of a broadcasters high-value content and delivering to viewers the free over-the-air TV they want to enjoy.

Over the next year, more TVs and new tuners with the ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV tuners with DRM support will hit the market. Soon the DRM problem wont be here, but for now, it is a problem we will have to continue to work through.

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The Team Behind NextGen ATSC 3.0 OTA TV Explains Why DRM is Needed For Free OTA TV - Cord Cutters News

SSL/TLS Encryption: The Key to Safeguarding Your Online Identity – CityLife

SSL/TLS Encryption: The Key to Safeguarding Your Online Identity

In todays digital age, the internet has become an indispensable part of our daily lives. From online shopping to social networking, we rely on the internet for a myriad of activities. However, with the increasing number of cyber threats, safeguarding our online identity has become a pressing concern. One of the most effective ways to protect our online presence is through SSL/TLS encryption.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) are cryptographic protocols designed to provide secure communication over a computer network. These protocols ensure that the data transmitted between a users browser and a websites server remains private and secure. SSL/TLS encryption has become the de facto standard for securing online transactions and protecting sensitive information from eavesdropping, tampering, and forgery.

The primary function of SSL/TLS encryption is to authenticate the identity of a website and ensure that the data exchanged between the user and the website is encrypted. This is achieved through a process called the SSL/TLS handshake, which involves the exchange of digital certificates between the users browser and the websites server. The digital certificates serve as proof of identity and help establish a secure connection between the two parties.

Once the SSL/TLS handshake is complete, the users browser and the websites server establish a secure communication channel using symmetric encryption. This means that the same encryption key is used to both encrypt and decrypt the data being transmitted. The use of symmetric encryption ensures that the data remains secure, as only the parties involved in the communication have access to the encryption key.

In addition to providing secure communication, SSL/TLS encryption also plays a crucial role in maintaining the integrity of the data being transmitted. This is achieved through the use of message authentication codes (MACs), which are cryptographic functions that ensure the data has not been tampered with during transmission. The use of MACs helps protect against data manipulation and forgery, ensuring that the information received by the user is genuine and unaltered.

SSL/TLS encryption has become an essential component of online security, with its implementation being mandated by various industry standards and regulations. For instance, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requires all websites that handle credit card information to have SSL/TLS encryption in place. Similarly, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandates the use of SSL/TLS encryption for the transmission of electronic protected health information.

The widespread adoption of SSL/TLS encryption has also led to the development of various tools and resources that help users identify secure websites. One such tool is the padlock icon displayed in the address bar of a users browser, which indicates that the website has a valid SSL/TLS certificate and that the connection is secure. Users are advised to look for this padlock icon and the https:// prefix in the websites URL before submitting any sensitive information online.

In conclusion, SSL/TLS encryption plays a vital role in safeguarding our online identity and ensuring the privacy and security of our digital transactions. By implementing SSL/TLS encryption, website owners can protect their users sensitive information from cyber threats and build trust with their customers. As users, it is our responsibility to be vigilant and ensure that we only interact with secure websites that employ SSL/TLS encryption. By doing so, we can significantly reduce the risk of falling victim to cyber-attacks and safeguard our online identity.

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SSL/TLS Encryption: The Key to Safeguarding Your Online Identity - CityLife

Acrosser Leverages Intel for Encryption-Intensive Workloads at the … – Embedded Computing Design

By Chad Cox

Production Editor

Embedded Computing Design

June 22, 2023

News

Acrosser designed a 2U rackmount edge network appliance powered by dual Intel 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable Processors (Intel code name Ice Lake-SP). The ANR-C621A1 leverages Intel Crypto Acceleration to protect data and privacy by boosting the capacity of encryption-intensive workloads including SSL web serving, 5G infrastructure, and VPN/firewalls. The technology also reduces the execution impact of pervasive encryption.

Intels SGX secures data and application script utilized from edge to data center, and multi-tenant public cloud. This feature is perfect for UTM, SD-WAN, 5G MEC, and IT/OT Cybersecurity. Up to 16 DDR4 RDIMM channels and a maximum memory capacity of 512 GB with error-correctingcode (ECC) shields the environment from concealed data corruption, mitigates crashes, and enhances performance for cybersecurity environments.

To simplify expansion network slots, 8 high-speed networking interfaces module (NIM) are included such as, 8 copper 1GbE LAN ports, 8 SFP+ Fiber 10 GbE LAN ports, up to 66 LAN ports.

The performance, flexibility, and security of the ANR-C621A1 is ideal for cloud-scale computing, AI, 5G networks, HPC workloads, and multi-access edge computing (MEC) applications. "The uCPE enables the use of a single platform for various functions, including routing, VPN, firewall, IPS/IDS, SD-WAN, UTM and IT/OT cybersecurity. Acrosser's ANR-C621A1 is an ideal NFV-ready uCPE solution that offers faster and easier service provisioning, centralized control, and improved flexibility with software-defined security," said Alan Chou, Head of Product Planning Division.

For more information, visit acrosser.com.

Chad Cox. Production Editor, Embedded Computing Design, has responsibilities that include handling the news cycle, newsletters, social media, and advertising. Chad graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a B.A. in Cultural and Analytical Literature.

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The Benefits of SSL/TLS Encryption for Small Businesses – CityLife

The Benefits of SSL/TLS Encryption for Small Businesses

In todays digital age, the security of online transactions and communications is of paramount importance for businesses of all sizes. Small businesses, in particular, need to be aware of the risks associated with data breaches and cyberattacks, as they can have devastating consequences for both their reputation and bottom line. One of the most effective ways to protect sensitive information and ensure the privacy of online interactions is through the use of SSL/TLS encryption. This article will explore the benefits of SSL/TLS encryption for small businesses and why it should be considered a crucial component of any comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) are cryptographic protocols designed to provide secure communication over a computer network. They work by encrypting the data that is transmitted between a users browser and a websites server, ensuring that any intercepted information is unreadable by unauthorized parties. This is particularly important for websites that handle sensitive data, such as financial information, personal details, or login credentials.

One of the primary benefits of SSL/TLS encryption for small businesses is the increased trust and confidence it can instill in customers. When a website has an SSL/TLS certificate, it displays a padlock icon in the browsers address bar, indicating that the connection is secure. This visual cue can be crucial in reassuring customers that their data is being handled responsibly and securely, making them more likely to engage with the business and complete transactions. In an increasingly competitive online marketplace, building trust with customers is essential for small businesses looking to establish themselves and grow.

Another significant advantage of SSL/TLS encryption is its role in improving search engine rankings. Google, for example, has made it clear that websites with SSL/TLS encryption will be given preference in search results, as part of their ongoing efforts to promote a safer and more secure internet. For small businesses looking to increase their online visibility and attract new customers, investing in SSL/TLS encryption can be a cost-effective way to achieve better search engine rankings and drive more traffic to their website.

In addition to building trust with customers and improving search engine rankings, SSL/TLS encryption can also help small businesses comply with industry regulations and data protection laws. Many industries, such as healthcare and finance, have strict requirements regarding the handling and storage of sensitive data. Implementing SSL/TLS encryption can help small businesses demonstrate their commitment to data security and ensure they are meeting their legal obligations.

Finally, SSL/TLS encryption can also protect small businesses from the financial and reputational damage associated with data breaches. Cyberattacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and small businesses are often seen as easy targets due to their limited resources and cybersecurity measures. By encrypting sensitive data, small businesses can significantly reduce the risk of a successful cyberattack and the potential fallout that could follow.

In conclusion, SSL/TLS encryption offers numerous benefits for small businesses, from building trust with customers and improving search engine rankings to ensuring compliance with industry regulations and protecting against data breaches. As the digital landscape continues to evolve and the threat of cyberattacks grows, it is essential for small businesses to prioritize their cybersecurity efforts and invest in robust measures such as SSL/TLS encryption. By doing so, they can safeguard their valuable data, maintain customer trust, and ultimately, secure their future success in an increasingly competitive online marketplace.

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The Benefits of SSL/TLS Encryption for Small Businesses - CityLife