Category Archives: Encryption
Video end-to-end encryption on Ring to be available worldwide – ITP.net
Ring, the Amazon-owned home security and smart home company, announced that it is moving video end-to-end encryption out of technical preview stage and expanding the features availability to customers around the world.
By default, Ring already encrypts customer videos when they are uploaded to the cloud (in transit) and stored on Rings servers (at rest). Now, customers with eligible Ring devices, can opt into video end-to-end encryption, to add an extra layer of security that only allows their videos to be viewed on their enrolled mobile device.
This advanced security option is simple to set up via the Control Centre in the Ring App, and offers additional peace of mind and protection.
In a blog post, Josh Roth, CTO, Ring, said: Were always looking at how we can continue to innovate for our customers, and security and privacy sit at the core of that. We build privacy and security into the process - designing our devices and services with these pillars front of mind, while putting our customers in control.
Earlier this year, we announced a technical preview of in the US. Today, were proud to announce that we're moving it out of technical preview and expanding the feature's availability to customers around the world. We believe that our customers should control who sees their videos.
We are always looking at ways to empower our customers with greater choice when it comes to their privacy and security, without compromising convenience. This week, we are rolling out a range of features that do just that.
Ring customers can choose a compatible authenticator app, in addition to existing methods like SMS, as their second method of verification when logging into their Ring accounts. The company is also starting to roll out CAPTCHA in the Ring App and Neighbors App as another safeguard that helps prevent automated login attempts from bad actors, providing yet another layer of security.
Ring will also be launching a new, automated self-service process to allow customers to securely and conveniently transfer ownership of used Ring devices without having to make a call to Customer Support. Now, the new device owner can simply scan the device during setup, and follow the instructions on the Ring App, which will also alert the previous owner.
This process ensures that all videos and events from the previous owners account are no longer linked to the device before the ownership is transferred to the new customer.
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Video end-to-end encryption on Ring to be available worldwide - ITP.net
What is a Vocoder? How an audio encryption device used in WW2 became the sound of electro and modern pop – Mixdown
Words by Sam McNiece
From their humble beginnings as a way of condensing the human voice for transmission through cables underseas, the vocoder has had a long and storied history which included use in World War Two as a form of cryptography before it made Kraftwerk and Bambaataa sound like futuristic robots and spur on the creativity of millions. Lets dive into the vocoder, how it works, what it does, and how its been used in pop and electro music today.
The vocoder was invented in the 1930s by Homer Dudley of Bell Labs, as a means of compressing the human voice into something more easily transmittable to conserve bandwidth. The basic idea behind his work was to separate the human voice before it was sent through telephone lines so it could be reconstructed when it reached the intended destination.
During World War Two, the use of a vocoder was taken to the next level as Bell Labs were enlisted to provide a speech-encoding technology to encrypt Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelts conversations. Utilising this technology, only the envelopes of specific bandwidths were sent after they had been encoded by a secret record, and had to be reconstructed at the receiving end by vocoder experts, utilising the same record to decode the speech. The vocoder provided a way for signals to be transmitted without a need for codewords as the sheer amount of equipment required to reproduce the transmitted signals was enough to fill a room; the SIGSALY devices weighed over 55 tons a piece!
In laymans terms, a vocoder encodes or synthesises human speech, hence the term vocoder (voice encoder). An input signal of your choosing is named the carrier and another audio signal youre going to manipulate it with is called a modulator. Resonant band pass filters are set at specific frequency intervals by the modulator which the carrier signal activates, shaping frequency bands through the envelope of that specific frequency band.
For instance when you say but, the b sound is quite low in frequency and will activate the lower frequency bands and pronouncing the t sound will result in mid-high frequency bands being activated. You can imagine the low frequency bands reproducing more tonal sounds and higher frequency bands producing consonants and sibilance.
In music, typically a synthesiser is used as the modulator (more specifically an open sawtooth sound with short attack and a long decay) and a voice as the carrier. This creates that classic robot voice heard over countless track from Daft Punk to Herbie Hancock by making the voice have similar timbral qualities to a synthesiser while maintaining its amplitude and formants.
There were early uses of the vocoder in music by Bell Labs but none appeared to penetrate the mainstream or serve as anything other than an advertisement of what their product could do.
It wasnt until Wendy Carlos utilised a spectrum follower in her Moog rig, which is inherently the same technology as the modern vocoder, on Stanley Kubricks A Clockwork Orange, that it hit the mainstream. It is regarded as the first time a vocoder had been used in a widely successful release. The cover of Beethovens Ninth Symphony set the tone for electronic music for years to come, albeit after a short hiatus.
No doubt, the electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk had been influenced by this revelation in technology, first utilising their customised vocoder onAutobahn,which marked one of the first uses of the technology on vocals. This record was a landmark for many reasons and the vocoder was a staple from this point on throughout their incredible discography.
Throughout the late 70s, the vocoder was used by a few acts, including Herbie Hancock on his record Sunlight.Herbie, who definitely has been an early adopter of music technology, perhaps from his Jazz upbringing, created quite a tacky record inSunlight, but none the less laid a foundation for other artists to come through and produce full records with vocoder lines in place of the human voice.
Fast forward a couple years and Afrika Bambaataa sampled the legends Kraftwerk on potentially the best electro record ever, Planet Rock. The vocoder action on this record was actually performed by the recording engineer, stealing a vocal line from The Strikers, and it displayed to the hip hop and funk heads what the future of those genres would be, electronic.
Fast forward to the 90s and newer electro music was bubbling in the underground of Detroit as a consequence of their funk and techno backgrounds. Artists such as Aux 88, Underground Resistance and the legendary Drexciya and all their side projects utilised vocoders to hide their identity, sound otherworldly, or in Drexciyas case, harness their underwater aesthetic.
After this influence on underground electro, the effect was clear, vocoders were here to stay. Looking forward in electro, Anthony Rother is among the top users of the vocoder, using it in his recorded music and in live performances. Check this video below for a masterclass on vocoder use.
The vocoder was used by a large swathe of musicians aiming for a futuristic sound which today may actually sound dated in certain genres. That hasnt stopped modern pop producers using modern advanced vocoders on their records as well as vintage units. Products such as the free TAL Vocoder and Abletons built in Vocoder stay true to the original hardware units allowing some flexibility but producing relatively similar results to what youd expect from 80s vocoders.
Vocoders become extremely enticing once you reach further developments in their technology, including vocoder plugins, VocalSynth 2 by iZotope and OVox by Waves. These two plugins allow the human voice to function more like a synthesiser than having to be shaped by one. They combine synthesis into a vocoder and add FX to become all in one machines, which you can hear across various pop modern pop records alongside pitch correction software.
You dont have to look far to see tracks like Pony by Ginuwine and its iconic yeah, yeah, yeah, which forms the backbone of the whole track. Imogen Heaps Hide and Seek transforms her vocal performance into a full ensemble through the use of the vocoder among other vocal effects. And how could this be a discussion about vocoders without talking about Kanye Wests incredible Vocoder solo on his nine minute epic Runaway.
Without the amount of money invested into research by Bell Labs, its unsure if wed have the vocoder today, in all its funky and transformative vocal modulation. We as musicians and listeners to music have them to thank as I personally cant imagine where pop and electro would be if it werent for the humble vocoder.
If you found this article interesting, check out this video by Doctor Mix playing 10 famous songs on a vocoder.
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What is a Vocoder? How an audio encryption device used in WW2 became the sound of electro and modern pop - Mixdown
Privacera partners with StreamSets to strengthen data security for ETL processing in the cloud – Help Net Security
Privacera announced a technology partnership with StreamSets. This new integration ensures joint customers data is secured whether accessing it for data processing, or migrating it from on-premises data repositories to the cloud.
When moving to the cloud or preparing for ETL (extract, transform, and load) processing, data is often sourced from a myriad of applications and systems. These systems are often managed and operated by different employees across the organization who all require varying degrees of access to different datasets based on their roles, responsibilities, or analytical needs.
When data teams access data to build data integration pipelines, sensitive data within those disparate systems and files must be encrypted to protect it throughout all stages of the ETL process to prevent misuse by unauthorized users and to avoid privacy or compliance violations.
Privacera provides StreamSets users powerful column-level encryption to ensure sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information (PII), Payment Card Information (PCI), or Protected Health Information (PHI), is secured end-to-end throughout the ETL process. Whether data is at rest or in flight, Privacera enables customers to safeguard against unauthorized use and ensure compliance with stringent privacy regulations like CCPA, GDPR, LGPD, HIPAA, and more.
The combination of Privacera and StreamSets enables our customers to accelerate digital transformation by providing a centralized solution for data integration and governance across the open cloud no matter where data resides, said Vincent Goveas, Director of Product Management at Privacera.
Privacera Encryption Gateway (PEG) is a robust, scalable API gateway that extends Apache Rangers Key Management Services (KMS) and policy engine to offer precise policy-based encryption and decryption schemes for fine-grained, column-level data protection. StreamSets users can define how to encrypt sensitive data using various schemes, enabling them to encrypt whole elements or selected parts of a field. PEG automatically finds the scheme mappings and encrypts either entire elements in bulk, or encrypts all the relevant content from sensitive fields, as specified in the schemes.
As companies aim to deliver continuous data, StreamSets and Privacera keep pace with our joint customers needs by providing a seamless, centralized data integration and governance solution that secures data across multi- or hybrid-cloud architectures, said Mary Berg, VP of Worldwide Business Development at StreamSets.
The StreamSets DataOps platform is the multi-cloud DataOps platform for modern data integration, helping enterprises to manage data drift, frequent and unexpected changes to upstream data that break pipelines and damage data integrity.
With Privaceras integrated encryption and decryption capabilities, more data is made accessible to a greater number of StreamSets data engineers without risking exposure of sensitive elements. This accelerates secure, efficient data analysis and provides safe democratization of data across various business units, so enterprises can save time and resources when performing data analytics.
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Privacera partners with StreamSets to strengthen data security for ETL processing in the cloud - Help Net Security
R400m cocaine-in-a-boat accused used encryption app to communicate – TimesLIVE
The investigating officer said if released on bail, the suspects would likely try to dispose of evidence.
There is evidence out there. There are exhibits out there that we are tracking and some of the accused have knowledge of where the evidence is. The first thing they would do is to dispose of that.
Investigations were ongoing and at a sensitive stage, he said.
The investigating officer told the court bail conditions would not make a difference as bail money meant nothing to the suspects.
It will not be in the interests of justice to grant the accused bail.
It also emerged in court that Norman was allegedly part of the management of a syndicate.
It was determined he is part of the management structures of the syndicate. He together with accused four [Rashied Baderoen], were in Gauteng and were monitoring the load that was being moved. We identified them when they were going to meet their lawyer, who was also in possession of an encrypted device, he said.
He told the court the state had a strong case and said the evidence against Rashied was overwhelming.
The bail application continues.
During the court proceedings on Tuesday, the investigating officer gave the court background on how the suspects were linked to the cocaine bust and subsequently arrested.
He said the five men were linked through the encrypted cellphones, created by the FBI to monitor criminal syndicates.
I received the information together with the information received from Australian federal police (AFP). The information was related to a syndicate operating internationally as well as in SA in relation to drugs, in particular cocaine.
The syndicate members would make use of encrypted devices known as Anom. The FBI in 2018 created these devices with the assistance of criminals they had arrested. These criminals assisted the FBI in creating a platform as well as a platform for these devices to operate from or through. From 2018 the FBI was listening to encrypted conversations and communications from criminals across the world, he said.
He said they were able to use the Anom devices' GPS and physical surveillance to link the accused to the devices.
The accused were communicating at some stage, he said.
There were communications about a meeting between Norman, Rashied and De Kock to discuss what went wrong after the drug bust and how information was leaked. There were communications where it was specifically mentioned that they must change their operation style as they might get caught.
The investigating officer said De Kock was in constant communication with members of the syndicates.
The investigating officer said a normal person cannot buy such a device from a shop.
The accused have gone to great lengths to conceal their identities. A typical cost for a device like this would range from R15,000 to R25,000. The device comes with a handle name so you will not have to expose your identity, he said.
He said on June 2 from the information received from a source, surveillance was conducted at a premises in Kyalami, Gauteng, that Van Zyl was renting.
He said Van Zyl left the property in a bakkie towing a ski boat.
Van Zyl was later arrested on the N1 near Pretoria on 2 June after being found in possession of a large quantity of cocaine.
He had four cellphones in the vehicle, of which I suspect one is the Anom device. This will be verified by the FBI.
He said it was extremely difficult to arrest the suspects and it was a timely process.
The investigating officer said if released on bail, the suspects would likely try to dispose of evidence.
There is evidence out there. There are exhibits out there that we are tracking and some of the accused know where the evidence is.
He said no bail conditions would be a deterrent to the accused as they have access to funds and the means to relocate.
For them to disappear is very easy. This is definitely part of a syndicate with involvement in Europe and in Australia there are other role players. It's an international matter. We have an extremely strong case against all accused in court, he said.
The matter was postponed to October 15, 18 and 19 for continuation of the bail applications.
TimesLIVE
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R400m cocaine-in-a-boat accused used encryption app to communicate - TimesLIVE
Evervaults encryption as a service is now open access – TechCrunch
Dublin-based Evervault, a developer-focused security startup which sells encryption via API and is backed by a raft of big name investors including the likes of Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins and Index Ventures, is coming out of closed beta today announcing open access to its encryption engine.
The startup says some 3,000 developers are on its waitlist to kick the tyres of its encryption engine, which it calls E3.
Among dozens of companies in its closed preview are drone delivery firm Manna, fintech startup Okra and health tech company Vital. Evervault says its targeting its tools at developers at companies with a core business need to collect and process four types of data: identity & contact data; financial & transaction data; health & medical data; and intellectual property.
The first suite of products it offers on E3 are called Relay and Cages; the former providing a new way for developers to encrypt and decrypt data as it passes in and out of apps; the latter offering a secure method using trusted execution environments running on AWS to process encrypted data by isolating the code that processes plaintext data from the rest of the developer stack.
Evervault is the first company to get a product deployed on Amazon Web Services Nitro Enclaves, per founder Shane Curran.
Nitro Enclaves are basically environments where you can run code and prove that the code thats running in the data itself is the code that youre meant to be running, he tells TechCrunch.We were the first production deployment of a product on AWS Nitro Enclaves so in terms of the people actually taking that approach were the only ones.
It shouldnt be news to anyone to say that data breaches continue to be a serious problem online. And unfortunately its sloppy security practices by app makers or even a total lack of attention to securing user data thats frequently to blame when plaintext data leaks or is improperly accessed.
Evervaults fix for this unfortunate feature of the app ecosystem is to make it super simple for developers to bake in encryption via an API taking the strain of tasks like managing encryption keys. (Integrate Evervault in 5 minutes by changing a DNS record and including our SDK, is the developer-enticing pitch on its website.)
At the high level what were doing is were really focusing on getting companies from [a position of] not approaching security and privacy from any perspective at all up and running with encryption so that they can actually, at the very least, start to implement the controls, says Curran.
One of the biggest problems that companies have these days is they basically collect data and the data sort of gets sprawled across both their implementation and their test sets as well. The benefit of encryption is that you know exactly when data was accessed and how it was accessed. So it just gives people a platform to see whats happening with the data and start implementing those controls themselves.
With C-suite executives paying increasing mind to the need to properly secure data thanks to years of horrific data breach scandals (andbreach dj vu), and also because of updated data protection laws like Europes General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which has beefed up penalties for lax security and data misuse a growing number of startups are now pitching services that promise to deliver data privacy, touting tools they claim will protect data while still enabling developers to extract useful intel.
Evervaults website also deploys the term data privacy which it tells us it defines to mean that no unauthorized party has access to plaintext user/customer data; users/customers and authorized developers have full control over who has access to data (including when and for what purpose); and, plaintext data breaches are ended. (So encrypted data could, in theory, still leak but the point is the information would remain protected as a result of still being robustly encrypted.)
Among a number of techniques being commercialized by startups in this space is homomorphic encryption a process that allows for analysis of encrypted data without the need to decrypt the data.
Evervaults first offering doesnt go that far although its encryption manifesto notes that its keeping a close eye on the technique. And Curran confirms it is likely to incorporate the approach in time. But he says its first focus has been to get E3 up and running with an offering that can help a broad swathe of developers.
Fully homomorphic [encryption] is great. The biggest challenge if youre targeting software developers who are building normal services its very hard to build general purpose applications on top of it. So we take another approach which is basically using trusted execution environments. And we worked with the Amazon Web Services team on being their first production deployment of their new product called Nitro Enclaves, he tells TechCrunch.
The bigger focus for us is less about the underlying technology itself and its more about taking what the best security practices are for companies that are already investing heavily in this and just making them accessible to average developers who dont even know how encryption works, Curran continues. Thats where we get the biggest nuance of Evervault versus some of these others privacy and security companies we build for developers who dont normally think about security when theyre building things and try to build a great experience around that so its really just about bridging the gap between the start of art and bringing it to average developers.
Over time fully homomorphic encryption is probably a no-brainer for us but both in terms of performance and flexibility for your average developer to get up and running it didnt really make sense for us to build on it in its current form. But its something were looking into. Were really looking at whats coming out of academia and if we can fit it in there. But in the meantime its all this trusted execution environment, he adds.
Curran suggests Evervaults main competitor at this point is open-source encryption libraries so basically developers opting to do the encryption piece themselves. Hence its zeroing in on the service aspect of its offering; taking on encryption management tasks so developers dont have to, while also reducing their security risk by ensuring they dont have to touch data in the clear.
When were looking at those sort of developers whore already starting to think about doing it themselves the biggest differentiator with Evervault is, firstly the speed of integration, but more importantly its the management of encrypted data itself, Curran suggests. With Evervault we manage the keys but we dont store any data and our customers store encrypted data but they dont store keys. So it means that even if they want to encrypt something with Evervault they never have all the data themselves in plaintext whereas with open-source encryption theyll have to have it at some point before they do the encryption. So thats really the base competitor that we see.
Obviously there are some other projects out there like Tim Berners-Lees Solid project and so on. But its not clear that theres anybody else taking the developer-experience focused approach to encryption specifically. Obviously theres a bunch of API security companies but encryption through an API is something we havent really come across in the past with customers, he adds.
While Evervaults current approach sees app makers data hosted in dedicated trusted execution environments running on AWS, the information still exists there as plaintext for now. But as encryption continues to evolve its possible to envisage a future where apps arent just encrypted by default (Evervaults stated mission is to encrypt the web) but where user data, once ingested and encrypted, never needs to be decrypted as all processing can be carried out on ciphertext.
Homomorphic encryption has unsurprisingly been called the holy grail of security and privacy and startups like Duality are busy chasing it. But the reality on the ground, online and in app stores remains a whole lot more rudimentary. So Evervault sees plenty of value in getting on with trying to raise the encryption bar more generally.
Curran also points out that plenty of developers arent actually doing much processing of the data they gather arguing therefore that caging plaintext data inside a trusted execution environment can thus abstract away a large part of the risk related to these sort of data flows anyway. The reality is most developers who are building software these days arent necessarily processing data themselves, he suggests. Theyre actually just sort of collecting it from their users and then sharing it with third-party APIs.
If you look at a startup building something with Stripe the credit card flows through their systems but it always ends up being passed on somewhere else. I think thats generally the direction that most startups are going these days. So you can trust the execution depending on the security of the silicon in an Amazon data center kind of makes the most sense.
On the regulatory side, the data protection story is a little more nuanced than the typical security startup spin.
While Europes GDPR certainly bakes security requirements into law, the flagship data protection regime also provides citizens with a suite of access rights attached to their personal data a key element thats often overlooked in developer-first discussions of data privacy.
Evervault concedes that data access rights havent been front of mind yet, with the teams initial focus being squarely on encryption. But Curran tells us it plans over time to roll out products that will simplify access rights as well.
In the future, Evervault will provide the following functionality: Encrypted data tagging (to, for example, time-lock data usage); programmatic role-based access (to, for example, prevent an employee seeing data in plaintext in a UI); and, programmatic compliance (e.g. data localization), he further notes on that.
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Evervaults encryption as a service is now open access - TechCrunch
How to Encrypt Your Own Windows and Mac Devices (and Why You Need To) – Lifehacker
Data encryption makes it nearly impossible for someone to access a protected file without the proper decryption key or password. Many apps use encryption to keep your data safe, including password managers, VPNs, and even some messaging appsbut you should be encrypting more than just the data you share online.
We all store important files and information on our computers and USB hard drives, and unless that data is properly secured, its an easy target for snoopers, thieves, and even hackers.
Luckily, there are multiple ways to quickly encrypt your Mac or Windows devices, so well go over each option available for both platformsthat way you can add an extra layer of security to every file, folder, and app stored on your computers and hard drives.
Mac computers include a built-in encryption tool called FileVault, and its available for all Mac users. You can use it to encrypt the Mac itself or add password protection to external USB drives.
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Windows PCs are a bit harder to encrypt. While Microsoft does offer encryption tools like Device encryption and BitLocker in most versions of Windows, theyre only available to enterprise users. Neither option is available to Windows Home users, who likely make up the majority of general Windows users out there.
Well go over how to use Device encryption and BitLocker for Windows enterprise users, but Windows Home users will want to skip down to learn about third-party options.
Not all PCs are equipped with the right hardware to enable Device encryption. However, Windows Enterprise users can also encrypt drives using Windows BitLocker.
BitLocker can also encrypt external USB drives:
Since device encryption and BitLocker are not available on Windows Home editions, most Windows users will need a third-party encryption app to protect their PCs and local hard drives. There are many solid choices out there, such as AxCrypt, Folder Lock, and NordCrypt, but most will cost you moneyusually around $30-$50 per year, depending on the products features.
Paying for that encryption is worth it, though, and most programs include bonuses like password ratings, two-factor authentication, and more.
Many of these programs also let you encrypt external USB storage devices. Some hard drive manufacturers, such as Seagate, also include proprietary encryption methods for their storage devices. The exact steps will differ between apps, but the general flow will be the same:
Regardless of which method you use, dont forget to securely store passwords (or other decryption methods) so you can always get back into your locked files, folders, and drives.
[Mashable]
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How to Encrypt Your Own Windows and Mac Devices (and Why You Need To) - Lifehacker
Why encryption is the key to digital fitness, according to Thales – iTnews
Image:Erick Reyes,Thales
Its hard to discuss digital fitness without examining the fundamentals that make it possible, and there's nothing more fundamental to digital success today than security.
But leaders face a conundrum: they need to deploy digital services quickly in response to changing market conditions and customer demands, in a way that doesnt open the door to cyber criminals.
Erick Reyes has worked with numerous organisations to keep their data safe. As the regional sales manager for Thales, Reyes does this by helping them adopt a new approach to data encryption that ensures their data is secure no matter where it is.
Why do you believe encryption is a fundamental part of an organisation's digital capability?
Encryption is one of the security tools that enables you to innovate with speed. It's like a high-performance car you wouldn't feel comfortable driving it fast safely it unless you knew that there's something you can leverage to stop you.
Organisations that we speak to today face previously unseen challenges brought on by disruptions in their markets and supply chains. Most of the time, these organisations have had to revisit and recalibrate some of their fundamental processes. More and more, to be successful means moving to the cloud, and all of a sudden you no longer have that safety net of a perimeter or a moat around where your crown jewels - your sensitive data - sits.
The way most organisations we speak to see that protection coming is through encryption. Being able to encrypt that data allows them to be more nimble in terms of innovation. But then the question is, how do I apply it without slowing my organisation down?
We've had encryption for decades though, so what's really changed to make it more important now?
Recently, we ran a data threat report that we compiled with 451 Research, which surveyed about 2,600 executives that highlighted an increase in adoption of cloud computing. But thats also introduced significant risks and security challenges. When organisations review what they're responsible for in the cloud shared security model, they find that they're ultimately responsible for the security of their data. But the challenge here is that their data resides outside their organisation's perimeter. So now they need to work out how to best protect this data, whilst ensuring that they maintain the performance needed by their organisation.
So how should an organisation go about embedding encryption into its innovation and development programs?
When we speak to organisations undertaking this security and digital journey, one of the key reasons why there is a lack of maturity with their data security approach is the complexity of managing legacy encryption technologies. Organisations typically employ five to 10 different management solutions. This is historical, as most technologies that they use include basic encryption mechanisms.
So what we're seeing with our discussions is a data security platform approach. Thales has a great tool called the CipherTrust Data Security Platform, which is allows organisations to reduce overhead, because you can manage all your encryption technologies from a single platform.
This ties into their existing infrastructure and in to native API calls. So this enables them to not only speed up, but to tie into the orchestration tools. And the developers are happy because suddenly security comes as they build. So the data security platform approach is fast evolving and provides organisations with a tool to enable their digital transformation with less complexity and without slowing down progress.
Can you give me an example of an organisation that's used encryption to accelerate its digital program?
Sure, we're currently working with a financial institution, where we've gone on the journey to leverage the CipherTrust platform as the foundation of their digital transformation strategy. The question was, how do we help secure their data without slowing down their digital strategy?
The challenges in their environment that we found were around reliability and performance. There were multiple encryption tools, which were negatively impacting the end users, developers and old applications. They had insufficient security controls and the native encryption tools in the databases were inadequate to meet compliance requirements and didn't give them the non-repudiation that they needed.
So when we started talking about designing and deploying a solution, the customer chose the CipherTrust Data Security Platform to secure sensitive data across the enterprise. This allowed them to lower overhead and simplify management, as the platforms console allowed them to apply more granular policies to provide that non-repudiation control they needed.
So how should security professionals go about convincing their colleagues to take this approach?
The conversation typically starts with compliance. When you start there, you're able to look at what their business really wants. This approach can help meet compliance requirements and build trust with customers. So start talking about how this platform approach can actually assist to meet business goals and ensure that security is on that critical path to compliance.
So how do you know when you have the right capabilities in your organisation?
When you start seeing that security is no longer holding you back from the objectives of your digital project you might find that your organisation doesnt have the necessary encryption experts. However you can always ask us we'll be happy to point you to the right direction. Ultimately, when you start seeing digital transformation accelerating or working without security hampering it, then you know you've got the right skill sets in place.
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Why encryption is the key to digital fitness, according to Thales - iTnews
How to check each of your WhatsApp chats are ACTUALLY private right now and not being intercepted by h… – The Sun
WHATSAPP is designed to be private but you need to make sure the encryption is actually working.
Encryption is a way to stop hackers from snooping on your messages in transit.
1
If an unencrypted message is read while being sent, it will be visible in plain text to a hacker.
But an encrypted message would be totally jumbled and impossible to translate.
WhatsApp makes it so that only the sender and recipient have the key to read the message.
And each new conversation with a different person will generate a different set of keys.
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"End-to-end encrypted chats have their own security code used to verify that the calls and the messages you send to that chat are end-to-end encrypted," said WhatsApp.
"This code can be found in the contact info screen, both as a QR code and a 60-digit number.
"These codes are unique to each chat and can be compared between people in each chat to verify that the messages you send to the chat are end-to-end encrypted.
"Security codes are just visible versions of the special key shared between you - and don't worry, it's not the actual key itself, that's always kept secret."
To verify end-to-end encryption, open your chat with someone and then tap on their name.
This will open the contact info screen, where you can then choose Encryption.
You'll be able to see a QR code and a 60-digit number.
If you're physically with the other person, one of you can scan the other's QR code.
Alternatively you can visually compare the number on screen.
If you use the scanning method, a green tick will appear to confirm encryption.
This "match" means no one can intercept your messages or calls.
If you're far away from someone, you could simply send them the 60-digit number to verify."
Chats that aren't encrypted could mean you're using a hacked version of WhatsApp, you're verifying wrong, a chat with a person isn't encrypted due to out of date software, or your phone has been compromised.
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Check out the wildly impressivePanasonic 65HZ1000 TV, which makes most tellies look rubbish.
Read our complete guide toCall of Duty 2021.
And Dell'sAlienware R10 Ryzen Editionis a gaming PC powerhouse that crushes both the new consoles.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk
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How to check each of your WhatsApp chats are ACTUALLY private right now and not being intercepted by h... - The Sun
WebCam: How Australia paved the way for Apple’s encryption backflip – Crikey
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Last week, Apple took a cue from Australia and backflipped on protecting its users privacy.
The worlds most popular phone maker shared plans to begin scanning for child pornography or sexually explicit material in messages sent by users over iMessage or uploaded to iCloud storage.
End-to-end encryption guarantees privacy because only the sender and recipient can read the information. It protects people from overbearing governments, nefarious hackers and companies who want to siphon every piece of data from their customers.
Boiled down, what Apple has proposed is a sophisticated way of seeing whats inside even end-to-end encrypted messages. And if this all sounds familiar, thats because Australia did it first.
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In 2018, the Morrison government passed world-first anti-encryption legislation that would force companies and individuals to break any protection they gave their users. Some cited the need to combat child sex abuse material as a reason for these powers.
At the time, my colleague Bernard Keane called these powers bureaucrat-designed malware. Early analysis suggests the law is costing us billions.
The critique of Australias law and Apples proposal is the same: even if your digital backdoor is used judiciously, its easy to ratchet it wider and for someone else to stroll on through.
Apple has to take the position of Im Not Like Those Other Tech Companies, Im A Cool Tech Company, billing itself as the anti-Google, anti-Facebook, pro-privacy company.
Famously, Apple rejected pressure from the FBI to unlock a phone belonging to one of the two perpetrators of the 2015 San Bernardino shooting. (Theres a link to Australia in this story: it was a small Australian firm that ended up unlocking the phone in 2016.) Apple argued at the time that it would be a slippery slope.
Critics of Apples decision are applying this same argument today: if Apple scans messages and uploads for child sex abuse material, why not for terrorist material? OK, maybe that argument is fine to you. What about when China tells Apple it has to scan certain political images, or prevent citizens from sending them?
Apple says it wont its policy only allows for child sex abuse material flagged in two countries to set off their systems but given its compromises with authoritarian China in the past, the idea of Apple conceding in some way to the regime isnt out of the question.
Others have taken note of this disregard for encryption too. A similar anti-encryption bill proposed in the US last year appears to have stalled, but a statement from the Five Eyes nations along with Japan and India shows that such powers are on their wanted lists as well.
While the world is catching up, Australia continues to set the pace. As part of the controversial Online Safety Act which comes into effect early 2022, the government has created a set of Basic Online Safety Expectations.
A draft of expectations outlines a requirement for large tech companies to take reasonable steps to develop and implement processes to detect and address material or activity on the service that is or may be unlawful or harmful, even for encrypted platforms. The eSafety Commissioner can fine companies more than $500,000 for failing to meet these expectations.
So to recap: three years ago, Australians could expect that messages sent to others would stay between them and the recipients. Today, were set to have a system that requires companies to create backdoors in every platform; a flaw just waiting to be abused.
The inside story: how homegrown true patriots sharing conspiracies on a Zoom call sparked police raids across three statesI wrote about how a plot was hatched over Telegram to overthrow the Australian government by a group that had declared themselves as the alternate Australian Federal Police. (Crikey)
Inside Racism HQ: How home-grown neo-Nazis are plotting a white revolutionNines Nick McKenzie and Joel Tozer deliver a blockbuster investigation into Australias most active neo-Nazi group. A must-read for seeing how hate continues to bubble on the fringes of Australian society. (Nine)
Journalist trolled by anti-vaxxers after promoting vaccine despite developing rare side effectDaily Telegraph journalist Georgia Clark suffered a rare side effect from a COVID-19 vaccine. When she restated her faith in vaccines, she was attacked by anti-vaxxers and conservatives from around the world. (SBS)
George Christensen is launching a patriotic news website modelled on the Drudge ReportWith the maverick MP set to retire from Parliament before the next election, a draft website discovered by The New Dailys Josh Butler shows one of the many irons that George Christensen has in the fire. Will it last longer than his abandoned website, newsletter and YouTube show? Time will tell. (The New Daily)
Australian conspiracy theorists and anti-lockdown groups share fake COVID check-in appsAnti-vaxxers have found a clever way to circumvent QR check ins: a fake app that actually sends their details to Russia. What could go wrong? (The Guardian)
Emojipedia, the internets encyclopedia for emojis, just got acquired by phone software company ZedgeI was not aware that the online encyclopedia for emojis was run by a company based in Australia! Its just been sold to phone software company Zedge (Business Insider).
This month marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Zyzz, a young man from Sydneys south west who found fame as a muscle-bound, meme-making online legend.
Zyzz real name Aziz Sergeyevich Shavershian first drew attention by sharing images of his transformation from a gangly teen into a shredded, jacked and tanned young man flexing at music festivals and goading other users on 4Chans fitness message board and the forum BodyBuilding.com. (Bodybuilders have long attracted the internets attention because of the natural magnetism of their extreme physiques.)
What Zyzz did with that attention cemented his status: he posted his way into creating a philosophy.
University of Canberra Professor Glen Fuller, who has written about Zyzz in the past, told me that Shavershian showed a preternatural understanding of memetic culture and an ability to perform as an online character.
Zyzz understood Zyzz wasnt a person or a quality. It was a trajectory, aspiring to transform the self. It resonated with blokes from south-western Sydney who didnt align with the dominant white male identity, he told me.
In a way, he was the proto-influencer and shitposter: before Instagram was even invented, he was posting photos and videos as if he was a celebrity caught by the paparazzi. He coined now-ubiquitous phrases u mirin, u jelly, aesthetic and poses. He performed different sides of himself for different formats: alpha male in his poses, self-aware joker winking at his audience in videos.
His tragic death from a heart attack aged just 22 while on holiday in Thailand cemented his status as a larger-than-life figure who was the patron saint of skinny boys who spent too long online.
A decade on from his death, there are literally dozens of Facebook pages, Instagram profiles and TikTok accounts around the world still actively sharing Zyzz content, ranging from grainy looking footage of his workouts to repurposing his iconic photos as meme templates a testament to the enduring quality of the Zyzz philosophy.
The admin of one such group, @thezyzzlegacy, is a 17-year-old from Italy named Alfonso. Despite being just seven years old when Zyzz died, Alonso says Zyzz inspired him to start bodybuilding at age 14.
When I asked him over WhatsApp why he was so fascinated with a long-dead Australian bodybuilder, Alfonso sent me a 500-word screed that quoted Zyzz liberally and waxed lyrically about his intelligence, self-awareness and dance moves.
Zyzz is not a person, Zyzz is a way of life, he said.
Read more:
WebCam: How Australia paved the way for Apple's encryption backflip - Crikey
Staggering 400% rise in child sexual abuse images detected by Facebook as fears over encryption plans g… – The Sun
FACEBOOK has revealed a staggering 400% rise in child abuse images detected on its app.
In the last three months, Facebook picked up more than 25million of these sick illegal images.
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That's a five-fold rise from the previous quarter highlighting the huge scale of the problem.
It's likely linked to the fact that Facebook has rolled out more advanced scanning tech to unearth child sexual abuse content.
That means more illegal content isn't necessarily being posted but may simply being detected more thoroughly.
In any case, it's a clear sign that paedophiles are still trying to flood the site with horrific and abusive content.
Andy Burrows, Head of Child Safety Online Policy at the NSPCC said: "We welcome platforms investing in new technology to identify and remove child abuse content," Andy Burrows, head of child safety online at the NSPCC, told The Sun.
"But its very concerning that such a staggering amount of this material has been found in just three months.
"It shows just how much Facebook is used by offenders.
"Its unclear if this increase is partly due to Facebook fixing technical issues that over the previous six months cut in half how much child abuse content it took down, or more concerningly, if it has been sitting on the site for even longer.
"This report raises more questions than answers and underlines the urgent need for transparency to be underpinned by regulation that ensures platforms are making every effort possible to disrupt child sexual abuse.
"And with such an alarming amount of child abuse identified, Facebook must quickly ensure they have technology in place to be able to continue identifying abuse in end-to-end encrypted environments before they roll out the feature across their services."
It comes as Facebook faces increased scrutiny over ongoing plans to encrypt communications on the app.
Encryption is mainly a defence against hackers, scrambling messages in transit.
That means only senders and recipients of a text, photo or video can see it and no one else.
Facebook already uses encryption on WhatsApp, which means hackers but also law enforcement can't see what's being sent.
And the firm recently encrypted video calls on Facebook Messenger.
The company is working on encrypted texts on Messenger and Instagram DMs.
But child safety experts have repeatedly warned that encryption will make it harder to root out paedophiles on Facebook platforms.
"End-to-end encryption is already the leading security technology used by many services to keep people safe from hackers and criminals," a Facebook spokesperson said.
"Its full rollout on our messaging services is a long-term project and we are building strong safety measures into our plans.
"We have led the industry in developing new ways to prevent, detect and respond to abuse and will continue to do so."
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Staggering 400% rise in child sexual abuse images detected by Facebook as fears over encryption plans g... - The Sun