Security

While we embrace the way the Internet of Things already is making our lives more streamlined and convenient, the cybersecurity risk posed by millions of wirelessly connected gadgets, devices and appliances remains a huge concern. Even single, targeted attacks can result in major damage; when cybercriminals control and manipulate several nodes in a network, the…

University of Toronto PhD student David Madras says many of today’s algorithms are good at making accurate predictions, but don’t know how to handle uncertainty well. If a badly calibrated algorithm makes the wrong decision, it’s usually very wrong. “A human user might understand a situation better than a computer, whether it’s information not available because it’s…

A new electronic security badge, offered through a new collaboration between Intel Corp. and Purdue University, will emphasize using secure design principles throughout the product development life cycle. The “Design for Security” badge will be based on a series of courses offered on Purdue’s campus and also online beginning in the fall of 2018. The…

The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky once postulated that the devil no longer uses fire and brimstone but instead simply tells you what you want to hear. Sandia National Laboratories cyber researchers go with that second option when it comes to foiling a hacker. Rather than simply blocking a discovered intruder, Vince Urias, Will Stout and…

As the U.S. electricity grid continues to modernize, it will mean things like better reliability and resilience, lower environmental impacts, greater integration of renewable energy, as well as new computing and communications technologies to monitor and manage the increasing number of devices that connect to the grid. However, that enhanced connectivity for grid operators and…

Forget fingerprint computer identification or retinal scanning. A University at Buffalo-led team has developed a computer security system using the dimensions of your heart as your identifier. The system uses low-level Doppler radar to measure your heart, and then continually monitors your heart to make sure no one else has stepped in to run your…

Researchers have developed a new type of light-enhancing optical cavity that is only 200 nanometers tall and 100 nanometers across. Their new nanoscale system represents a step toward brighter single-photon sources, which could help propel quantum-based encryption and a truly secure and future-proofed network. Quantum encryption techniques, which are seen as likely to be central…

In today’s digital world it can be challenging to prevent photos, videos and books from being illegally copied and distributed. A new light-based technique is making it more practical to create secure, invisible watermarks that can be used to detect and prosecute counterfeiting. “In our research, we use a complex pattern of light, or diffraction…

With over two-thirds of U.S. adults owning asmartphone, and the rise in miniaturized sensors and low-power body area networks that are used for remote health monitoring, mobile health (mHealth) is beginning to experience a boom. While the technology has the potential to increase healthcare quality, expand access to services, reduce costs, and improve personal wellness…

Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney believes the first atomic bomb of the cyberwarfare age has already been dropped. That bomb was Stuxnet, a computer virus that’s the subject of Gibney’s latest movie, “Zero Days.” Stuxnet disrupted an Iranian uranium-enrichment facility beginning in 2010 and set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Iran considers Stuxnet part of a…

By exploiting some peculiarities of the popular Web programming framework Ruby on Rails, MIT researchers have developed a system that can quickly comb through tens of thousands of lines of application code to find security flaws. In tests on 50 popular Web applications written using Ruby on Rails, the system found 23 previously undiagnosed security…

A group of scientists has developed a novel approach to the construction of quantum communication systems for secure data exchange. The experimental device based on the results of the research is capable of transmitting single-photon quantum signals across distances of 250 kilometers or more, which is on par with other cutting-edge analogs. The research paper…

Cloud-based security providers commonly use DNS redirection to protect customers’ Web sites. The success of this strategy depends on shielding the Web site’s original IP address. Computer scientists have now revealed that the IP address can be retrieved in more than 70 percent of the cases, meaning that the DNS redirection security mechanism can easily be…

A new method of implementing an ‘unbreakable’ quantum cryptographic system is able to transmit information at rates more than 10 times faster than previous attempts. Researchers have overcome one of the main issues in implementing a quantum cryptography system, raising the prospect of a useable method for sending sensitive information hidden inside particles of light.…

Cryptographic methods are typically created following the ad-hoc principle: somebody comes up with an algorithm; others attempt to break it — if they don’t succeed, it means that the algorithm is secure. The team headed by Prof. Dr. Eike Kiltz, who holds the Chair for Cryptography at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, opted for a different approach.…

With enough computing effort most contemporary security systems will be broken. But a research team at the University of Sydney has made a major breakthrough in generating single photons (light particles), as carriers of quantum information in security systems. The collaboration involving physicists at the Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), an…

Damaging cyberattacks on a global scale continue to surface every day. Some nations are better prepared than others to deal with online threats from criminals, terrorists and rogue nations.   Data-mining experts from the University of Maryland and Virginia Tech recently co-authored a book that ranked the vulnerability of 44 nations to cyberattacks. Lead author…

BOSTON (AP) — Students from MIT and Britain’s University of Cambridge will spend the weekend hacking one another’s computers, with the blessing of their national leaders. The two schools are competing in a hacking contest that U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron announced last year among other joint cybersecurity projects between…

Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Aalto University have found vulnerabilities in a recently proposed user-verification security system for computers. This new security system, developed by Dartmouth College researchers, was created in response to a need for easy-to-use systems that determine whether someone is, in fact, who he or she is declaring…