'Cryptopalypse' Now: Looming Security Crisis Could Cripple Internet

[Guest]

The Internet, and many forms of online commerce and communication that depend on it, may be on the brink of a "cryptopalypse" resulting from the collapse of decades-old methods of shared encryption.The result would be "almost total failure of trust in t

'Cryptopalypse' Now: Looming Security Crisis Could Cripple Internet : Read more

 

[memadmax]

Fear monger...
A new encryption method is just 5 minutes and a patch away >_>
Seriously...

 

[ddpruitt]

Once mathematicians crack an encryption algorithm, the presenters said, it isn't long before security researchers and hackers apply the breakthroughs to the real world. (Such academic work, the presenters pointed out, quickly rendered useless the MD5 one-way encryption algorithm a few years ago.)

Sensationalist article pure and simple. People have claimed that they are on the "verge" of cracking these and similar types of algorithms since the 70s yet here we are. There's a reason they're fundamental concepts are part of the millennium problems. As for MD5 it's not encryption strictly speaking, it's a one way hash. And it was know that it had vulnerabilities and wasn't usable just a few years after it was created. There's no reason to worry until someone figures out how to factor large numbers in NP time.

"Diffie-Hellman and RSA are here and they are easily understood," the researchers said.

Which is why they're in widespread use. Since ECC is patent encumbered and hasn't been thoroughly researched we don't if it has any weaknesses. Just because the NSA uses it doesn't mean it's secure, there's a reason they're the largest employer of mathematicians. On the other hand people look at RSA all the time. See above.

 

[LePhuronn]

Hey BlackBerry! Short on cash? Selling up? Why not make a fortune licensing your ECC to everybody then!

Seriously though, this is a fairly scaremongering article. Yes, encryption methods should always be improved and developed, but I don't see the entire world falling over in seconds IF (and that's a very big IF) Diffie-Hellman and RSA get cracked and real-time exploits make it into the wild.

 

[capt_taco]

I wonder if one day, we'll stop having a solid month of end-of-the-world articles every time they hold the Black Hat conference. They have it every year, people.