Tag Archive for: scientific

Scientific advance leads to a new tool in the fight against hackers


Scientific advance leads to a new tool in the fight against hackers
Using the laws of quantum physics, the researchers developed a new security protocol that uses a person’s geographical location to guarantee that they are communicating with the right person. Position-based quantum encryption, as it is called, can be used to ensure that a person is speaking with an actual bank representative when the bank calls and asks a customer to make changes to their account. This is an artistic representation of the security protocol. Credit: Alex Bols, University of Copenhagen, The Quantum for Life Centre.

A new form of security identification could soon see the light of day and help us protect our data from hackers and cybercriminals. Quantum mathematicians at the University of Copenhagen have solved a mathematical riddle that allows for a person’s geographical location to be used as a personal ID that is secure against even the most advanced cyber attacks.

People have used codes and encryption to protect information from falling into the wrong hands for thousands of years. Today, encryption is widely used to protect our digital activity from hackers and cybercriminals who assume false identities and exploit the internet and our increasing number of digital devices to steal from us.

As such, there is an ever-growing need for new security measures to detect hackers posing as our banks or other trusted institutions. Within this realm, researchers from the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Mathematical Sciences have just made a giant leap.

“There is a constant battle in cryptography between those who want to protect information and those seeking to crack it. New security keys are being developed and later broken and so the cycle continues. Until, that is, a completely different type of key has been found,” says Professor Matthias Christandl.

For nearly twenty years, researchers around the world have been trying to solve the riddle of how to securely determine a person’s geographical location and use it as a secure ID. Until now, this had not been possible by way of…

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Here’s What a Cyber Warfare Arsenal Might Look Like – Scientific American


Scientific American

Here's What a Cyber Warfare Arsenal Might Look Like
Scientific American
The Pentagon has made clear in recent weeks that cyber warfare is no longer just a futuristic threat—it is now a real one. U.S. government agency and industry computer systems are already embroiled in a number of nasty cyber warfare campaigns against …
Is cyberwarfare really that scary?BBC News

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Heartbleed Shows Government Must Lead on Internet Security – Scientific American


Scientific American

Heartbleed Shows Government Must Lead on Internet Security
Scientific American
SA Forum is an invited essay from experts on topical issues in science and technology. Heartbleed is the most serious Internet security flaw yet. For about two years, two thirds of Web sites were susceptible to having their memory extracted by remote …
Heartbleed bug reveals major Internet security flaw and puts data at riskThe Huntsville Times – al.com
Hot Topic: Internet Security Threat Potentially Touches All Who 'Surf the Web'News from Rutgers
Flaw places Internet security at riskSan Jose Mercury News
ProPublica
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Thousands of scientific papers uploaded to the Pirate Bay (Janko Roettgers/GigaOM)

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Thousands of scientific papers uploaded to the Pirate Bay  —  A user called Greg Maxwell just uploaded a torrent with 18,592 scientific publications to the Pirate Bay, in what appears to be a protest directed both at the recent indictment of programmer Aaron Swartz for data theft as well as the scientific publishing model in general.

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