Comment There WAS a bidding process, and a protest (Score 1) 67
You seem to be making some incorrect assumptions. There was a bidding process. Amazon's bid was selected over IBM's. IBM did protest. They lost.
Comment Careful about the name of the island (Score 1) 108
"... Caribbean island of Sint Maarten with a new .sx domain name. 'Control of the island ... is split between France and the Netherlands."
Yes, the island is split into French and Dutch parts. The Dutch part is called Sint Maarten and the French part is called Saint-Martin. The respective residents may use those names for the island as a whole as well, just to be confusing; English speakers call the island Saint Martin. I believe the TLD .sx is officially assigned specifically to the Dutch dependency of Sint Maarten, not the island as a whole; the French dependency ISPs apparently uses .fr or .gp (from nearby Guadeloupe). Also, Sint Maarten (the Dutch entity, not the island) used to be part of the Netherlands Antilles, which recently dissolved, and so may be using its .an TLD...
Comment Summary is even stupider (Score 2) 326
"to allow states to tax online sales to residents outside their state" is exactly backwards! The taxing would, if directed by the state, apply to sales to residents _in_ that state. The writer probably confused "sales by vendors outside the state" with "sales to residents outside the state" for some bizarre reason.
Comment You need to opt-out via snail mail (Score 1) 2
Paypal provided a mail address for sending your opt-out requests. However, the Consumerist website notes that requests have been rejected for being ill-formatted, so they provide a link to Public Citizen's template letter.
Submission + - Everyday Cryptography
benrothke writes: "Untitled documentol{margin:0;padding:0}.c5{max-width:468pt;background-color:#ffffff;padding:72pt 72pt 72pt 72pt}.c0{text-align:justify;direction:ltr}.c2{color:#1155cc;text-decoration:underline}.c3{color:inherit;text-decoration:inherit}.c4{font-style:italic}.c1{font-size:12pt}.title{padding-top:24pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#000000;font-size:36pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:bold;padding-bottom:6pt}.subtitle{padding-top:18pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666666;font-style:italic;font-size:24pt;font-family:"Georgia";padding-bottom:4pt}li{color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Arial"}p{color:#000000;font-size:11pt;margin:0;font-family:"Arial"}h1{padding-top:24pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#000000;font-size:18pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:bold;padding-bottom:6pt}h2{padding-top:18pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#000000;font-size:14pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:bold;padding-bottom:4pt}h3{padding-top:14pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666666;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:bold;padding-bottom:4pt}h4{padding-top:12pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666666;font-style:italic;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Arial";padding-bottom:2pt}h5{padding-top:11pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666666;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:bold;padding-bottom:2pt}h6{padding-top:10pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666666;font-style:italic;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial";padding-bottom:2pt}
When Bruce Schneier first published Applied Cryptographyin 1994, it was a watershed event, given that is was one of the first comprehensive texts on the topic that existed outside of the military.
In the nearly 20 years since the book came out, a lot has changed in the world of encryption and cryptography. A number of books have been written to fill that gap and Everyday Cryptography: Fundamental Principles and Applicationsis one of them that have recently been published.
While the title Everyday Cryptographymay give the impression that this is an introductory text; that is not the case. Author Keith Martin is the director of the information security group at Royal Holloway, a division of the University of London, and the book is meant for information security professionals in addition to being used as a main reference for a principles of cryptography course. The book is also a great reference for those studying for the CISSP exam.
While the book notes that almost no prior knowledge of mathematics is required since the book deliberately avoids the details of the mathematical techniques underpinning cryptographic mechanisms. That might be a bit of a misnomer as the book does get into the mathematics of cryptography. While the mathematics in the book is not overwhelming, they are certainly not underwhelming. For those that want a deeper look, the book includes an appendix for many of the mathematical concepts detailed in the book.
Two benefits of the book are that it stresses practical aspects of cryptography and real-world scenarios. The mathematics detailed avoids number throaty with a focus on practicability. It also shows how cryptography is used as the underlying technology behind information security, rather than simply focusing on the abstracts of the potential of cryptography.
With that, the books 13 (made up of 4 parts) chapters provide a comprehensive overview of the theory and practice around all as aspects of contemporary cryptography. Each of the chapters end with a summary, detailed lists of items for further reading, and sets of penetration questions that challenge the reader. Readers are advised to spend time on these questions as it is often easy for the reader to feel that they understand the material. The questions can quickly humble the reader and show them that it may not be the case.
Part 1 is titled Setting the Sceneand provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental of cryptography. Chapter 1 (freely available here) details the basic principles about cryptography and provides a high-level introduction.
Chapter 2 provides a good overview of the history of cryptography. It details a number of obsolete, yet historically relevant ciphers, such as the Vigenère cipher from the 1500's, to the Playfair cipher from the mid-1800's and others. Martin provides a good overview of the cryptanalysis of the Vigenère cipher and lessons learned from it.
Chapters 4-9 comprise part 2, and provide a thorough overview of the various forms of encryption (symmetric and asymmetric) and digital signatures. This section gets into some of the deeper mathematics of cryptography. While the author states that almost no prior knowledge of mathematics is needed; those without a background will surely be confused by some of the material.
Chapter 7 closes with a good overview of the relationship between digital signatures and handwritten signatures. The author notes the importance of resisting any temptation to consider digital signatures as a direct electronic equivalentof handwritten signatures. He then provides a detailed outline of the environmental, security, practical and flexibility differences between them.
Key management is one of the most important aspects of cryptography and often the most difficult to execute on. Part of the difficulty around key management is at the user level, with key updates, passphrase management and more. Ultimately, effective key management is essential to the underlying security of the cryptosystem. The 2 chapters in part 3 provide a thorough synopsis of the fundamentals of key management.
Part 4 closes the book with two chapters on practical cryptographic applications. Chapter 12 details how cryptography can be used on the internet, secure payment cards, video broadcasting and more.
The book concludes with an appendix on the mathematics of cryptography, which takes a look at the basic mathematical concepts the underlie some of the material in the book.
This book is not for the fainthearted and is not an introductory text on the topic. It is meant for the advanced reader or someone taking a college level course. For such a reader serious about a significant overview of the essentials on the topic, Everyday Cryptography: Fundamental Principles and Applicationsis an excellent reference.
Ben Rothkeis the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know."
When Bruce Schneier first published Applied Cryptographyin 1994, it was a watershed event, given that is was one of the first comprehensive texts on the topic that existed outside of the military.
In the nearly 20 years since the book came out, a lot has changed in the world of encryption and cryptography. A number of books have been written to fill that gap and Everyday Cryptography: Fundamental Principles and Applicationsis one of them that have recently been published.
While the title Everyday Cryptographymay give the impression that this is an introductory text; that is not the case. Author Keith Martin is the director of the information security group at Royal Holloway, a division of the University of London, and the book is meant for information security professionals in addition to being used as a main reference for a principles of cryptography course. The book is also a great reference for those studying for the CISSP exam.
While the book notes that almost no prior knowledge of mathematics is required since the book deliberately avoids the details of the mathematical techniques underpinning cryptographic mechanisms. That might be a bit of a misnomer as the book does get into the mathematics of cryptography. While the mathematics in the book is not overwhelming, they are certainly not underwhelming. For those that want a deeper look, the book includes an appendix for many of the mathematical concepts detailed in the book.
Two benefits of the book are that it stresses practical aspects of cryptography and real-world scenarios. The mathematics detailed avoids number throaty with a focus on practicability. It also shows how cryptography is used as the underlying technology behind information security, rather than simply focusing on the abstracts of the potential of cryptography.
With that, the books 13 (made up of 4 parts) chapters provide a comprehensive overview of the theory and practice around all as aspects of contemporary cryptography. Each of the chapters end with a summary, detailed lists of items for further reading, and sets of penetration questions that challenge the reader. Readers are advised to spend time on these questions as it is often easy for the reader to feel that they understand the material. The questions can quickly humble the reader and show them that it may not be the case.
Part 1 is titled Setting the Sceneand provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental of cryptography. Chapter 1 (freely available here) details the basic principles about cryptography and provides a high-level introduction.
Chapter 2 provides a good overview of the history of cryptography. It details a number of obsolete, yet historically relevant ciphers, such as the Vigenère cipher from the 1500's, to the Playfair cipher from the mid-1800's and others. Martin provides a good overview of the cryptanalysis of the Vigenère cipher and lessons learned from it.
Chapters 4-9 comprise part 2, and provide a thorough overview of the various forms of encryption (symmetric and asymmetric) and digital signatures. This section gets into some of the deeper mathematics of cryptography. While the author states that almost no prior knowledge of mathematics is needed; those without a background will surely be confused by some of the material.
Chapter 7 closes with a good overview of the relationship between digital signatures and handwritten signatures. The author notes the importance of resisting any temptation to consider digital signatures as a direct electronic equivalentof handwritten signatures. He then provides a detailed outline of the environmental, security, practical and flexibility differences between them.
Key management is one of the most important aspects of cryptography and often the most difficult to execute on. Part of the difficulty around key management is at the user level, with key updates, passphrase management and more. Ultimately, effective key management is essential to the underlying security of the cryptosystem. The 2 chapters in part 3 provide a thorough synopsis of the fundamentals of key management.
Part 4 closes the book with two chapters on practical cryptographic applications. Chapter 12 details how cryptography can be used on the internet, secure payment cards, video broadcasting and more.
The book concludes with an appendix on the mathematics of cryptography, which takes a look at the basic mathematical concepts the underlie some of the material in the book.
This book is not for the fainthearted and is not an introductory text on the topic. It is meant for the advanced reader or someone taking a college level course. For such a reader serious about a significant overview of the essentials on the topic, Everyday Cryptography: Fundamental Principles and Applicationsis an excellent reference.
Ben Rothkeis the author of Computer Security: 20 Things Every Employee Should Know."
Comment Re:2027? 2045? (Score 1) 159
Romaji should be very easy to pronounce correctly (barring the "r"), but Americans manage to severely mangle it anyway. "karaoke" is pronounced as written "ka-ra-o-ke", not "carry okie". And, along the same lines, I should note that "shinkansen" is not pronounced "...-sane"; it's pronounced as written: "...-sen", as in "hen" or "yen".
Comment Re:The patent-filer Dan Abelow lists his phone num (Score 1) 229
On his web site http://abelow.com/ can be found his phone number, which correlates to:
To quote TFS: "... Dan Abelow, who sold his extensive portfolio of patents to holding firm Lodsys in 2004. Lodsys is indeed the company issuing the threats of a lawsuit regarding the patent in question." So, seems like your beef is with Lodsys, not Abelow, no? Unless you want to harass him for filing a patent that probably shouldn't have been granted, in which case you should be harassing practically every tech company.
Comment 24 combinations, not 24 rooms (Score 3, Informative) 178
Headline is wrong, but to be fair TFA's is as well. It's not 24 rooms, it's 24 room combinations (each consisting of between 4 and 6 rooms as far as I can tell from the diagrams).
Comment TFA's DMCA response seems wrong (Score 1) 250
Ok, so there's some confusion as to whether there really was a DMCA notice, and whether such notice was (would have been?) valid. Quite aside from that, I am puzzled about the notice response quoted in TFA. Basically, the responder says the material is non-infringing because it has a copyright notice allowing copying/modification/etc. But the existence of such a notice does not in any way guarantee that someone else does not have a legitimate claim of infringement, right? Which is not to say that DropBox has one, just that this does not seem to be a valid argument that they don't.
Comment Re:Over 60,000? (Score 1) 139
I took that to mean that his Wikipedia editing constituted research into "peer review", not that he did original research into the topic of the Wikipedia articles.
Comment YACR (Yet Another Continuing Resolution) (Score 1) 385
FTFA: "To keep the government running through Friday, lawmakers approved a short-term spending measure overnight — the Senate at 12:20 a.m. and the House at 12:40 a.m. — and said the final agreement should be approved next week."
In other words, there's a good chance we'll be repeating the whole scenario in another week. Again.
I picture our fearless leaders in a meeting:
A: Let's extend the deadline another week again.
B: Yeah! That way, we can continue to remind everyone each and every week just how dysfunctional we are!
Comment Re:It's much worse than that (Score 1) 159
True. But I figured that aspect of the problem had already been covered adequately, and didn't want to people to miss the point I was trying to make by including it here.
Comment Re:It's much worse than that (Score 1) 159
According to the article and summary, the problem only affects people that haven't changed their password "in a while". It's not clear when that cutoff date was.
Comment It's much worse than that (Score 5, Interesting) 159
Wired seems to have missed the biggest problem, which was pointed out on reddit: the 8-character limit works both ways! If you set your password to be, say, "Password_8463!", as far as Amazon is concerned you just set it to the rather less secure "Password".
Comment Re: too helpful? (Score 1) 270
If I only needed to do so once in a while, it might be OK. But when it happens dozens of times a day, the aggravation and wasted time start to add up. Coincidentally, I just posted a complaint about this to the Google Search forum a couple days ago, asking for a profile setting to prevent this behavior.
Oh, and I agree about the domain blocking. Google used to allow this, and they really ticked me off when they took it away. The -site: hack becomes rather cumbersome when there are dozens if not hundreds of sites you want to block.
