Security

Quantum Cryptography

Classical cryptography provides security based on unproven mathematical assumptions and depends on the technology available to an eavesdropper. But, these things might not be enough in the near future to guarantee cyber security. We need something that provides unconditional security. We need quantum cryptography.

Encrypting Your Cat Photos

The truth is, I really don't have anything on my hard drive that I would be upset over someone seeing. I have some cat photos. I have a few text files with ideas for future books and/or short stories, and a couple half-written starts to NaNoWriMo novels. It would be easy to say that there's no point encrypting my hard drive, because I have nothing to hide.

More Secure SSH Connections

If you need remote access to a machine, you'll probably use SSH, and for a good reason. The secure shell protocol uses modern cryptography methods to provide privacy and confidentiality, even over an unsecured, unsafe network, such as the Internet.

DNSSEC Part I: the Concepts

Like IPv6, DNSSEC is one of those great forward-looking protocols that unfortunately hasn't seen wide adoption yet. Before I implemented it myself, I could see why. Although some people think BIND itself is difficult to set up, DNSSEC adds an extra layer of keys, key management and a slew of additional DNS records.

Web Administration Scripts

During the past month or so, I've also been dealing with an aggressive DDOS (that's a "distributed denial of service") attack on my server, one that's been a huge pain, as you might expect. What's odd is that with multiple domains on the same server, it's one of my less-popular sites that seems to have been the target of the attacks.

Surf Safely with sshuttle

In past articles, I've explained how to set up a SOCKS proxy with SSH. I've demonstrated how to tunnel traffic with SSH. I've even shown how to circumvent a company firewall with SSH. I've never been able to use SSH completely as a VPN, however, and that's always bummed me out—until I discovered sshuttle.

Government: Using an Open Source Framework to Catch the Bad Guy

Every security policy provides guidance and requirements for ensuring adequate protection of information and data, as well as high-level technical and administrative security requirements for a system in a given environment. Traditionally, providing security for a system focuses on the confidentiality of the information on it.

Elliptic Curve Cryptography

When it comes to public key cryptography, most systems today are still stuck in the 1970s. On December 14, 1977, two events occurred that would change the world: Paramount Pictures released Saturday Night Fever, and MIT filed the patent for RSA.

Configuring One-Time Password Authentication with OTPW

Password authentication contains a lot of assumptions about security and trust. Encrypted SSH tunnels and public key verification are two common ways to ensure that your password is not compromised in transit. But, what if it's the computer you're currently typing on that can't be trusted?

Crashplan, the Only Reason I Install Java

I'm the sort of person who doesn't like to install Java. I actually don't like to install Flash either, but it's still tough to survive browsing the Internet without Flash installed. There is one program that makes me break my own rules, however, and that's Crashplan.

January 2013 Issue of Linux Journal: Security

Sticky Note of Doom Years ago, I had the brilliant idea that all my users in the finance department should have complex passwords. This made perfect sense to everyone, since dealing with millions of dollars of revenue is something that should be secured. So, the passwords were changed with complexity requirements enforced. I slept better that night knowing our paychecks were no longer secured by passwords like "mustang" or "mrwhiskers".

Tarsnap: On-line Backups for the Truly Paranoid

Storing backups in the cloud requires a level of trust that not everyone is willing to give. While the convenience and low cost of automated, off-site backups is very compelling, the reality of putting personal data in the hands of complete strangers will never sit quite right with some people.

KeePassX: Keeping Your Passwords Safe

For a long time, my password tracking system was quite simplistic: hope I remembered the right passwords for each site or record them in an ordinary word-processor document. Such methods obviously have great flaws. I might have a hard time remembering a password for an infrequently used site, and a word-processor document isn't the most secure place to store passwords.