crypto

The interesting thing about Bitcoin isn't what it is today. What's interesting is that this experiment is turning into a serious proving ground for the idea of "crypto-currency," digitally created currency protected by powerful cryptography.

Crypto-currency is traceable, more portable than paper money, and harder to steal. If the Bitcoin experiment proves successful, how soon will a government or other regime develop, back, and distribute crypto-currency as a true alternative currency?

My money, paper or virtual, says that day is coming.

A particularly evolved regime could officially back a crypto-currency, issue some basic standards and regulations … Read more

Allegations that the FBI surreptitiously placed a back door into the OpenBSD operating system have alarmed the computer security community, prompting calls for an audit of the source code and claims that the charges must be a hoax.

The report surfaced in e-mail made public yesterday from a former government contractor, who alleged that he worked with the FBI to implement "a number of back doors" in OpenBSD, which has a reputation for high security and is used in some commercial products.

Gregory Perry, the former chief technologist at the now-defunct contractor Network Security Technology, or NETSEC, said … Read more

Although many people keep valuables or sensitive information in a safe or locked filing cabinet, people aren't always so careful with what's on their computers. CryptoExpert Lite makes it easy to create the electronic equivalent of a safe, giving users a secure place to store sensitive documents of all sorts.

The program's interface is fairly intuitive and easy to navigate. It's split into three panes that let users navigate to drives, folders, and individual files. To create a new encrypted drive image file, simply click New, and the program opens a wizard that walks you through … Read more

LAS VEGAS -- A researcher released software at the Black Hat conference on Thursday designed to let people test whether their calls on mobile phones can be eavesdropped on.

The public availability of the software - dubbed Airprobe -- means that anyone with the right hardware can snoop on other peoples' calls unless the target telecom provider has deployed a patch that was standardized about two years ago by the GSMA, the trade association representing GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) providers, including AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S.

Most telecom providers have not patched their systems, … Read more

We all have secrets, but growing problems like identity theft put a premium on cybersecurity. Safety need not be costly, though: Encryption programs such as CryptoForge can help you protect your stuff. CryptoForge can encode your files and messages in up to four algorithms, which are strong enough protection to let you store items on unsecured media such as the flash drives and memory sticks and send things safely over the Internet. It has a built-in file shredder that does much more than delete files and folders, too.

CryptoForge's installation wizard speeds the setup process. The 30-day trial version … Read more

CryptoHeaven is an encryption utility optimized for secure Internet communication. You can use it to send secure and anonymous e-mail and instant messages, post safely and privately in online chatrooms and forums, and safely store, share, and distribute files online. It offers both free and premium individual and multiuser encryption services and the latest encryption technology, such as no third-party keyholders and algorithms that basically take longer than the age of the universe to break.

Downloading and installing CryptoHeaven is easy, and so is signing up for a free account. The odd nag screen extols the advantages of the full … Read more

It's never too early to know your organs of state. To this end, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is hosting what it calls the Intelligence Agency Community Kids' Page.

The page offers roughly a dozen links to U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agency sites, where children can learn about the institutional layout and various skill sets of each department.

For example, the NSA offers a primer on cryptology, led by a collection of trademarked characters like Crypto Cat and Decipher Dog. Youngsters can race through timed puzzles and try their hand at photo analysis with … Read more

CryptoExpert Profressional is another entry in the saturated file encryption market. Despite several visits to its Help file, we still had problems navigating its confusing user interface.

The program can be accessed from a Taskbar icon. The user interface has large command buttons at the top of the window that appeared easy enough to understand, but after further inspection, we found them unhelpful in telling us what to do next. A tree-menu containing all of your folders resides on the far left. But the function of the other two panels was a little unclear. We visited the Help file, but … Read more

As the need for greater security grows--even for home users--finding intuitive but robust solutions becomes more important. R-Crypto Disk Security fits the bill nicely for the average user. This nicely designed app provides encryption on the fly as you save data, and decryption as you open data, by creating password-protected virtual storage disks.

R-Crypto Disk Security launches a handsome interface that clearly means business, but is easy to navigate. Its features are clearly defined by the task categories listed in the navigation bar on the left and the large function pane on the right side of its window. Setting up … Read more