Why is this still a thing? There is no such thing as encryption only law enforcers can bypass. The math and computer science on this is pretty well settled, not to mention the terrifying unintended consequences that would be unleashed should the FBI should get its wish. Thankfully, EFF is still on top of this, as Kurt Opsahl does the usual solid analysis taking this to task and taking it apart.
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Category: News
Congress invites key players to net neutrality hearing
Far too early to guess how this may play out. Should it lead to new legislation, for good or for ill, the back and forth at the FCC will effectively be ended. That means the stakes are pretty high. No idea if the fact it is a Republican calling for this discussion means their agenda would more likely inform any outcome, plus there are some very strong neutrality supporters among them, in particular Wyden and Issa.
Incredibly detailed history of notional crypto users, Alice and Bob
Not surprising that they originate from an RSA paper on public key cryptography. This site has way more than the early history, though, explaining how the set of notional actors has been expanded and adopted in other example narratives.
MIT working to make custom chips for AI more attractive for mobile
This reminds me of other research I’ve read about over the years to add other kinds of custom processors into the many core mix that is now prevalent even on mobile devices. This story isn’t even about creating a custom chip for neural networks but improving their power efficiency to make them more adoptable on phones.
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Unix predecessor resurrected in a simulator
Literally living history. Multics was was a critical antecedent to Unix and an early touchstone of hacker history.
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Thorough primer on threat modeling
Sean Gallagher at Ars does an admirable job of breaking down a security topic, threat modeling, that doesn’t get much attention outside of research and professional circles. This piece is a long read but well worth it, both to understand the tecnique and for all the references and practical advice.
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W3C pushes forward DRM standard despite all objections
The cementing of DRM as a core web standard is terrible. Worse is how shamefully the W3C acted, ignoring and overruling all objections to produce this outcome.
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Let’s Encrypt to offer wildcard certificates for free
After only a year with a paid authority, I gladly switched to the free and open certificate authority that EFF helped stand up. I haven’t minded having to enter multiple alternative names on my certificate every time I renew (which is evert 90 days, a security feature of Let’s Encrypt.) Wildcards make an already fantastic resource that much better. Read More …
Copyright Office recommends permanently legalizing right to repair
Jason Koebler’s write up at Motherboard explains that the Copyright Office is essentially tired of granting the same exemption to the DMCA’s anti-circumvention clause for the right to repair locked down devices. If adopted, this would be a substantial win for copyright reform and suggests that the increasing activity in petitions for exemptions every three years could lead to further permanent reforms. Here’s to hoping.
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Building quantum registers from imperfect crystals
Chris Lee at Ars explains some new research that could fill in a critical piece needed for a practical quantum computer, a way of storing multiple qubits similar to a register in a classical computer so more sophisticated computation and communication can be realized. Lee does his usual excellent job of making what can be a pretty opaque topic very readable, especially how this likely informs future applications.
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