Encryption standard stumbles
by Tom • February 14, 2012 • Science & Technology • 0 Comments
If encryption, the backbone of Internet security, has flaws then we are all in big trouble. Apparently, there’s a problem with the random prime numbers used to generate the encryption keys. Seems like I remember from Computer Science 101 that “random” numbers generated by a software program have a hard time being truly random, but maybe today’s algorithms are better. Nonetheless, the bad guys now know there is a problem. From the NY Times:
Technology
By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: February 14, 2012
A study of a widely used security system for Internet shopping, banking and other services showed that it failed to work correctly in a small number of cases.
