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Email Appending Erodes Privacy!
"Psssst! Hey buddy, check dis out over heeya. If ya give me yer database of customas' offline info, I'll give you email addresses to match! Waddaya say pal? $2 per name, awright?" That's how it might go down in a dark alley in privacy advocates'...
Incremental Outlook backup, file synchronization and Offline network in one solution
Mobiliti, Inc has announced the release of Network/Unplugged 5.0. Users have been using Network/Unplugged for backing up user files including open outlook pst files incrementally, synchronizing user data transparently over LAN, VPN, wireless or...
Risks of Desktop Software - part 1
November 21, 2004
The Risks of Desktop Security Software (Part 1)
By Tim Klemmer
CEO, OnceRed LLC
This is the second in a series of articles highlighting reasons why we need a new model for anti-virus and security solutions.
Reason #2: the...
Software Configuration Management... for the Technical Writer
Many software companies with which I've worked didn't have any type of process in place for tracking and managing their software. Usually two or three lead developers controlled the software. Everyone else had to work behind them to update or...
The 3 Minute Auction and Minute Auction Explained
Am I the only person who doesn't know what a 3 minute auction is? Looking for fresh content for my site, I discover that "minute auction," or even a 5, 10 and 30 minute auction is a popular item. Some auction sites may refer to a minute auction...
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Seecrets On Security: A Gentle Introduction To Cryptography
With the increasing incidence of identity thefts, credit card frauds, social engineering attacks, the digital world is facing challenges in the years ahead. Obviously, cryptography, a young science, will play a prominent role in the security of protecting digital assets. This article tries to explain the basics of cryptography (encryption) using plain language.
Let us take the example of scrambling an egg. First, crack the shell, pour the contents into a bowl and beat the contents vigorously until you achieved the needed result - well, a scrambled egg. This action of mixing the molecules of the egg is encryption. Since the molecules are mixed-up, we say the egg has achieved a higher state of entropy (state of randomness). To return the scrambled egg to its original form (including uncracking the shell) is decryption. Impossible?
However, if we substitute the word “egg” and replace it with “number”, “molecules” with “digits”, it is POSSIBLE. This, my friend, is the exciting world of cryptography (crypto for short). It is a new field dominated by talented mathematicians who uses vocabulary like "non-linear polynomial relations", "overdefined systems of multivariate polynomial equations", "Galois fields", and so forth. These cryptographers uses language that mere mortals like us cannot pretend to understand.
In the computer, everything stored are numbers. Your MP3 file is a number. Your text message is a number. Your address book is a longer number. The number 65 represents the character "A", 97 for the small "a", and so on.
For humans, we recognize numbers with the digits from 0 to 9, where else, the computer can only recognize 0 or 1. This is the binary system which uses bits instead of digits. To convert bits to digits, just simply multiply the number of bits by 0.3 to get a good estimation. For example, if you have 256-bits of Indonesian Rupiah (one of the lowest currency denomination in the world), Bill Gates’ wealth in comparison would be microscopic.
The hexadecimal (base 16) system uses the ten digits from 0 to 9, plus the six extra symbols from A to F. This set has sixteen different “digits”, hence the hexadecimal name. This notation is useful for computer workers to peek into the "real contents" stored by the computer. Alternatively, treat
these different number systems as currencies, be it Euro, Swiss Franc, British Pound and the like. Just like an object can be priced with different values using these currencies, a number can also be "priced" in these different number systems as well.
To digress a bit, have you ever wondered why you had to study prime numbers in school? I am sure most mathematics teachers do not know this answer. Answer: A subbranch called public-key cryptography which uses prime numbers especially for encrypting e-mails. Over there, they are talking of even bigger numbers like 2048, 4096, 8192 bits.)
When we want to encrypt something, we need to use a cipher. A cipher is just an algorithm similar to a recipe for baking a cake. It has precise, unambiguous steps. To carry out the encryption process, you need a key (some called it passphrase). A good practice in cryptography needs the key used by a cipher must be of high entropy to be effective.
Data Encryption Standard (DES), introduced as a standard in the late 1970's, was the most commonly used cipher in the 1980's and early 1990's. It uses a 56-bit key. It was broken in the late 1990’s with specialized computers costing about US$250,000 in 56 hours. With today's (2005) hardware, it is possible to crack within a day.
Subsequently, Triple-DES superseded DES as the logical way to preserve compatibility with earlier investments by big corporations (mainly banks). It uses two 56-bit key using three steps:-
1. Encrypt with Key 1. 2. Decrypt with Key 2. 3. Encrypt with Key 1.
The effective key length used is only 112-bits (equivalent to 34 digits). The key is any number between 0 and 5192296858534827628530496329220095. Some modify the last process using Key 3, making it more effective at 168-bit keys.
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) was adopted as a standard by the National Institute of Standards
About the Author
The author, Stan Seecrets, is a veteran software developer with 25 years experience at (http://www.seecrets.biz) which specializes in protecting digital assets. This site provides quality software priced like books, free-reprint articles on stock charts and computer security, free downloads. © Copyright 2005, Stan Seecrets. All rights reserved.
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Computer software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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Free Downloads on ZDNet | Shareware, Trialware, Evaluation Software |
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FSF - The Free Software Foundation |
Free software is a matter of liberty not price. Think of "free" as in "free speech". |
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Apple - Software |
Software products for your digital life. ... The perfect addition for professional review. QuickTime Broadcaster. Encoding software for live events. ... |
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In Partnership with AOL Search. about dmoz | report abuse/spam | help. the entire directory, only in Computers/Software. Top: Computers: Software (38471) ... |
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freshmeat.net: Welcome to freshmeat.net |
About: The Web browser is probably the most frequently used software today, ... Web professionals can use the software for functional testing and regression ... |
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Software - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF) |
Listing of the GNU software packages. |
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Sun Software |
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Internet Real Estate.com -- owns and operates a portfolio of the ... |
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Joel on Software |
A weblog by Joel Spolsky, a programmer working in New York City, about software and software companies. |
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Amazon.com Software: Computer & video games, business, accounting ... |
Online shopping for computer & video games, business & office productivity software, software from Microsoft, Apple, Adobe & more; accounting, antivirus, ... |
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IBM Software - Home Page |
IBM home page for all of its software products, including Lotus and Tivoli, with keyword search, category browse and AZ product names. |
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Opera web browser: Homepage |
Copyright © 2006 Opera Software ASA. All rights reserved. Skip navigation. Opera Software ... Copyright Opera Software ASA . All rights reserved. ... |
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Google Directory - Computers > Software |
Search only in Software Search the Web ... Software Categorized by Letter: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ... |
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