On October 22, 2002, an attack on the thirteen servers that act as the backbone of the Internet was carried out, briefly disabling nine of them. This drew attention to the often criticized organization that operates these servers, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). This news article argues that bad practices and insufficient safety precautions of ICANN may soon lead...

The Cyber Security Group at Pennsylvania State University is developing database software that can detect "attacks by malicious transactions" and repair the database with no interruption. This research paper proposes five different schemes for implementing such a system, with each one building on the previous. Some of the main goals for the schemes are automatic damage repair, attack isolation to...

Avast Free Antivirus has been around for sometime, and this latest edition has some notable new features. Perhaps the most significant change here is the very helpful user interface, which includes a new tabbed section and a context sensitive help menu. Visitors can also use the real-time shields to protect against spyware and viruses originating from hundreds of sources. This version is...

This fascinating article explores the history and development of cryptography. Published in February 2003 by a division of the National Academy of Sciences, the article has substantial information on the applications of encryption in today's wired world. Additionally, it looks back at some of the most important breakthroughs related to number theory, spanning over two millennia. Some mildly...

This paper, provided by Ronald L. Rivest, professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, proposes a new method of computer message security. The method is called "chaffing and winnowing." Messages are broken up into packets and each packet is appended with a "message authentication code" (MAC). Then "chaff," fake packets with fake MACs, is...

With the recent shut down of the peer-to-peer file sharing utility Audiogalaxy, copy protection of all kinds of data is a very hot topic. Distribution of music, movies, and software is running rampant, and many believe the solution lies in better copy protection. To learn the basics of copy protection, visit Link Data Security (1). This company specializes in secure products that reduce piracy,...

The Cryptographic Toolkit is being developed by a subgroup of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), whos members work to implement and promote cryptographic technologies and efficient practices. The purpose of the toolkit is to "enable US Government agencies and others to select cryptographic security components and functionality for protecting their data, communications, and...

The International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) maintains this archive of nearly 400 research papers on various topics in cryptology. Contents date back to 1996, and new material is posted most weeks. Papers generally describe original theories about a certain topic, analyses of cryptologic methods, or proofs of specific equations. Anyone can submit their research for possible...

What is a "phishing" attack? How do you create a secure password? What is the difference between a website that begins with "http://" and "https://"? The Pew Research Center offers this ten question cybersecurity quiz that allows visitors to test their own knowledge of cybersecurity issues and see how their knowledge compares to 1,055 Pew research survey participants. After completing this...

What does privacy mean in a digital age? Is digital privacy even possible? Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow of governance studies at The Brookings Institution is quite concerned with these questions. This 24-page report on this subject was released in April 2011, and it looks at the nature of what Wittes refers to as "databuse". Wittes argues that when thinking about privacy in a digital age, "we...