South Korean Spy Luck, or Pearls of Wisdom

For weeks, counterintelligence officials at South Korea's spy agency struggled to crack a tiny adversary — a locked USB stick that they believed was the key to proving that a South Korean labor activist followed orders from the North to foment unrest in the South...

The solution to this dilemma was randomly discovered by a NIS agent, who stumbled upon a string of gibberish written in the Latin alphabet that read, “rntmfdltjakfdlfkehRnpdjdiqhqoek,” in another data storage device owned by Seok. 

When the NIS agent typed out Korean letters in the same locations on a computer keyboard as these Latin letters in the same order, they spelled out, “Even three sacks of pearls only turn into treasure if you weave them together.”

The Korean proverb proved key to uncovering the cipher officials needed to crack the USB and the word document inside it. more

A Veterans Day Salute to Radio Eavesdroppers & Code Breakers

At age 97, Marjorie Stetson has never told anyone her secret code number — until now.

That's the identity code — 225 — that she typed on every page of her highly classified work for the Canadian Armed Forces during the Second World War.

The retired sergeant's wartime work was so covert, she said, she had to sign 15 separate copies of Canada's Official Secrets Act...

"She was on the front line of the radio war," said military historian David O'Keefe, who studies Second World War code breaking and signals intelligence...

Stetson used a radio receiver to intercept Japanese army and air force communications. She used a special typewriter to transcribe the Japanese codes she heard. Those number-filled documents were sent to code breakers in the U.S. and sometimes England, said O'Keefe — giving the Allies an intelligence edge in the Pacific region. more

Quantum Disappointment to Quantum Reserection

In theory, quantum cryptography enables two or more people to communicate with one another in complete secrecy. In practice, eavesdroppers can exploit weaknesses in the equipment used to send and receive secret keys.

Researchers in Singapore have now shown how practice can be brought closer to theory—by inserting a fairly simple passive device to prevent eavesdropping attacks involving bright light (Phys. Rev. X, doi: 10.1103/PRXQuantum.2.030304). They reckon their solution could be widely adopted in future, having shown that it can be applied to a number of popular cryptographic schemes...

Here is how it works.
Don't worry if you don't get it.
Just pretend Dr. Emilio Lizardo is doing the explaining.

Their device exploits an acrylic prism with a negative thermo-optical coefficient. Incoming light generates a gradient in temperature, and therefore in refractive-index, inside the prism that turns the acrylic into a concave lens. A small aperture placed behind the prism blocks most of the resulting diverged light beam, diminishing the beam power. more

Seminar in Information Security & Cryptography

Zurich Switzerland, June 14−16, 2021
Lecturers: Prof. David Basin and Prof. Ueli Maurer, ETH Zurich

We are very pleased to announce that the seminar in Information Security and Cryptography on June 14-16 in Zurich Switzerland will take place and we still have a few places free.

We are fortunate that the situation with COVID-19 has improved to the point where we may hold the seminar, under the provisions of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) and their regulations for hotels and restaurants. 

This seminar provides an in-depth coverage of Information Security and Cryptography. Concepts are explained in a way understandable to a wide audience, as well as mathematical, algorithmic, protocol-specific, and system-oriented aspects. The topics covered include cryptography and its foundations, system and network security, PKIs and key management, authentication and access control, privacy and data protection, and advanced topics in cryptography including blockchains and crypto currencies.

The lectures and all course material are in English. A full description of the seminar, including all topics covered, is available at https://www.infsec.ch/seminar2021.html. There are hotel rooms at a special group rate (deadline 24th of May) Please ensure you are allowed to enter Switzerland as every country has different regulations.

Rare World War II Footage Released - British Spy Center

A silent film shows MI6 staff members at a site linked to the code-breaking facility Bletchley Park during World War II.

Like a home movie reel, the silent footage shows young people at candid moments: playing soccer and cricket, sunbathing, smiling and making faces at the camera...

But they were not ordinary office colleagues: They were off-duty secret British communications staffers, linked to code-breakers who decrypted German ciphers and helped the Allies win World War II.

The newly revealed footage features staff members of the MI6 Section VIII — the British spy agency’s communications staff — filmed at a site associated with the famous code-breaking facility Bletchley Park. more

Encryption Using Palindrome Number (Never odd or even.)

Posted in honor of this special day*

This paper provides a technique for message security in which palindrome number is used for encryption message. Colour is important in authentication process as it acts as a password. Using this technique message can be protected from on-line cyber crime and accessible to an authorized individual when required.  more

Who cares? The important thing is this historical date... 

02/02/2020 
*Palindrome Day... for the first time in 909 years! Wow, yet another palindrome!

Here in the U.S., it is also a trifecta: Palindrome Day, Groundhog Day and Superbowl Sunday.

Information Security and Cryptography Seminar

Information Security and Cryptography —
Fundamentals and Applications
June 8-10, 2020 in Zurich, Switzerland
Lecturers: Prof. David Basin and Prof. Ueli Maurer

This seminar provides an in-depth coverage of Information Security and Cryptography from both a conceptual and an application-oriented viewpoint. At the same time, the mathematical, algorithmic, protocol-specific, and system-oriented aspects are explained in a way understandable to a wide audience.

A full description of the seminar, including all topics covered, is available at https://www.infsec.ch/seminar2020.html. Early registration is until February 28th.

The seminar takes place in Zurich Switzerland. The lectures and all course material are in English. more

Japan Ninja Student - Writes Essay in Invisible Ink - Gets A+

Japanese student of ninja history who handed in a blank paper was given top marks - after her professor realised the essay was written in invisible ink.

Eimi Haga followed the ninja technique of "aburidashi", spending hours soaking and crushing soybeans to make the ink.

The words appeared when her professor heated the paper over his gas stove.

"It is something I learned through a book when I was little," Ms Haga told the BBC. more

FontCode: Embed Secret Messages Within Text

Click to enlarge.

Computer scientists have invented FontCode, a way to embed hidden information in ordinary text by imperceptibly changing the shapes of fonts in text. 

The hidden information persists even when documents or images with perturbed texts are printed or converted to another file type. Method could prevent document tampering, protect copyrights, as well as embed QR codes and other metadata without altering the look or layout of a document.

"While there are obvious applications for espionage, we think FontCode has even more practical uses for companies wanting to prevent document tampering or protect copyrights, and for retailers and artists wanting to embed QR codes and other metadata without altering the look or layout of a document," says Changxi Zheng, associate professor of computer science and the paper's senior author.  more

Detective Science: Fingerprinting Text to Discover Data Leakers

Fingerprinting text; the ability to encode hidden data within a string of characters opens up a large number of opportunities.

Spybuster Tip: For example, someone within your team is leaking confidential information but you don’t know who. Simply send each team member some classified text with their name encoded in it. Wait for it to be leaked, then extract the name from the text — the classic canary trap.

Here’s a method that hides data in text using zero-width characters. Unlike various other ways of text fingerprinting, zero width characters are not removed if the formatting is stripped, making them nearly impossible to get rid of without re-typing the text or using a special tool. In fact you’ll have a hard time detecting them at all – even terminals and code editors won’t display them. more

Smartphone Goes Dark at the Flip of a Switch

Cybersecurity firm DarkMatter has launched its first smartphone, designed to stop spy agencies listening to you.

An Android device called Katim, it was made available commercially Monday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, and has a 5.2-inch display, as well as a high level of encryption...

One security feature built by the Middle East-based firm is called "shield mode," which disconnects power from the microphone and camera on the device so that nobody can spy on your conversations. more

Number Stations, Spies... and The Sultans of Swing (?!?!)

Numbers stations: The 'spy radio' that anyone can hear...

For decades, people around the globe have been able to listen in to mysterious spy broadcasts from all over the world with just a radio.

Gordon Corera has been investigating the strange world of number stations. more

"Listening In: Cybersecurity in an Insecure Age" (book)

A cybersecurity expert and former Google privacy analyst’s urgent call to protect devices and networks against malicious hackers​.

New technologies have provided both incredible convenience and new threats. The same kinds of digital networks that allow you to hail a ride using your smartphone let power grid operators control a country’s electricity—and these personal, corporate, and government systems are all vulnerable.

In Ukraine, unknown hackers shut off electricity to nearly 230,000 people for six hours. North Korean hackers destroyed networks at Sony Pictures in retaliation for a film that mocked Kim Jong-un. And Russian cyberattackers leaked Democratic National Committee emails in an attempt to sway a U.S. presidential election.

And yet despite such documented risks, government agencies, whose investigations and surveillance are stymied by encryption, push for a weakening of protections. In this accessible and riveting read, Susan Landau makes a compelling case for the need to secure our data, explaining how we must maintain cybersecurity in an insecure age. more

Seminar in Information Security and Cryptography

Seminar in Information Security and Cryptography
Zurich Switzerland, June 11-13, 2018
Lecturers: Prof. David Basin and Prof. Ueli Maurer, ETH Zurich

Information Security and Cryptography. A full description of the seminar, including all topics covered, is available at infsec.ch/seminar2018.

This seminar provides an in-depth coverage of Information Security and Cryptography. Concepts are explained in a way understandable to a wide audience, as well as mathematical, algorithmic, protocol-specific, and system-oriented aspects. The topics covered include cryptography and its foundations, system and network security, PKIs and key management, authentication and access control, privacy and data protection, and advanced topics in cryptography.

The seminar takes place in Zurich, Switzerland. The lectures and all course material are in English.