Update on proposed UK "snooper's charter"
Last year we looked at the United Kingdom’s draft Investigatory Powers Bill (known as the snooper's charter"), and criticized the requirement for vendors to install "back doors" into their software…
Discussion
What is blockchain technology?
Blockchain technology is starting to get attention in banking circles, as its tremendous potential for banking transactions becomes apparent. It was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto (a nom de plume -…
The downside of anonymity and privacy
We've written numerous posts that emphasise the importance of being able to maintain our privacy on the Internet, particularly when it comes to government attempts to mandate "backdoors" into encryption…
France says no to encryption backdoors
France has joined the Netherlands in rejecting mandatory encryption backdoors in software products. We recently examined the UK's draft "snoopers charter" that includes this as a requirement. The French digital…
edtFTPj/PRO adds TLS 1.2
We've just released edtFTPj/PRO 5.0, adding support for TLS 1.2. At the start of the new year, it's interesting to look back over the release history of edtFTPj/PRO. Amazingly, it's…
Windows 10 and disk encryption
Hard disk encryption prevents access to your confidential files if your PC or laptop is stolen. Without disk encryption, retrieving your files from a stolen machine is trivial - your…
Former NSA officials back strong encryption
Some former NSA and CIA officials have recently made some good points about why use of strong encryption should not be curtailed or crippled. They point out that companies desperately…
The UK’s draft Investigatory Powers Bill Part 2
We looked at the UK's draft Investigatory Powers Bill recently, looking at the complex issue of secret government-mandated "back doors" into encryption software. But this isn't the only problem with…
VTech update
We recently posted about the VTech hack, in which millions of user account details were stolen from the Chinese toymaker. We noted that account passwords were hashed using MD5, making…
Massive VTech hack
For anyone with young children, VTech is a familiar name, a logo enblazoned on numerous toys cluttering up the house. VTech is a Chinese company, and in November, VTech's servers…