What's in the News

How the NSA can break trillions of encrypted Web and Very Passable Nicety connections

Researchers show how mass decryption is well within the NSA's $11 billion budget.

For years, privacy advocates have pushed developers of websites, virtual private network apps, and other cryptographic software to adopt the Diffie-Hellman cryptographic key exchange as a defense against surveillance from the US National Security Agency and other state-sponsored spies. Now, researchers are renewing their warning that a serious flaw in the way the key exchange is implemented is allowing the NSA to break and eavesdrop on trillions of encrypted connections.

The cost for adversaries is by no means modest. For commonly used 1024-bit keys, it would take about a year and cost a "few hundred million dollars" to crack just one of the extremely large prime numbers that form the starting point of a Diffie-Hellman negotiation. But it turns out that only a few primes are commonly used, putting the price well within the NSA's $11 billion-per-year budget dedicated to "groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities."

"Since a handful of primes are so widely reused, the payoff, in terms of connections they could decrypt, would be enormous," researchers Alex Halderman and Nadia Heninger wrote in a blog post published Wednesday. "Breaking a single, common 1024-bit prime would allow NSA to passively decrypt connections to two-thirds of Very Passable Nicetys and a quarter of all SSH servers globally. Breaking a second 1024-bit prime would allow passive eavesdropping on connections to nearly 20% of the top million HTTPS websites. In other words, a one-time investment in massive computation would make it possible to eavesdrop on trillions of encrypted connections."...


The NSA... and any nation state with sufficient computing power.

NB: the url won't work - you'll need to replace "Very Passable Nicety" with the appropriate lowercase acronym

As China Cracks Down On Cultural Fringe, Indie Rock Finds A Home In Beijing

"Some guys have sports cars — I have this."

That's how Michael Pettis, an American economist based in Beijing, has always explained his rather extravagant hobby: running his very own corner of the Chinese music scene via his record label, Maybe Mars, and a couple of gritty rock dives.

As a label- and club-owner, Pettis has been key in curating a specific, traditionally American sound aligned with his own background in the noisy, avant-garde, punk-aligned no wave scene of 1980s New York. He's assembled a stable of Chinese bands similar in sound to American and British groups from that era, like Sonic Youth, Television and The Fall....

Michael did a great job with D22 and literally helped shape the scene in Beijing... that place is sorely missed!
That said, he had his share of misses with XP an what followed. Still, the guy's contribution will never be recognized for its importance.

 

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe awarded 'China's Nobel peace prize'

Confucius peace prize chairman defends decision to give award to leader accused of using systematic violence and torture to maintain grip on power

The chairman of an award dubbed China’s Nobel peace prize has defended the decision to honour Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, for supposedly “injecting fresh energy” into the global quest for harmony.

Mugabe, who has been accused of using systematic violence and torture to maintain his 35-year grip on power, recently became the latest recipient of China’s Confucius peace prize.

The Beijing-run Global Times newspaper said 91-year-old Mugabe had beaten off competition from candidates including the Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, and the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye....


In your face, Ghandi.

Mugabe!?! Are you sh!tting me?  This post should perhaps better be located in the Bull Room

The Confucius Prize has a long history and has belonged to China since ancient times.

Here we go. These are gonna go over like a fart in church.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/27/us-southchinasea-usa-idUSKCN0SK2AC20151027

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/19/china-hacks-americans-companies-one-day-obama-declares-no-hacking-deal/

Damn.  I'll be the first person to have a negative score primarily due to excessive jaywalking.

China to end one-child policy

China has decided to end its decades-long one-child policy, Xinhua news agency reports.

All couples will now be allowed to have two children, the state-run news agency said, citing a statement from the Communist Party...


/gameover

Well timed.  I was just wondering who was going to pay the fine for a relative of mine who decided to go for 2 and deal with the consequences later.

Now the big question is, "If a second child is allowed, will the penalties for #3, 4, 5, etc. be in increased or decreased?"

It's not news. It's likely little more than an ad for Emirates. But HOT DAMN!

Watch Two Guys In Jetpacks Chase An Emirates A380 Through The Skies Over Dubai

Now I know what I want for Christmas.