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The most popular blog posts about security & privacy on Hacker News. 8,769 posts.

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5373

Adventures in reverse engineering Broadcom NIC firmware

For some time now, I've been reverse engineering the firmware of the Broadcom BCM5719 Ethernet NIC chip, so that open source firmware can be produced for it. The BCM5719 is a PCIe chip which provides up to four Gigabit Ethernet ports, and is mainly intended for use in server applications. It can be used with the Linux…

5376

When Will We See Collisions for SHA-1?

On a NIST-sponsored hash function mailing list, Jesse Walker (from Intel; also a member of the Skein team) did some back-of-the-envelope calculations to estimate how long it will be before we see a practical collision attack against SHA-1. I’m reprinting his analysis here, so it reaches a broader audience. According…

5379

When Your Smart ID Card Reader Comes With Malware

Millions of U.S. government employees and contractors have been issued a secure smart ID card that enables physical access to buildings and controlled spaces, and provides access to government computer networks and systems at the cardholder’s appropriate security level. But many government employees aren’t issued an…

5380

Attempts to Censor AntiPolygraph.org

AntiPolygraph.org has received a rather unpleasant letter from James D’Loughy, a lawyer representing NITV Federal Services, LLC (NITV), which markets a scientifically baseless voice-based lie detector called the “Computer Voice Stress Analyzer,” and its president, self-described “Renaissance Man” “Dr.” Charles Humble…

5381

The Drunken Bishop Algorithm

There’s a tradition in my family that everyone takes a turn stirring a secret wish into the yearly christmas pudding . It’s important that the wishes remain secret to the wisher or the pudding magics wont work so since moving to America I’ve implemented a new way of hashing my wish so it can be stirred in via text…

5396

Me on Covid-19 contact tracing apps

I was quoted in BuzzFeed: “My problem with contact tracing apps is that they have absolutely no value,” Bruce Schneier, a privacy expert and fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, told BuzzFeed News. “I’m not even talking about the privacy concerns, I mean the efficacy. Does…