Monthly Archives: December 2009

Sometimes it’s not counter-intuitive

Posted on December 27, 2009 by ben

Bruce Schneier writes that it’s reasonable for unmanned drones to broadcast unencrypted video streams, because the video stream is not that useful to enemies, and given that many people need access to the video feed, the key distribution problem would … Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, security | Leave a comment

a prediction regarding the Apple “Tablet”

Posted on December 26, 2009 by ben

Why a prediction? Eh, cause it’s fun and cause I think the Apple Tablet will have a large impact on consumer computing. I think Apple will launch a tablet computer in January that will be aimed at saving TV and … Continue reading →

Posted in autonomy, policy | Leave a comment

Takoma Park 2009: the conclusion

Posted on December 23, 2009 by ben

Well, it’s been a few weeks of craziness at home and catching up on other work, but I’ve finally wrapped up the Takoma Park 2009 audit. The final step: letting you, dear reader, run the audit all on your own. … Continue reading →

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It’s a WRAP followup: maybe the goal was client-side certs?

Posted on December 23, 2009 by ben

I’m having some interesting offline followup discussions with folks about oAuth WRAP and my relatively negative reaction to it. One of the comments seems to be that SSL will recreate exactly the security that HMAC signatures were trying to achieve, … Continue reading →

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It’s a WRAP

Posted on December 22, 2009 by ben

I’m just finding out about oAuth WRAP, a new, simplified version of oAuth which some are calling the “valet key” approach to web data sharing: don’t give your Facebook password to a random web app, instead use oAuth to mint … Continue reading →

Posted in security, web | 6 Comments