The Cracker Patch Choice: An Analysis of Post Hoc Security Techniques

It has long been known that security is easiest to achieve when it is designed in from the start. Unfortunately, it has also become evident that systems built with security as a priority are rarely selected for wide spread deployment, because most consumers choose features, convenience, and performance over security. Thus security officers are often denied the option of choosing a truly secure solution, and instead must choose among a variety of post hoc security adaptations. We classify security enhancing methods, and compare and contrast these methods in terms of their effectiveness vs. cost of deployment. Our analysis provides practitioners with a guide for when to develop and deploy various kinds of post hoc security adaptations

Non-Symbolic Fragmentation

This paper reports on the use of non-symbolic fragmentation of data for securing communications. Non-symbolic fragmentation, or NSF, relies on breaking up data into non-symbolic fragments, which are (usually irregularly-sized) chunks whose boundaries do not necessarily coincide with the boundaries of the symbols making up the data. For example, ASCII data is broken up into fragments which may include 8-bit fragments but also include many other sized fragments. Fragments are then separated with a form of path diversity. The secrecy of the transmission relies on the secrecy of one or more of a number of things: the ordering of the fragments, the sizes of the fragments, and the use of path diversity. Once NSF is in place, it can help secure many forms of communication, and is useful for exchanging sensitive information, and for commercial transactions. A sample implementation is described with an evaluation of the technology

Some methods for blindfolded record linkage

BACKGROUND: The linkage of records which refer to the same entity in separate data collections is a common requirement in public health and biomedical research. Traditionally, record linkage techniques have required that all the identifying data in which links are sought be revealed to at least one party, often a third party. This necessarily invades personal privacy and requires complete trust in the intentions of that party and their ability to maintain security and confidentiality. Dusserre, Quantin, Bouzelat and colleagues have demonstrated that it is possible to use secure one-way hash transformations to carry out follow-up epidemiological studies without any party having to reveal identifying information about any of the subjects – a technique which we refer to as "blindfolded record linkage". A limitation of their method is that only exact comparisons of values are possible, although phonetic encoding of names and other strings can be used to allow for some types of typographical variation and data errors. METHODS: A method is described which permits the calculation of a general similarity measure, the n-gram score, without having to reveal the data being compared, albeit at some cost in computation and data communication. This method can be combined with public key cryptography and automatic estimation of linkage model parameters to create an overall system for blindfolded record linkage. RESULTS: The system described offers good protection against misdeeds or security failures by any one party, but remains vulnerable to collusion between or simultaneous compromise of two or more parties involved in the linkage operation. In order to reduce the likelihood of this, the use of last-minute allocation of tasks to substitutable servers is proposed. Proof-of-concept computer programmes written in the Python programming language are provided to illustrate the similarity comparison protocol. CONCLUSION: Although the protocols described in this paper are not unconditionally secure, they do suggest the feasibility, with the aid of modern cryptographic techniques and high speed communication networks, of a general purpose probabilistic record linkage system which permits record linkage studies to be carried out with negligible risk of invasion of personal privacy

Cryptography: Against AI and QAI Odds

Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents prodigious technological prospects for development, however, all that glitters is not gold! The cyber-world faces the worst nightmare with the advent of AI and quantum computers. Together with Quantum Artificial Intelligence (QAI), they pose a catastrophic threat to modern cryptography. It would also increase the capability of cryptanalysts manifold, with its built-in persistent and extensive predictive intelligence. This prediction ability incapacitates the constrained message space in device cryptography. With the comparison of these assumptions and the intercepted ciphertext, the code-cracking process will considerably accelerate. Before the vigorous and robust developments in AI, we have never faced and never had to prepare for such a plaintext-originating attack. The supremacy of AI can be challenged by creating ciphertexts that would give the AI attacker erroneous responses stymied by randomness and misdirect them. AI threat is deterred by deviating from the conventional use of small, known-size keys and pattern-loaded ciphers. The strategy is vested in implementing larger secret size keys, supplemented by ad-hoc unilateral randomness of unbound limitations and a pattern-devoid technique. The very large key size can be handled with low processing and computational burden to achieve desired unicity distances. The strategy against AI odds is feasible by implementing non-algorithmic randomness, large and inexpensive memory chips, and wide-area communication networks. The strength of AI, i.e., randomness and pattern detection can be used to generate highly optimized ciphers and algorithms. These pattern-devoid, randomness-rich ciphers also provide a timely and plausible solution for NIST's proactive approach toward the quantum challenge

Steganographically Encoded Data

Steganography is the art of hiding information in ways that prevent its detection. Though steganography is an ancient craft, the onset of computer technology has given it new life. Computer-based steganographic techniques introduce changes to digital covers to embed information foreign to the native covers. Such information may be communicated in the form of text, binary files, or provide additional information about the cover and its owner such as digital watermarks or fingerprints. This paper explains steganography, provides a brief history and describes how steganography is applied in hiding information in images.Steganography, information hiding, digital image, digital watermarking

Privacy-preserving record linkage using Bloom filters

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Combining multiple databases with disjunctive or additional information on the same person is occurring increasingly throughout research. If unique identification numbers for these individuals are not available, probabilistic record linkage is used for the identification of matching record pairs. In many applications, identifiers have to be encrypted due to privacy concerns.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A new protocol for privacy-preserving record linkage with encrypted identifiers allowing for errors in identifiers has been developed. The protocol is based on Bloom filters on <it>q</it>-grams of identifiers.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Tests on simulated and actual databases yield linkage results comparable to non-encrypted identifiers and superior to results from phonetic encodings.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We proposed a protocol for privacy-preserving record linkage with encrypted identifiers allowing for errors in identifiers. Since the protocol can be easily enhanced and has a low computational burden, the protocol might be useful for many applications requiring privacy-preserving record linkage.</p