Freedom to Tinker » Blog Archive » New Research Result: Cold Boot Attacks on Disk EncryptionEd Felten and other researchers have discovered an interesting way to defeat a number of current hard disk encryption methods. What it boils down to is that the keys required to decrypt the data are stored in main memory where Felten and team have focused their attack. Apparently if you’re fast enough, or use a refrigerant, you can recover data stored in memory by removing power from the system and rebooting with a specially crafted OS.
Category Archives: Cool
Upside-Down-Ternet
A college student recently told me about something like this. The Upside-Down-Ternet trick is a great way to mess with people trying to steal internet access throuh your wireless network. Personally, I’d still rather have my network encrypted so that someone with slightly more nefarious intent doesn’t get my data. (remember, you don’t even need to connect to capture the traffic on a wireless network) Still, it’s pretty funny.
YouOS, a web-based desktop
Have you ever used GMail, or Google Calendar? What if you could have not only a couple of applications accessible through a web browser, but a whole desktop interface? That’s exactly what YouOS is. While you won’t be running any applications from your home PC on YouOS, there are a number of familiar applications that have been written for this very special “operating system.” I gave YouOS a try this evening after having seen a colleague using it and I’m fairly impressed. It’s an alpha release, so don’t expect too much from it. However, this is certainly something I could see Google being interested in.