What is Digg?67 Comments
- Computer_Kid, on 10/12/2007, -8/+50the NSA is probably going to imprison him for violating national security or something
- mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -2/+27"Sergeev is hardly the stereotypical computer nerd. Aside from goofing off with his friends, he enjoys sailing, shooting, rocketry and online gaming."
What is the stereotype the author had in mind? Sounds like a normal computer nerd to me.. - quanticle, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20Indeed, one of the ways to get into the computer industry is to build something and get it patented. Even if the device never becomes a business opportunity, the act of getting a patent looks great on your resume, and shows employers that you are creative (i.e. you can create original solutions to problems) and that you are diligent enough to go through a lot of regulations and paperwork.
- CypherXero, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15@chinese
You must not know anything about encryption to make a statement like that. - Computer_Kid, on 10/12/2007, -6/+19I feel like a nub now! :-(
- burke, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14I might disagree if you used one of the conventional spellings (n00b, noob, newb, newbie, noobie, n00bie, nubie)
- ElectricKetchup, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12>> "It kinda makes sense to put encryption at the hardware level instead of the software level. But that would require massive changes in the infrastructre of the Internet."
There's a lot of web browsers that have supported smart cards and hardware accellerated crypto for a long time. It's not a new idea. - starheart, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12The article was really vague. It didn't describe the hardware nearly enough. The best I can guess is that it has the same advantage as a hardware firewall, but then also the same downsides. I would expect to see something like this added to broadband router, if I understand it right.
- veloscaper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10bingo. also local kid does something other than surf, smoke pot and drive Papa's SUV.
- kevincw01, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9hardware encrypters are not new....not even relatively speaking. The article was extremely vague so either there is somthing missing or people are just giving him too much credit since he's in high school.
- Z_Man, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10@AWBoy666, you need to keep those kind of comments to yourself man.....
- Area51mafia, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Same. I'm guessing many people today still have the stereotype of the anti-social, 4-eyed, asthma infested, nerd who's afraid of girl and has prescription shoes.
- Obsidian743, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"Any high school kid or middle school kid can write software, but he's taken a different approach in sending the encryption through hardware," said Krishnan.
Sorry, but that's just a tad of hyperbole. I don't know many adults, let alone high schoolers and middle schoolers writing cryptography "software". Even if Krishnan was referring to "software" in a general sense it's bogus. I created a cool calculator program in high school and made some pretty kick ass LOGO programs in middle school but I would never have dared to consider myself as one who could write software, even now.
Sure, the age where "kids" are getting into "programming" is getting younger but it's certainly a stretch to say "[a]ny high school kid or middle school kid can write software".
For all the pretentiously elite youngins among us feel free to mod me down because you wrote some cool wannabe program in high school and have been reading up on programming since you were 10.
P.S. - As you down mod me feel free to post your teh kewliez website written in PHP. - ggudggid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Hey! I am not asthma-infested!
- DiamondIce, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8@ b0n0
It will make it if and when it makes it, don't be impatient. - enantiodromia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7This is somehow better than quantum encyption how?
Can you send keys in plaintext? Is it impossible to man-in-the-middle?
I just dont see how being the 96,854th person to "come up" with hardware encryption is novel. Next he will invent OTP. - rishimaharaj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Besides, what average high school kid has the resources to create hardware? You can write software with nothing more than a text editor and the proper compiler and libs. Not so for hardware.
- ardellin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6True, encryption in hardware isn't a new idea by far. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't several of the original design choices for DES made specifically so it would be difficult to implement in software? Not that the NSA was open with the design, but that rings a bell from class. Also, I know we aren't talking necessarily talking about symmetric block ciphers here, but that's just one example from 30 years ago.
Anyway, on to more current encryption topics, does anyone know any of the actual details concerning this design? Encryption algorithms supported? - boredzo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Clearer summary of the invention: http://www.afcea.org/about/news/ScienceFair06.htm
- ggudggid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Maybe it was a cereal port. I bet his mommy didn't want him to miss breakfast.
- a1programmer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Do you think he's just holding up some random board, or is that actually his hardware? Why would there be a serial port on the board?
- SanityInAnarchy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Why so many comments about how cool it is? Why so few about WHAT it is?
My first impression was "Been done." Of course, if people really are that impressed, there must be something different about this one. Right?
Right? - mozflake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Nice project. Kudos to Sergey... however the article itself sux. It focuses too much on this kid being "only 16". How many stories have we had to endure about some "cheez whiz kid" who comes out with some kind of tech/invention, etc... so you've all read them, and how many of those actually made it to market, or anywhere else?
- m0laria, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Um, you mean like a router vpn? What a novel idea.
- BlindIrishman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Reading about people like that kills my self esteem
- gorkish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There are two network jacks on the right side of the board in the picture. The serial port is probably there since that is how most embedded systems are interfaced to and programmed. Most electronic devices have a serial port or at least a JTAG somewhere on them if you look hard enough, though most of the time the consumer versions do away with the physical connectors.
- HeapMalloc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It would have been nice if the article had gone into more technical details as to what form of security / encryption he's implemented at the network level, as the article is really realy vague.
I wouldn't imagine it's IPsec (that's a dime a dozen in a nic), so is he off loading SSL? I'd only gather that if it has to do with Internet security, then the first guess would be to take away SSL and delegate it to a network device. (While there's other things that could be off loaded, they have less scope and impact). - Z_Man, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2me too, all i can do is C#
- DjDimitrious, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4ahem. everyone likes sex.
- codahale, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ardellin: Actually, one of the main design constraints on DES was that it had to be efficient on hardware. The same considerations were present during the more recent AES competition, and it's one of the main reasons that key schedule-heavy algorithms like Twofish lost out to the more efficient Rijndael.
You may be thinking of the fact that, late in the DES design process, the NSA swooped in and made unexplained changes to the s-boxes. Far from weakening the algorithm, however, these changes hardened it (slighly) against differential cryptanalysis, which wasn't independently discovered for another decade or so. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's funny. This guy was in my English class. I knew he won this but... I never thought it'd find its way to digg.
- Unicron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yes you're the only one. That's why you're not the fifth person to post that exact same thing.
- anonym00z, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This just in, teens aren't complete retards! Tomorrows front page, "Teens like sex".
When are they going to realize that this child/teen/adult crap is make believe? - gabbagabbahey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm gonna guess from the picture not showing it having pins to go into a PCI or other type of slot and having two RJ45 connectors and it being called a bridge that it doesn't go into a computer but has in and out network connections and works at layer 2 to provide encryption independent of OS or protocol. The serial port could be used for initial configuration. Could provide pretty quick point to point encryption, with no worries about supported OS or patch levels. Like a stealth firewall, you wouldn't even know it was there so it would be difficult to remotely compromise the hardware.
- Obsidian743, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1P.S. - Am I the only one that realizes that hardware level network encryption is nothing novel? Granted, the article left much to be desired with regards to technical details and it doesn't take away from the kid's accomplishment but the fact that so many are "starting to take interest" in this kid's work scares me.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i wouldn't worry so much, his father is into the computer business, coincidence?
- t35t0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1really? I progressed the other way from hardware to software, because it's much easier in software, esp with an altera and some vhdl.
- gorkish, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2> Besides, what average high school kid has the resources to create hardware? You can write software with nothing more than a text editor and the proper compiler and libs. Not so for hardware.
You do realize that chips are 'programmed' in Verilog and hardware is designed and can be simulated extensively in software or on (sometimes inexpensive) FPGA's, don't you? Just because they don't teach it in high school doesn't mean that you can't learn it any time you want to. In addition, if you want to actually get into prototyping hardware you can make your own PCB with as little as a sharpie marker, etchant and a margarine tub. Most of the "expensive" components you need for such projects are usually available as samples from the manufacturers. Even if a DSP costs $80 each even in bulk, they don't want and don't have the means to sell you just one. Chipmakers want designers using their products so they put as many samples into engineer's hands as they possibly can. It doesn't matter if you are a highschool student or not. - osbjmg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That rocks for him, but we already have hardware encryption. The weakness for a high school kid is the math behind what encryption scheme is going to be the hardest to crack.
- vsergeev, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1...and I rush to my post: http://www.frozeneskimo.com/electronics/?p=66
- psylence, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I sense much anger in this one
- ZaNkY, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2That's what I was thinking. If a router, that would mean that every router would have to have the design. That's massive upgrading though!
A firmware flash of some sort *could* be possible... but I think it's impractical. What's so great about software encryption is that it's *usually* easier to set-up/obtain. And it can be free too! - andrew911tt, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I wish i was as smart as this kid
- randyandy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Well the article was written for a less than entirely technical audience....figures. If anyone was able to dig up more information post here. I'd like to get a more detailed overview.
- randyandy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@boredzo. Good find on the link.
From what is looks like its not a TPM chip. It does resemble a crypto accelerator however... so it's not really novel. Regardless, its a fine attempt at his age.
If he did it all himself, then he's gained a whole lot of experience in designing crypto hardware...which is still very relevant. Good for him!
The best thing about it is it gives him a lot of experience which is always a good thing. - nartfocker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0“Any high school kid or middle school kid can write software, but he's taken a different approach in sending the encryption through hardware”
It might be different than what other high school or middle school kids are doing, but it's pretty standard practice otherwise. - luminaire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't understand. You take a small low power computer, such as the ones available from www.soekris.com, combine it with free software that allows transparent bridging (openbsd) and ssl vpn/ipsec vpn software (openvpn/isakmpd) write a couple configs and you get national news?
- stormwater, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Eh?
If the end-points are secure then your point is irrelevant. If the end-points are not secure, then you have more to worry about than someone scanning your memory for the keys, because that person has access to the un-encrypted data anyway. - Shaft0rz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The project mentions that doing encryption in software leaves you vulnerable to software and OS flaws. Ok, possibly. But when there's a problem, there's going to be a fix and you're going to dilligently patch your system.
Can't there just as easily (probably even more easily) be a problem in the firmware/hardware? And if so, aren't you at a significant disadvantage when it comes to patching if all your encryption is done on the hardware? - supradave, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Simply put, the device is a device and I can write a driver for it or hack the driver. If I can write the driver to scan it and manipulate it, if the keys are in it's own memory or in RAM, I can get them. I don't expect you to believe that it would be that simple, but until I can see some real specs on it, I'll make the assumption that it's no secure.
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