Re: Startup to launch new random number generator from space
| >http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6142935.html | > | >British start-up Yuzoz has announced that it will be launching its | >beta service in the next two weeks--an online random-number generator | >driven by astronomical events. | | Heh heh. Pretty amusing. I guess the founders haven't really thought | this through. One problem with such a service, of course, is total | reliance upon Yuzoz: Yuzoz learns all your secret keys -- and so does | any hacker who figures out how to break into Yuzoz's servers. That doesn't | sound like such a great deal -- especially considering that high-quality | random-number sources are not that hard to come by. | | I guess we can take ill-conceived startups like this as a sign of | increasing awareness about the security risks and the need for security | solutions, even if there is some, err, lack of sophistication about how | to distinguish good security technology from bad. (Quantum crypto seems | like another one for that camp. Oracle's "Unbreakable" marketing slogan | was another good one.) There are at least three ways this kind of thing could make sense: 1. As part of something like Rabin's Beacon protocols. For this purpose, you need a reasonable bit rate and confidence that the data really is random and cannot be seen ahead of time by anyone. The assurances that Yuzoz is giving seem to head somewhat in that direction, though I doubt they are really thinking about this. (Granted, the problems Rabin was trying to solve with beacons have since been solved using other techniques. But that doesn't make this kind of thing laughably bad.) 2. As part of a number of techniques in which one generates a long secure sequence by picking bits from a random stream using a key. I think the basic ideas picked them from a high-resolution digitized photo of the moon. The bit rate Yuzoz is proposing is too low to be useful for this purpose except in unusual circumstances. 3. For fun. I think this is clearly the market they are aiming at. Look at their comments about how they picked their own name, for example. Gambling is a big source of many on the Internet, and I can see all kinds of products based on this being sold to gamblers, for example. If you just read the quotes in the article from the CEO, it's clear that he's more concerned about marketing - and especially the connection to space - than about usage in cryptography, or likely and particular usage. How about a nice pet rock laser-inscribed with random bits from Yuzoz? Brings together light, earth, and space - a sure winner. -- Jerry - The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Startup to launch new random number generator from space
Udhay Shankar reports: >http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6142935.html > >British start-up Yuzoz has announced that it will be launching its >beta service in the next two weeks--an online random-number generator >driven by astronomical events. Heh heh. Pretty amusing. I guess the founders haven't really thought this through. One problem with such a service, of course, is total reliance upon Yuzoz: Yuzoz learns all your secret keys -- and so does any hacker who figures out how to break into Yuzoz's servers. That doesn't sound like such a great deal -- especially considering that high-quality random-number sources are not that hard to come by. I guess we can take ill-conceived startups like this as a sign of increasing awareness about the security risks and the need for security solutions, even if there is some, err, lack of sophistication about how to distinguish good security technology from bad. (Quantum crypto seems like another one for that camp. Oracle's "Unbreakable" marketing slogan was another good one.) - The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Startup to launch new random number generator from space
The radioactive decay random number source http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/ is still working, I think it started a decade ago. One of the most stable sites on the net.:-) It's only good for 2048 bytes at a time but that's better than nothing. - - Mob Ben Laurie skrev: Udhay Shankar N wrote: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6142935.html British start-up Yuzoz has announced that it will be launching its beta service in the next two weeks--an online random-number generator driven by astronomical events. Working with data from satellites and observatories, Yuzoz will use the solar wind, the clouds of Venus, the Northern Lights, Jupiter's shortwave emissions and other cosmic events to generate 200 choices per second. While the beta service will use only a single source--the solar wind--to deliver a selection of numbers, the full service, due at the end of January, will have many more options, including the ability to give the site a list of choices and have it pick one. Using a random number generator, presumably. If only we could find a good source of randomness... :-) This kind of service has been discussed here before, of course. The usual verdict: so much better for attackers, especially if they work for Yuzoz. Cheers, Ben. - The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Startup to launch new random number generator from space
Udhay Shankar N wrote: > http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6142935.html > > British start-up Yuzoz has announced that it will be launching its beta > service in the next two weeks--an online random-number generator driven > by astronomical events. > > Working with data from satellites and observatories, Yuzoz will use the > solar wind, the clouds of Venus, the Northern Lights, Jupiter's > shortwave emissions and other cosmic events to generate 200 choices per > second. > > While the beta service will use only a single source--the solar wind--to > deliver a selection of numbers, the full service, due at the end of > January, will have many more options, including the ability to give the > site a list of choices and have it pick one. Using a random number generator, presumably. If only we could find a good source of randomness... :-) This kind of service has been discussed here before, of course. The usual verdict: so much better for attackers, especially if they work for Yuzoz. Cheers, Ben. -- http://www.apache-ssl.org/ben.html http://www.links.org/ "There is no limit to what a man can do or how far he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit." - Robert Woodruff - The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Startup to launch new random number generator from space
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6142935.html British start-up Yuzoz has announced that it will be launching its beta service in the next two weeks--an online random-number generator driven by astronomical events. Working with data from satellites and observatories, Yuzoz will use the solar wind, the clouds of Venus, the Northern Lights, Jupiter's shortwave emissions and other cosmic events to generate 200 choices per second. While the beta service will use only a single source--the solar wind--to deliver a selection of numbers, the full service, due at the end of January, will have many more options, including the ability to give the site a list of choices and have it pick one. -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) - The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
