Another Snake Oil Candidate

Hagai Bar-El info at hbarel.com
Thu Sep 13 13:10:57 EDT 2007


Hi,

On 13/09/07 15:14, Ian G wrote:
> Hagai Bar-El wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> On 12/09/07 08:56, Aram Perez wrote:
>>> The IronKey appears to provide decent security while it is NOT plugged
>>> into a PC. But as soon as you plug it in and you have to enter a
>>> password to unlock it, the security level quickly drops. This would be
>>> the case even if they supported Mac OS or *nix.
>>>
>>> As I stated in my response to Jerry Leichter, in my opinion, their
>>> marketing department is selling snake oil.
>>
>> I think there is a difference between a product that is susceptible to
>> an attack and the pure distilled 100% natural snake oil, as we usually
>> define it.
> 
> 
> So, is snake oil:
> 
>    * a crap product?
>    * a fine product with weaknesses?
>    * a marketing campaign that goes OTT?
>    * a term used to slander the opposing security model?
>    * an adjective that applies to any of the above?


Just like any term, it can have many interpretations.
However, the most useful definition is the one that you can find at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil_(cryptography) and which quite
accurately reflects what the people who first brought this term into use
used it for.

Hagai.

-- 
Hagai Bar-El - Information Security Analyst
T/F: 972-8-9354152 Web: www.hbarel.com

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