[Cryptography] High volume thermal entropy from an iPhone

[Tom Mitchell]

On Fri, Dec 15, 2017 at 12:54 PM, Jerry Leichter <leichter at lrw.com> wrote:

> The only weak guarantee i see here is that comparing random
> motherboard vendor, dedicated HSM vendor and Apple -
>
> .....

> There's another thing to consider:  Even assuming NSA-level resources,
>

The NSA may be behind the resource curve compared to criminals.   <---
opinion perhaps a nit.

Criminals and their distributed bot farms qualify as one of the largest
computers
assembled.  Perhaps botnets if measured would replace the top ten largest
super computers.

There has been a rash of hacks involving malware that include bitcoin mining
code.  Then there is IOT land, One headline: "1.5 Million Connected Cameras
Were Hijacked to Make an Unprecedented Botnet"

Nations worry about other nations but we all need to worry about criminals.
This alone is a good reason for nations to divest themselves of flaws
in vendor software and report them to vendors for fixes.

<detour>
The news systematically misses the reality that other nations  own
companies and are in control of or controlled by criminals (Russia is one
example).
Criminals have apparently legal fronts and sell services: perhaps trash
collection, perhaps pizza
shops (control of cheese), perhaps pinball machines, perhaps internet trolls
and perhaps internet hacking services.  Such services could be purchased
by Madison avenue, governments or a political party to some selfish need.
Criminals are
international and can demand payment in any tender (yes rubles). </detour>

Cryptography used correctly can thwart some criminal actions and yes also
be a screen behind
which criminals act.   Criminals have always had secret codes: groups of
pickpockets,
carnival games, cheats on card tables and more.  Players on card tables are
well advised
to hide their cards (crypto equivalent of a common need to hide something).
The criminals share information to the disadvantage of the mark.
Stolen digital information puts civilians, companies  and governments at a
disadvantage. <-- encryption helps protect from theft.




-- 
  T o m    M i t c h e l l
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