|
Crypto Maker Changes Course |
|
|
New leadership at security developer Ntru CryptoSystems Inc. is hoping a new services and consulting strategy will help mitigate the damage caused by problems with the company's core encryption algorithm. Once one of the premier cryptography companies in the United States, Ntru in the past six months has undergone a nearly complete face lift, replacing its CEO, moving away from its main business of licensing its cryptographic algorithms, slashing its staff by a third and placing many of the remaining employees on part-time status. [more...]
June 02, 2003
By Dennis Fisher
The changes at Ntru stem from issues surrounding the company's main intellectual property, the NtruEncrypt algorithm. The algorithm is the heart of the company's Neo security tool kit line and is the basis for the Ntru public-key cryptosystem. Last fall, the company discovered there were problems with the parameters it had been recommending to customers to improve bandwidth when using the algorithm. Specifically, the problems caused random messages to fail to decrypt.
As a result, someone could mount what's known as a chosen ciphertext attack, which gleans small amounts of information from each failed decryption. Over time, the attacker would be able to amass enough data to decrypt an entire message, which would call into question the security of every other message encrypted using that key.
Although Ntru discovered the problem with the algorithm on its own, several groups of security researchers found the same weakness at roughly the same time and notified the company.
The problem was an obscure one—affecting just one in 1 trillion messages—but it was serious enough to compel Ntru to disclose it to all its customers and partners while the company's engineers began working on a new tool kit. Ntru executives maintain the problems didn't cost them any customers, and several customers contacted by eWEEK refused to comment on the issue. But, unfortunately for Ntru, the security community tends to have a long memory when it comes to such issues.
Advanced semiconductor designer
Secure Internet media delivery
Contactless security technology maker
Internet security products vendor
Maker of smart cards, smart-card operating systems
Smart-card industry group
Worldwide electronics manufacturer
Signal processing technology vendor
"The technology was perceived to be better, but it's not good enough to overcome the objection that no one gets fired for buying RSA [Security Inc.products]," said one person close to Ntru.
| |
|
Article continues...
eWEEK |
 | |
|
|
|
 |
| "Crypto Maker Changes Course" | Login/Create an Account | 0 comments |
|
| | The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content. |
|
|
|
No Comments Allowed for Anonymous, please register |
|
| |
|
Login |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
· New User? · Click here to create a registered account.
|
|
|
Article Rating |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Average Score: 0
Votes: 0
|
|
|
