Thinking differently about software security: Inside-Out


We live in a very different world today than we did 10-20 years ago. We’ve never been more connected. So, it’s surprising that software security practices remain in the realm of “We’ve always done it this way before”. Can they really expect to solve today’s security problems with an old way of thinking?

Traditional thinking
Traditional thinking typically starts with the premise that honest parties control the computer devices and any cryptographic operations are performed free from interference from would-be attackers. Given this, it’s probably understandable

Cryptography is everywhere in day-to-day life


Cryptography is no longer limited to the military and spies. This ancient art underpins modern life. It’s about encoding intelligible data, e.g. numbers, text and transforming them into something unreadable to anyone other than who the information is meant for. The question is, does it need an upgrade for today’s always connected world?

How secure is your house?
Hundreds of times a day we use cryptography in our everyday life. From the lock on the website that you’re browsing, remotely unlocking your car with the key fob to using all kinds of devices.

Does the security auditor have a point?


On a recent flight, I was sat next to a security auditor. He asked “can someone steal keys used to encrypt credit cards from the server memory?” It depends, was my reply. But his question left me wondering. Why hasn’t anyone built a server side white box implementation?

Why does it depend?
Like any implementation, some are more secure than others. If the server side code was using ‘standard cryptographic APIs’ and they were black box implementations then