Στην κβαντική κρυπτογράφηση που βασίζεται σε οπτικές ίνες, το μυστικό κλειδί που απαιτείται για την ανάγνωση ενός μηνύματος κωδικοποιείται σε κβαντικές καταστάσεις που αντιστοιχούν στα «0» και τα «1» της ψηφιακής πληροφορίας.

Η τεχνική αυτή θεωρείτο μέχρι πρόσφατα απόλυτα ασφαλής, δεδομένου ότι κανείς δεν μπορεί να μετρήσει τις κβαντικές καταστάσεις των φωτονίων χωρίς ταυτόχρονα να τις διαταράξει. Αυτό θα σήμαινε ότι ένας ωτακουστής που προσπαθεί να υποκλέψει το κλειδί κρυπτογράφησης θα επηρέαζε το σήμα και θα γινόταν αμέσως αντιληπτός από τον αποστολέα και τον λήπτη του μηνύματος.

Φαίνεται όμως ότι τα πράγματα δεν έχουν ακριβώς έτσι. «Η τεχνική μας μάς έδωσε 100% γνώση του κλειδιού με μηδενική διατάραξη του συστήματος» δήλωσε ο Βαντίμ Μακάροφ, επικεφαλής των χάκερ στο Νορβηγικό Πανεπιστήμιο Επιστήμης και Τεχνολογίας στο Τρόντχαΐμ.

Τα εντυπωσιακά αποτελέσματα της εργασίας του δημοσιεύονται στο περιοδικό Nature Photonics.

Όπως εξηγεί ο δικτυακός τόπος του περιοδικού, ο Μακάροφ «τύφλωσε» τον ανιχνευτή του παραλήπτη στέλνοντας στην οπτική ίνα μια σταθερή δέσμη λέιζερ με ισχύ 1 milliwatt.

Όσο η δέσμη παρέμενε ενεργή, οι χάκερ μπορούσαν να διαβάζουν την εισερχόμενη πληροφορία και στη συνέχεια να τη διαβιβάζουν στον παραλήπτη με παλμούς φωτός. Το σήμα που έφτανε στον παραλήπτη μετέφερε έτσι τη σωστή πληροφορία, ήταν όμως κλασικό σήμα και όχι κβαντικό. Αυτό σημαίνει ότι οι αρχές της κβαντικής κρυπτογράφησης έπαυαν να ισχύουν και ο ωτακουστής δεν γινόταν αντιληπτός.

«Εκμεταλλευτήκαμε ένα καθαρά τεχνικό “παραθυράκι” που μετατρέπει ένα κρυπτογραφικό σύστημα σε κλασικό σύστημα, χωρίς να το αντιληφθεί κανείς» εξήγησε ο Δρ Μακάροφ.

Η ομάδα του παραβίασε δύο συστήματα κβαντικής κρυπτογράφησης, ένα της εταιρείας IDQ με έδρα τη Γενεύη και ένα της MagiQ Technologies με έδρα τη Βοστόνη.

Οι δύο εταιρείες χαιρέτισαν την αποκάλυψη τρωτών σημείων στα συστήματά τους και σκοπεύπυν τώρα να βελτιώσουν τις τεχνολογίες τους.

«Παρέχουμε ανοιχτά συστήματα στους ερευνητές για να μπορούν να παίζουν, και χαιρόμαστε που το κάνουν» σχολίασε ο Αντόν Ζαβρίεφ, διευθυντής ερευνών στη MagiQ.

Οι δύο εταιρείες επισήμαναν πάντως ότι τα συστήματα που έσπασαν οι χάκερ δεν διαθέτουν τα επιπλέον επίπεδα ασφάλειας που υπάρχουν στα εμπορικά διαθέσιμα συστήματα.

Ο ίδιος ο Δρ Μακάροφ, επίσης, επιμένει ότι η κβαντική κρυπτογράφηση παραμένει η πιο ασφαλής που υπάρχει σήμερα. «Η εργασία μας θα οδηγήσει τελικά στην ισχυροποίηση αυτών των συστημάτων» είπε.

What’s new

• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

What’s changed

• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery

You can use Voice Control (available only on iPhone 3GS) to control music playback on iPhone.

NOTE: Voice Control isn’t available in all languages.

Use Voice Control:

Press and hold the Home button until the Voice Control screen appears and you hear a beep. Then use the commands described below to play songs.

You can also press and hold the center button on the iPhone headset (or the equivalent button on your Bluetooth headset) to bring up Voice Control.

Control music playback:

Say “play” or “play music.” To pause, say “pause” or “pause music.” You can also say “next song” or “previous song.”

Play an album, artist, or playlist:

Say “play,” then say “album,” “artist,” or “playlist” and the name.

Shuffle the current playlist:

Say “shuffle.”

Find out more about the currently playing song:

Say “what’s playing,” “what song is this,” “who sings this song,” or “who is this song by.”

Use Genius to play similar songs:

Say “Genius,” “play more like this,” or “play more songs like this.”

Cancel Voice Control:

Say “cancel” or “stop.”

Microsoft has released an Official Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders Backup tool which allows you to take a backup of all your mails at regular intervals (with reminders) with you worrying much.

It takes the back up of all PST files where the mails are actually stored. And the best part is that this tool gets integrated right in the Outlook.  This tool can run the backup every time u exit the application. This is very handy. It works with both Office Outlook 2007 or anything above Outlook 2002.

After you had installed this backup tool, you can find a backup menu right under File menu of Outlook.  But before you start using it configuring is very important as you will need to setup a location where the files will be stored.

Configure the backup tool

By default the files are stored in the same drive where windows is installed. I would highly recommend you to change the location to a network or if you are using sync application like Dropbox, you can even create a backup on the server directly. This would be the best way to do it.

After you have configured this option you should also configure which Folders needs to be backed up. Like in my case I have a personal folder which should be same for you. In case you have more folders this is the right place to decide.  Just uncheck the folders you don’t need. This will also help you to keep the size at the low end.

Doing a backup:

After this you can click on save backup. As soon as you do this, you get an alert message which says the Outlook has to be closed. This is required as the files are in locked state when the Outlook is open. So next time you exit Outlook the backup will be performed.

Anytime you want to open the back, just use the open backup option.

This tool is a must if you use Outlook

Download  Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders Backup tool

“SAN FRANCISCO, California, USA — Wednesday, January 27, 2010 — As Steve Jobs and Apple prepared to announce their new tablet device, activists opposed to Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) from the group Defective by Design were on hand to draw the media’s attention to the increasing restrictions that Apple is placing on general purpose computers. The group set up “Apple Restriction Zones” along the approaches to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, informing journalists of the rights they would have to give up to Apple before proceeding inside.

DRM is used by Apple to restrict users’ freedom in a variety of ways, including blocking installation of software that comes from anywhere except the official Application Store, and regulating every use of movies downloaded from iTunes. Apple furthermore claims that circumventing these restrictions is a criminal offense, even for purposes that are permitted by copyright law.

Organizing the protest, Free Software Foundation (FSF) operations manager John Sullivan said, “Our Defective by Design campaign has a successful history of targeting Apple over its DRM policies. We organized actions and protests targeting iTunes music DRM outside Apple stores, and under the pressure Steve Jobs dropped DRM on music. We’re here today to send the same message about the other restrictions Apple is imposing on software, ebooks, and movies. If Jobs and Apple are actually committed to creativity, freedom, and individuality, they should prove it by eliminating the restrictions that make creativity and freedom illegal.”

The group is asking citizens to sign a petition calling on Steve Jobs to remove DRM from Apple devices. The petition can be found at: http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ipad

“Attention needs to be paid to the computing infrastructure our society is becoming dependent upon. This past year, we have seen how human rights and democracy protesters can have the technology they use turned against them by the corporations who supply the products and services they rely on. Your computer should be yours to control. By imposing such restrictions on users, Steve Jobs is building a legacy that endangers our freedom for his profits,” said FSF executive director Peter Brown.

Other critics of DRM have asserted that Apple is not responsible, and it is the publishers insisting on the restrictions. However, on the iPhone and its new tablet, Apple does not provide publishers any way to opt out of the restrictions — even free software and free culture authors who want to give legal permission for users to share their works.

“This is a huge step backward in the history of computing,” said FSF’s Holmes Wilson, “If the first personal computers required permission from the manufacturer for each new program or new feature, the history of computing would be as dismally totalitarian as the milieu in Apple’s famous Super Bowl ad.”

After reviewing the technological bits that make up ENUM, you might think it’s the best thing since the invention of the Web and e-mail, and you might want to know where you can sign up.

The answer (most likely) is that you can’t. A majority of nations haven’t activated their ENUM registries yet. Only nine countries have an ENUM registry in production, and another four are doing trials. Several other regions, like Australia and the North American Numbering Plan Region, have executed trials and subsequently stopped. Even in the countries that have an active ENUM registry, it’s not a very popular service. There are many reasons for this.

The main issue is that the ENUM standard (RFC 3761) demands that ENUM is a public service and that the control of the telephone number lies in the hands of the end-user. For this reason, it’s known as “Public-” or “User ENUM.” This is all in line with the Internet’s user- and endpoint-centric creed. This becomes quite clear if you read, for instance, the documentation of Nominet, which controls the UK’s ENUM registry (the +44 registry). It explicitly states that users can bypass their communications provider when they register in the ENUM registry. A significant amount of money is made by today’s telephony providers (be they traditional providers or ISPs providing VoIP bundled with Internet access). Telephony providers see User ENUM as a threat to their bottom line and are therefore not keen on introducing the technology nationally.

As a user, you may be able to do number portability, but it’s still their number and their telephony service. So, if you want to use ENUM then you’ll have to find a telephony provider that allows you to register your telephone number in the national ENUM-registry and is willing to receive phone calls to that number. In most countries, you’re referred to small operators and not the usual incumbents.

Even though the RFC says that ENUM has to be User ENUM by nature, this hasn’t stopped others from using the technology for less open purposes that do much the same thing. Because ENUM uses the Domain Name System, it can use the software used by DNS servers the world over and can benefit from some of the attractive features of the DNS. These features are high query rates, redundancy, and caching. Therefore, people have been using the technology behind ENUM to do exactly what ENUM does, but just in their own telecommunications network or in a non-public fashion between a group of networks. These options are known as Private ENUM and Infrastructure (or Carrier) ENUM, respectively. What these versions don’t require is long interactions with the ITU or national governments, or the RIPE NCC to be registered in the DNS -root. They can be implemented by a coalition of the willing, without outside interference in their business models.

Private ENUM isn’t too interesting, as it just sits in someone’s network, without connections to the outside world. Infrastructure ENUM looks like the place where ENUM will go in the coming years. There are various organizations that have defined services based on ENUM technology that are not open to the general public.

• The most notable and most powerful one is the GSMA’s Pathfinder service, which is based on ENUM technology provided by Neustar. Operated by the GSM Association, which represents almost 1 trillion dollars in revenue, it allows telephony operators the world over to interconnect IP-based services. Before you can join, you have to be vetted by the GSMA.
• There are various VoIP interconnection platforms (like Xconnect, Neustar, and the Voice Peering Fabric) that allow commercial VoIP providers to interconnect. They use ENUM as the lookup database to see if the number can be reached over their platform.
• National number portability databases (by, for example, Bahrain and the UK) will be ENUM-based. One of the great benefits according to this author in a paper for the ITU will be that it allows operators in these countries to quickly introduce new services. If a provider wants to introduce a new service, it can just register this in the NAPTR record and other providers can connect to that service, without the need for major upgrades to national number platforms.

The effect of all this may be that, in the coming years, ENUM will creep into every corner of the telephony world. Once it arrives in these corners, people will find new uses for the technology, much in line with the ideas of the standard’s original drafters. These ideas will be implemented more and more, especially when they can be tied to a new revenue stream or when the voice revenue stream diminishes in importance and the feature set becomes more important. The end result may be that every country will have a national number portability database based on ENUM with a feature set much like User ENUM, but with some restrictions on who can connect and under what circumstances.

Furthermore, ENUM may be in use in all kinds of coalitions between telecommunications companies on a global scale, hidden from sight for most people but still interconnecting us in many ways.