Three Republican senators introduced a bill to end “warrant-proof” encryption on June 23. It invokes national security as a pretext for requiring device manufacturers and service providers to assist law enforcement by providing access to encrypted data. Pedophiles & national security The Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act is sponsored by Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). According to GovTrack, all three senators score high on the conservativeness scale, with Blackburn receiving a perfect 1.00. Graham is also one of the sponsors of the EARN IT Act, which many privacy advocates heavily criticized for what they …

Telegram, a major privacy-focused messaging app, has suffered a data leak that exposed some personal data of its users on the darknet. A database containing the personal data of millions of Telegram users has been posted on a darknet forum. The issue was first reported by Russian-language tech publication Kod.ru on Tuesday. According to the report, the database contains phone numbers and unique Telegram user IDs. It remains unclear exactly how many users' data was leaked while the database file is about 900 megabytes. About 40% of entries in the database should be relevant Telegram has reportedly acknowledged the existence …

Keycard is a new credit-card sized hardware wallet featuring near-field communication (NFC) to authorize cryptocurrency transactions. At launch, it features integration with combined private messenger/wallet/DeFi browser, Status App, although further integrations are planned. The Keycard team has also released an open application programming interface (API) and software development kits (SDK) for Android, iOS and Go, so that developers can build Keycard functionality into any app requiring authorization or other user authentication. Secure storage and communication of private keys Security is key. In fact, when it comes to cryptocurrency security, it is literally all down to the private key used to …

A vulnerability discovered on Bancor on Thursday would have allowed hackers to simply drain the funds of anyone who interacted with its smart contracts. The exploit relied on the concept of withdrawal authorization, introduced in the ERC-20 standard. This allows various Ethereum-based decentralized applications to automatically withdraw money from users’ wallets. As Oded Leiba, a research engineer at ZenGo, wrote, the fund withdrawal function on Bancor’s smart contract was mistakenly set so that anyone could call it. Bancor acted preemptively to “steal” user funds before malicious parties could intervene. Compounding this issue was the fact that Bancor’s contracts requested an …

Some entrepreneurs have been trying to increase data privacy by combining encryption and blockchain technology. There are projects like Oasis Labs and Enigma that focus entirely on preserving users’ privacy. Meanwhile, others have been focusing on preventing data retention by companies. Thus, there is no way to guarantee that personal data is deleted in a company’s data system. Blockchain technology’s reliable consensus ensures that people’s data is used correctly. Protection against software and hardware attacks Companies like Oasis Labs, which designed the Ekiden system, run smart contracts outside the blockchain within a Trusted Execution Environment, or TEE, node to enable …

John Cantrell, Bitcoin and Lightning Network project developer, recently revealed he had successfully hacked a Bitcoin address. His article, however, received a number of responses with many concluding Bitcoin isn’t secure. Cantrell felt people missed the point of the exercise so, in a tweet thread on June 19, explained and ensured people that despite hacking a wallet, Bitcoin is still safe. Takes forever to crack the wallet According to Cantrell, bitcoins stored in a wallet generated from a 12-word mnemonic is secure. The only reason why he was able to hack the Bitcoin wallet was because the wallet’s owner publicly …

From a technical viewpoint, blockchain is a growing records list that is cryptographically tied to and managed by a peer-to-peer network. At the same time, they join a protocol of communication among nodes to validate new blocks. Essentially, a blockchain is a way of validating data transactions in a permanent and immutable manner to guarantee that the transaction: Has not been corrupted. Avoids double-spending. May transfer value. We can also say that blockchain technology is a decentralized network where all the records are engraved in a distributed way and shared in several devices spread throughout the world. The records are …

Several data violations, like the Cambridge Analytica scandal, have brought forth questions regarding how companies and governments should deal with the data entrusted to them, and they have also increased the search for the development of new technologies to preserve the privacy of companies and users. Consequently, countries and regulators have rushed to set new compliance requirements to deal with user privacy and data collection — like the General Data Protection Regulation in Europe or the General Data Protection Law in Brazil, to name a couple. Parallel to that, there has been a new trend to seek new technologies like …

In August 2010, a bug in the Bitcoin network that allowed large transactions to be added to the ledger without proper verification was identified by a hacker. The hacker generated and siphoned 184 billion Bitcoin (BTC) into three separate accounts. Fortunately, the bug was quickly identified and erased from the blockchain by developers. The existence of blockchain technology would indeed have been threatened if the hacker was successful. Since the emergence of blockchain technology, numerous industries have adapted the technology to store and transfer chunks of data. The technology boasted of an iron-clad defense system that supposedly could not be …

Bitcoin and Lightning Network project developer, John Cantrell, explained how he was able to successfully hack a BTC address by checking around a trillion seed combinations over the course of 30 hours. The feat was accomplished as part of a contest launched on Twitter by Alistair Milne — the CIO of the Atlanta Digital Currency Fund. Milne published hints to a 12-word Bitcoin wallet seed over the course of several days. Cantrell succeeded in brute forcing the mnemonic with only 8 out of the 12 words, ultimately claiming the 1 BTC prize contained inside. Developer rented several graphics cards Cantrell …

French fintech firm ID Distribution announced a joint venture with local real estate firm Groupe JRI, amining to tokenize various properties in Paris. According to a June 17 announcement, ID Distribution and Groupe JRI plan to jointly issue security tokens and a Frankfurt listed bond to acquire buildings in downtown Paris. The total amount of funds to be spent, 70 million euros (about $78.5 million) will be allocated to acquire five buildings which will be then leased. The use of security tokens is meant to strengthen the capital more so than could be achieved with traditional debt instruments. Furthermore, ID …

Blockchain cybersecurity firm Unbound Tech launched a new login solution meant to enable businesses to go passwordless. According to an announcement on June 17, Unbound Tech’s new identity solution removes the dependence on traditional authentication methods with a decentralized key management system. The system can also be used to access blockchain wallets. The system is meant to replace hardware tokens, software-powered one-time-passwords and standard passwords. According to the firm, the new solution can secure high-risk operations and authenticate transactions without security, usability or cost trade-offs. Unbound Tech CEO and co-founder Yehuda Lindell told Cointelegraph that there is need for such …