It Is Official, School Is Out! At Least For The Moment

Posted on May 19, 2009 by fang64.
Categories: News.

Well first thing on the agenda is the Yubi Key it is rather important since it brings a RSA SecurID or Vasco style key into the consumer market. It is quite affordable compared to other solutions since other solutions require a certificate server and numerous other hurdles just to get the thing implemented. It is not completely secure but it’s better than not bothering to secure the system at all. I did see there were efforts to read the yubi key and some folks are making progress in that department which is slightly scary. I do not know if they have had any success but it is worth noting. I am grabbing the SDK or Software Development Kit, for the less savvy, for it and looking at possible options for portable devices and whether these options would be worth it. It would be nice if you could lock down the device you have completely to deter thieves from grabbing a device using a Yubi Key but currently that would require the device to have some functions to stop usage completely if it did not have a Yubi Key plugged in. I thought about implementing something at boot time, but that is limited by the bios technology we have. If we had Unified Extensible Firmware Interface we might be able to put a dent into those who think they can simply wipe or reset the bios via CMOS battery to make the device functional again. We’ve seen bios solutions like what IBM and Toshiba do with their hardware and how excessive they go to protect their devices from both data theft and just plain thievery. I know there are some modules you can add to BIOSes out there to fix that issue but I don’t think that is a complete solution. It is not exactly the best idea to completely lock out access to the bios or firmware, but it should stop the common crook. Overall the best defense is simply making the device as impossible to use and make functional also since your assumed to use encryption anyway your data would be quite safe. However, I do not know of many device manufacturers that ensure there is a way to make the device into a paper-weight beyond a laptop.

I am also investigating OpenCL as a option for future projects, particularly on Linux. Seems the open API and the fact there are state trackers being implemented for it in Gallium3D are making it quite attractive to develop on.

Also, I may going to start adding pages but then again this site is a bit informal for that purpose even though I speak about topics I do not tend to acknowledge anyone on the site specifcally due to the methods at which spam and phishers work I cannot post too much on myself otherwise I become a target for that madness.

A small note on the Open Pandora seems they have started really moving on the progress meter at least with getting it out the door, maybe in a month or two we will see it for real.