Multi-core Processors are Key to Security

MIT Professor and Turing Award Winner Ron Rivest knows a thing or two about security. He invented the RC2, RC4, and RC5 symmetric key encryption algorithms (RC=Rivest Cipher), as well as the MD2, MD4 and MD5 hashing algorithms. He's also the R in RSA, so I got to know him when Jim Bidzos and I were getting VeriSign off the ground (not to mention a few friendly poker games we shared).

Anyway, the community of security researchers continuously strengthen their algorithms to withstand the steady onslaught of attack from cryptographers with increasingly powerful computers. So Rivest has been developing his newest MD6 algorithm on Tilera multi-core processors. Tilera is a Bessemer company that has integrated 64 processors with independent memory, caches and network ports on a single chip known as Tile64.

According to this article from a recent MIT campus paper, NIST won't adopt MD6 as a standard because it's just too slow to run without the Tile64. The inescapable conclusion is that as long as we continue to buy computers built on stale platforms, our security algorithms will be vulnerable to hackers with newer toys.

RedHerring Interview: Security and VC Blogging

Yoggie: Silly Name, Serious Protection

If you're the family IT guy, I recommend you install a Yoggie Gatekeeper. This credit-card-sized gizmo (designed for mobile protection of road warrior laptops) can be inserted between your router and LAN switch to protect all downstream PCs in your home from just about any kind of attack. You don't have to install security software at each PC, and you can set the security settings for each PC centrally, so your 7-year old can't bypass the filters (don't get me started). By vesting the security functions in a separate processor the way that enterprises do, your network is much safer from exploits (in fact Yoggie won the Innovation Station competition at RSA this year). But more importantly, the out-of-box experience is iPod-like, and the whole installation takes less than 5 minutes unless you gawk for too long.

This is not a plug for a Bessemer portfolio company, but I do happen to know the CEO Shlomo Touboul, because he founded Finjan. In fact, years after Shlomo first left Finjan, I recruited him back as CEO. (Contrary to what some bloggers tell you, not all VC's want to get rid of the founders.)

Blogged with Flock