All USB Cables Are Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others
October 17th, 2025 by Elcomsoft R&D
As we outlined in the previous article (Effective Disk Imaging: Ports, Hubs, and Power), it’s better to connect external USB-C devices (such as adapters and especially write-blockers) to a USB-C port that complies with at least the USB 3.2 Gen2 specs (10 Gbit/s). But what if your computer only has USB-A ports, or only a USB-A port is free? Obviously, you’ll need a USB-C to USB-A cable – but you’ll need to choose the right one very carefully, and that’s not the only thing that matters.
Keyboards unreliable for keeping… transmitting secrets
June 16th, 2009 by Olga Koksharova
Time for shoulder surfing is gone, today we have more sophisticated ways to track what you are typing on your keyboard. A series of appearing keyboard attacks yet again prove its incapability of keeping secretes. Let’s see what we have…
More than 100.000 websites are in ‘safe hands’ now
June 10th, 2009 by Olga Koksharova
The Register reports VAServ.com has been attacked and now more than 100.000 websites have gone forever because of company’s poor password policy. The attackers are unknown and Rus Foster, (former?) VAServ.com director claims that anonymous messages indicated nonexistent passwords. I wouldn’t like to sound sarcastic but their description at AboutUs.org reads quite funny now, what do you think?
The smallest password cracking device
June 9th, 2009 by Vladimir Katalov
We wrote about the new iPhone last week, but these we only rumors. And now it is officially announced (on WWDC); the sales will start on June 17th (in the U.S.). Additional information is available at Apple web site: general and about iPhone 3.0 software update. But unfortunately, still no tech specs of its GPU; according to the above article, Maybe there is some truth to the rumors that Apple is using OpenCL. If that’s true, there will be (technical) ability to crack passwords on it, and the speed should not be disappointing.
Dark Tangent called for help in strengthening homeland security
June 8th, 2009 by Olga Koksharova
He started from hacking for fun (cracking phone systems), then he founded DefCon and Black Hat hacker conferences (btw, we had a chance to visit DefCon9 in 2001) and now Jeff Moss is chosen to take care of US cyber security affairs. No doubt, Jeff Moss has the guts to resist cyber terrorism and protect national interests. Good luck, Jeff!
Home and Corporate Wireless Security
June 8th, 2009 by Olga Koksharova
Securing home Wi-Fi remains uncertain when it comes to law. Some urge users are not liable when they use default security settings and it is manufacturer who is guilty when/if wireless network was ‘successfully’ abused. Others put whole responsibility on users. This is practically a question to law and usually its resolution depends on lawyers’ skills to gather and manipulate the details. Your security encompasses not only security against the law when you happen to fall a victim to an intruder, but also protection against that very intruder. In the long run, it’s up to you whether to endeavor to prove your innocence or take measures to build a reliable fence.
New iPhone
June 6th, 2009 by Vladimir Katalov
Latest rumors about iPhone: probably, it will have 3D Graphics Chip in it, according to Fudzilla article. Let’s hope that it will be CUDA-enabled, so we can make GPU-accelerated password cracker for it 😉
From COMPUTEX TAIPEI
June 6th, 2009 by Vladimir Katalov
Sorry I did not write blog for some time… Just returned from one-week vacation at Rhodos (Greece).
Microsoft UK NTO turns from praxis to theory
June 5th, 2009 by Olga Koksharova
Jerry Fishenden, Microsoft National Technology Officer in the UK leaves his post to work on his own. He intends to elaborate “a guidebook for politicians and policymakers about what does and doesn’t work in terms of delivering an effective technology policy”.
Preliminary Larrabee perfomance revealed
June 5th, 2009 by Andrey Belenko
When it comes to Larrabee one of most intriguing things is its performance. Official information provided by Intel was not enough to get good estimation. In my previous post I’ve estimated it as "roughly equivalent to GTX 295". Well, it seems I was too optimistic. Latest rumors are that current Larrabee samples deliver same performance as GTX 285.
