Security experts skeptical about electronics ban on aircraft
March 26, 2017 | Robert Silk, Travel Weekly
Press
"Yes, bombs in laptops are a threat, but this assumes the laptop has to be manually detonated or placed, while a timer can work just as well in the cargo hold," Nicholas Weaver, a researcher at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California-Berkeley wrote in an email. "At the same time, by only targeting a few source airports but not transit, this assumes that said suicidal terrorist is willing to blow up a plane but is unwilling to transfer through Frankfurt."
Nintendo Switch, iPads, More Banned On Some US-Bound Flights
March 24, 2017 | Oscar Dayus, GameSpot
"If you assume the attacker is interested in turning a laptop into a bomb, it would work just as well in the cargo hold," International Computer Science Institute researcher Nicholas Weaver told the Guardian. "If you're worried about hacking, a cellphone is a computer."
FBI director floats international framework on access to encrypted data
March 23, 2017 | Michael Kan, IDG News Service
Comey’s idea means that all countries will essentially agree to weaken the security in their vendors’ tech products, Weaver said. However, other countries will balk, fearing that the U.S. might exploit the cooperation for spying purposes.
How the new ‘electronics ban’ serves the Trump agenda
March 22, 2017 | Ishaan Tharoor
“It’s weird, because it doesn’t match a conventional threat model,” said Nicholas Weaver, a researcher at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, in an interview with the Guardian. “If you assume the attacker is interested in turning a laptop into a bomb, it would work just as well in the cargo hold. If you’re worried about hacking, a cellphone is a computer.”
Experts criticize US electronic devices ban on some flights from Middle East
March 21, 2017 | Sam Theilman and Sam Levin, The Guardian
“It’s weird, because it doesn’t match a conventional threat model,” said Nicholas Weaver, researcher at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. “If you assume the attacker is interested in turning a laptop into a bomb, it would work just as well in the cargo hold.” “If you’re worried about hacking, a cellphone is a computer.”
Trump Orders a Carry-On Electronics Ban for Airlines Coming From 8 Majority-Muslim Countries
March 21, 2017 | Laura Stampler, Teen Vogue
But some don’t think the new ban will actually prevent terrorist attacks. Nicholas Weaver, a researcher at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, told The Guardian: “If you assume the attacker is interested in turning a laptop into a bomb, it would work just as well in the cargo hold. If you’re worried about hacking, a cell phone is a computer.”
Some HTTPS inspection tools might weaken security
March 17, 2017 | Lucian Constantin, IDG News Service
Researchers from Google, Mozilla, Cloudflare, University of Michigan, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of California, Berkeley and the International Computer Science Institute recently conducted an investigation of HTTPS inspection practices. They found that more than 10 percent of HTTPS traffic that originates from the U.S. and reaches Cloudflare's content delivery network is being intercepted. So are 6 percent of connections to e-commerce websites.
What the Media Got Wrong About the Latest WikiLeaks Dump
March 17, 2017 | Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield, WNYC
Nicholas Weaver, a senior researcher at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California Berkeley, talks with Bob and how the media got played by Wikileaks, and how to avoid that trap next time.
The real shocker in the WikiLeaks scoop
March 14, 2017 | David Ignatius, Washington Post
The dark side of this world exploded into view with WikiLeaks’ publication of the CIA toolkit. Some scary initial stories argued that the CIA could crack Signal and WhatsApp phone encryption, not to mention your toaster and television. But security experts Nicholas Weaver and Zeynep Tufekci have pushed back against those early claims, in the Lawfare blog and in the New York Times, respectively.
What the CIA WikiLeaks dump tells us: Encryption works
March 10, 2017 | Anick Jesdanun and Michael Liedtke, Associated Press
“We are in a world where if the U.S. government wants to get your data, they can’t hope to break the encryption,” said Nicholas Weaver, who teaches networking and security at the University of California, Berkeley. “They have to resort to targeted attacks, and that is costly, risky and the kind of thing you do only on targets you care about. Seeing the CIA have to do stuff like this should reassure civil libertarians that the situation is better now than it was four years ago.”