Quantum Resistance or Quantum Safety, A Black Hat Quandary
Interesting article discussing cryptographic methods. Take some time to read and let this one percolate. (Mr. Grant should go ahead and have that third child). Because Quantum is Coming. Qubit.
Snake oil or genius? Crown Sterling tells its side of Black Hat controversy
Selected notes ~
+ Robert Grant claims he is a reluctant cryptographer. “The last thing I would’ve wanted to do is start another company,” Grant, the CEO and founder of Crown Sterling, told Ars. “It’s like my wife asking me if we can have another child… I have two. And I am not looking forward to another child.” But he and a collaborator believed that they had made a profound discovery, one that would fundamentally shake the core of modern encryption. “We thought, well, just out of a sense of responsibility, we should start a non-factor-based encryption technology,” Grant said. “And that’s what we did with Time AI.”
So when Crown Sterling’s spokesperson reached out to offer Ars the company’s side of the story, around both Time AI and the now-legendary Black Hat event, we were eager to hear it. Who are these guys?
+ Crown Sterling claims that its Time AI cryptographic system will fix the breakable-ness of RSA cryptography by using an entirely different method of generating keys, one that doesn’t rely on factoring large prime numbers. Time AI is intended to resist cracking even by advanced quantum computing technology—which has concerned cryptographers because of its potential to more rapidly perform algorithms capable of solving the difficult math problems that cryptography relies on.
+ Time AI, announced by Grant in a controversial sponsored presentation at Black Hat USA earlier this month, is not yet a product. In fact, Crown Sterling has not published any technical details of how Time AI works. (Grant said that the company is working on a “white paper,” and it should be out by the end of the year.) An academic-style paper published by Grant and presented at Black Hat claims that most Internet cryptography can be cracked, but it has been challenged by mathematicians and cryptographers, as well as many other security professionals. And the company’s recent Las Vegas presentation was interrupted by one very persistent heckler and then disavowed by Black Hat, leading to a lawsuit against the conference.
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