By Digital signatures are used anywhere you might need to prove that you are communicating with the individual, organisation or service that you expect to be. This might be through digitally ‘signing’ an email or providing ‘signed’ software to end users to prove that it’s legitimate but the most common use
Creating Certificates with the Nitrokey HSM 2 and XCA
What is a Certificate? A digital certificate makes use of Public Key Cryptography to authenticate users, essentially blending a Public Key with a Digital Signature to assert identity. The most common standard used for certificates is X.509 and common uses of certificates include: Secure web browsing – HTTPS – encryption
What is Public Key Cryptography?
We all make use of public key cryptography in our day to day lives but it’s one of those technologies we rarely think about. For starters, you’re reading this post over HTTPS which uses public key cryptography as does your banking app and most other web services you access test
Getting Started with the Nitrokey HSM 2
The folks at Nitrokey kindly sent me a Nitrokey HSM 2 as part of the Nitrokey Community Program. The tiny, thumb-drive sized device is actually a Hardware Security Module, a device that holds cryptographic keys and performs encryption and decryption. If you’ve not come across HSMs before and you’d like
Exploring Unsecured S3 Buckets
Security misconfiguration is one of the most significant causes of data leakage. It’s listed in the OWASP Top Ten at #6 and one of the clearest examples can be seen with unsecured S3 buckets. Amazon’s Simple Storage Service, S3 for short, is a web service that can store documents, data,
Joining the Nitrokey Community Programme
I first came across Nitrokey as a provider of U2F USB sticks, little hardware devices that authenticate users with a physical device. The idea there is that you can use this physical device as part of a multifactor authentication process to strengthen your security. Using a physical device means that
What is a Hardware Security Module?
A great deal of the way that we interact with the world in our daily lives relies on security. We need to be able to trust that the information we receive is secure and that our personal data remains private. This need for trust and security is critical to many
Course Review: Blockchain Revolution
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are technologies I’ve been fascinated by for years and both have the potential to transform our lives over the coming decade. 53% of global enterprises believe that blockchain will be a critical, ‘top five’ strategic priority by 2021. Deloitte Blockchain Statistics 2019 Earlier this year I decided to
