“The Security Guru” Bruce Schneier Mario Basque Comp-1631 Winter, 2011

Outline  About Bruce  Managed Security Solutions Group – BT  What is;  Twofish  Blowfish  Yarrow  Hash functions  Skein  Threefish  Conclusion

The Beginning Born on January 15, 1963 Graduate of the American University in 1988 Has a Masters in Computer Science Bruce is a renowned security expert and author Bruce on Security v=IoXoHlI86rQ

Bruce has created and co-created many sophisticated algorithms for security purposes These algorithms are mostly aimed for businesses trying to protect their information from hackers He has also writes novels, some of his latest are; Secrets and Lies, and Cryptography Engineering, Applied Cryptography (best seller) Cryptography is the practice and study of hiding information

Managed Security Solutions Group - BT  Bruce started Managed Security Solutions (formally counterpane labs) in 1999 (sold to BT Group in 2006)  Bruce is the CTO (Chief Security Technology Officer) of Managed Security Solutions  This company is described by Bruce as “making security products work”  They offer monitoring services to businesses to try and prevent attacks from hackers

Encryption Algorithm  Encryption is the process of taking plain text and transforming it to cipher text  Bruce is a security expert he uses this process and helps large businesses (especially banks) to hide information so hackers can’t get private information  Let’s look at some Algorithm that Bruce Schneier created

Twofish

Blowfish

Twofish / Blowfish  Twofish is a symmetric key block cipher with a block sizes of 128 bits and key sizes up to 256 bits  Blowfish is also a symmetric key block cipher but a little bigger in size and faster, it takes a variable length-key of 32 bits to 448 bits  A combination of S-boxes, with a complex key schedule make up the process of Twofish and Blowfish

Terminology  Block Cipher: takes plain text as an input and translates it into cipher text  S-Box (substitution-box): it performs substitutions, in block ciphers, they are typically used to obscure the relationship between the key and the cipher text

Yarrow  Uses a system called pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) – generates random numbers on a computer  The numbers have to be large enough so it can’t be hacked  PRNG had been broken before by a couple of Berkley Students  Yarrow generates cryptographically secure pseudorandom numbers on a computer. It can also be used as a real random number generator, accepting random inputs from analog random sources, it’s security is said to be a step up from normal PRNG

Hash Function  As you can see hash functions are very simple but difficult to decode  It takes the key, switches it into a set of numbers and/or letters ( called a hash) and stores the values in a array

Skein Hash Function   The name Skein refers to how The skin function intertwines the input, similar to a coil of yarn   It’s a new family of cryptographic Hash functions (look at next slide)   It’s design combines speed, Security, simplicity, and a great deal of flexibility in a modular Package that is easy to analyse

Threefish  Threefish is in the Skein hash function family  Does not use s-boxes, nor does it use any other form of a table look ups  It uses addition and exclusive operations to cipher text  Key sizes are 256 bits, 512 bits, and 1024 bits

Conclusion  He writes a blog every month called crypto-gram ( gram.html) which has around 150, 000 subscribers gram.htmlhttp:// gram.html  Bruce is an expert at what he does, known as one of the best in the world, that’s probably why the Economist gave him the nickname “The Security Guru”

References  er/articles er/articles er/articles  Schneier, Bruce. Moveable Type,  Pictures courtesy of; s