Anyone who's tried to tether to their iPhone or iPad will recall how iOS manages to craft its own passwords when used as a personal hotspot. The aim is to ensure that anyone sharing a data connection will get some degree of security, regardless of whether or not they tinker with the password themselves. However, three researchers from FAU in Germany have now worked the structure behind these auto-generated keys -- a combination of a short English word and a series or random numbers -- and managed to crack that hotspot protection in under a minute. To start, the word list contains about 52,500 entries, and once the testers were able to capture a WiFi connection, they used an AMD Radeon HD 6990 GPU to cycle through all those words with number codes, taking just under 50 minutes to crack with rote entry. Following that, they realized that only a small subset (just 1,842) of the word list was being used.With an even faster GPU -- a cluster of four AMD Radeon HD 7970s -- they got the hotspot password cracking time to 50 seconds. The Friedrich-Alexander University researchers added that unscrupulous types could use comparable processing power through cloud computing. "System-generated passwords should be reasonably long, and should use a reasonably large character set. Consequently, hotspot passwords should be composed of completely random sequences of letters, numbers, and special characters," says the report, which outlines the trade-off between security and usability. However, as ZDNet notes, Apple's cycled password approach still offers more protection than static options found elsewhere. Check out the full paper at the source. when.eng("eng.perm.init")Sunday, September 22, 2013
Researchers able to predict iOS-generated hotspot passwords in less than a minute
Anyone who's tried to tether to their iPhone or iPad will recall how iOS manages to craft its own passwords when used as a personal hotspot. The aim is to ensure that anyone sharing a data connection will get some degree of security, regardless of whether or not they tinker with the password themselves. However, three researchers from FAU in Germany have now worked the structure behind these auto-generated keys -- a combination of a short English word and a series or random numbers -- and managed to crack that hotspot protection in under a minute. To start, the word list contains about 52,500 entries, and once the testers were able to capture a WiFi connection, they used an AMD Radeon HD 6990 GPU to cycle through all those words with number codes, taking just under 50 minutes to crack with rote entry. Following that, they realized that only a small subset (just 1,842) of the word list was being used.With an even faster GPU -- a cluster of four AMD Radeon HD 7970s -- they got the hotspot password cracking time to 50 seconds. The Friedrich-Alexander University researchers added that unscrupulous types could use comparable processing power through cloud computing. "System-generated passwords should be reasonably long, and should use a reasonably large character set. Consequently, hotspot passwords should be composed of completely random sequences of letters, numbers, and special characters," says the report, which outlines the trade-off between security and usability. However, as ZDNet notes, Apple's cycled password approach still offers more protection than static options found elsewhere. Check out the full paper at the source. when.eng("eng.perm.init")Thursday, September 19, 2013
Researchers create micro-battery with 3D printer (video)

We often hear about the coming nanobot revolution, but just how are scientists planning on powering these future marvels? Well, researchers from Harvard and the University of Illinois may have found the solution in a 3D-printed battery: it's smaller than a grain of sand, yet has areal energy and power densities comparable to your cellphone battery. The team used a custom 3D printer with a 1mm wide nozzle to deposit two separate lithium metal oxide pastes into comb-like shapes, which then hardened to create an anode and cathode. After adding an electrolyte, a sub-hair-width cell was created with "performance comparable to commercial batteries in terms of charge and discharge rate, cycle life and energy densities." Those could someday wind up in medical devices, wearable electronics or tiny flying drones, for instance. To see how they did it, check the video after the break.
when.eng("eng.perm.init")Via: Gigaom
Source: Advanced Materials (subscription)
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Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Researchers flaunt flying bike, no mention of alien-caching basket (video)

Researchers from several Czech companies have managed to make a bicycle soar with the aid of six electric motor-driven propellers. Looking like an over-sized quadrocopter drone, the bike was actually guided in a similar RC manner by scientists on the ground while a dummy rode in the pilot's seat. The range of the contraption was severely limited by the small batteries needed to keep the already-chunky 220 pound weight down, and the device would obviously be difficult to operate on a bike path due to its ungainly size. Still, the developers said the project was more about the fulfillment of childhood dreams than any commercial aim -- though we're not sure even our wildest ET fantasies would compel us to make the leap.
[Image credit: Michal Cizek/AFP/Getty Images]
when.eng("eng.perm.init")Via: CNET
Source: Ceske Noviny
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TRAQ quadricopter locates and hones in on radio signal sources (video) when.eng("eng.livefyre.init", {articleId: 20620199,checksum: "76d33f1859f6e647d5d53b97cf82b925",collectionMeta: "eyJ0eXAiOiJqd3QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJ0aXRsZSI6IlJlc2VhcmNoZXJzIGZsYXVudCBmbHlpbmcgYmlrZSwgbm8gbWVudGlvbiBvZiBhbGllbi1jYWNoaW5nIGJhc2tldCAodmlkZW8pIiwidXJsIjoiaHR0cDpcL1wvd3d3LmVuZ2FkZ2V0LmNvbVwvMjAxM1wvMDZcLzEzXC9yZXNlYXJjaGVycy1mbGF1bnQtZmx5aW5nLWJpa2VcLyIsInRhZ3MiOiIiLCJjaGVja3N1bSI6Ijc2ZDMzZjE4NTlmNmU2NDdkNWQ1M2I5N2NmODJiOTI1IiwiYXJ0aWNsZUlkIjoiMjA2MjAxOTkifQ.p5L0TvFsWlHZUyi6VjBPbZwV4eo_aKbKmAwXuNsEvcM",domain: "engadget.fyre.co",siteId: "296092"}) onBreak({980: function () { adSetType("F");htmlAdWH("93310581", "RR", "RR"); adSetType("");}}); onBreak({980: function () { adSetType("F");htmlAdWH("93218256", "160", "600"); adSetType("");}}); when.eng("eng.rail.init") Sites We LikeTech Apple News gdgt Boing BoingSlashdotMAKEArs TechnicaTechMemePhone ScoopDesignFFFFOUND!Core77Popcorn ShowerMoCo LocoDesign*SpongeThe SartorialistNewsHuffPost PoliticsThe Daily BeastHuffington PostTech NewsBusiness NewsInvesting NewsLifestyleLifehackerHuffPost WomenStylelistAutomotive TranslogicGadlingEnvironmentalInhabitatGoodAutoblog GreenHuffpost GreenEntertainment Joystiq MassivelyThe Onioni09HuffPost CelebritySpinnerMoviefone About UsSubscribe via RSSLike Engadget on Facebook@engadget on TwitterEspañol???????????DeutschlandJoystiqEA: Online Pass staying dead after PS4 reveal, program's expiration not tied to Xbox OneDemystifying Quantum Break with Remedy's Sam LakeTaking a test drive with DriveclubTuawThe Steve Jobs smoking gun email that wasn'tApple says it has 20% of the e-book marketBeyond controller support what else does iOS 7 have to offer game developers?TechCrunchSocial Commerce Service Fancy Goes International, Now Ships WorldwideIn The Shadow Of YouTube, Vuclip Grows Its Mobile Video Network To 80M Uniques, Fends Off Suitors And Eyes Up AcquisitionsTwitter Opens Up Tweet Performance Analytics To All, For FreeHuffPost TechNOT ENOUGHYour Next iPhone Could Be Bigger And More ColorfulHere's Where The NSA's Secretly Gathered Emails And Phone Calls Will Be StoriedAOL Tech.© 2013 AOL Inc.
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