Slashdot Mirror
Tech Buzzwords Added to Dictionaries
Mark Owen writes "With technology buzzwords becoming so commonly used in daily life, Webster and Oxford have both begun to include some new terms in their latest editions. Some of their newest additions include: adware, biodiesel, codec, digicam, google (as a verb), geocaching, hacktivism, mash-up, rewriteable, ringtone, spyware, and texting."
Snake-oil-ng: Standards compliant but worthless encryption. Used by founder of Innersafe Corporation to warn others about the new generation of snake-oil encryption products using AES-256 in a way that make their security practically worthless. Snake-oil-ng can truthfully claim to be standards-compliant with AES-256, while providing less security than "snake-oil" using junk proprietary encryption. In one of many examples, allowing millions of passwords to be guessed per second while limiting the range of potential passwords--the generated key is still 256 bits so it can provide the illusion of security. Other examples include repeatedly generating the same IV and key when given the same password. Snake-oil-ng is replacing snake-oil because of easy-to-use crypto libraries that provide AES. And possibly making it easier for governments to give out export licenses to create the illusion that export/import controls have been relaxed. For example, most people have no clue that in the U.S. certain cryptographic software sold to people outside U.S. and Canada require the names and addresses of every customer to be filed semi-annually with the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security--making most retail products use less effective security.