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Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Lucky Thirteen With 85% of the world’s online population sending their details when shopping and banking on the World Wide Web, an EPSRC-sponsored research team have discovered a weakness in encryption software used to safeguard information sent by users to websites. The ‘Lucky Thirteen’ project led by Professor Kenny Paterson at Royal Holloway, University of London staged attacks on the Transport Layer Security system (TLS) to test if it was possible to see information that was meant to be securely encrypted. Kenny says, “TLS combined with CBC mode encryption is used widely to protect internet traffic. Our research found that TLS could be broken meaning that new patches to prevent cyber-attacks are vital.” The research team disclosed the details to affected companies including software giants Microsoft and Google and have been working with them to put in place measures to prevent attacks. Website: www.isg.rhul.ac.uk/tls/Lucky13.html
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