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BlackBerry announces a new quantum-resistant code signing service

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Re: BlackBerry announces a new quantum-resistant code signing service

#21

Post by wenc »

smaili wrote: post #9

I'll be honest, my knee-jerk reaction was "BlackBerry is still in business?". Anyone on HN own one or know of someone who does? I can't recall the last time I walked into a store who actually carried BB products on their shelves.

BlackBerry is not only still in business, but they are profitable too. [1]

Their handset business is almost completely wiped out. The catch is that they're making their money off enterprise software and services. They also still have their QNX business, but maintaining their lead in the automotive sector will be challenging. It remains to be seen how long their strategy will work.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blackberry-results/blackb...

Re: BlackBerry announces a new quantum-resistant code signing service

#22

Post by NeedMoreTea »

da_murvel wrote: post #15
smaili wrote: post #9

I'll be honest, my knee-jerk reaction was "BlackBerry is still in business?". Anyone on HN own one or know of someone who does? I can't recall the last time I walked into a store who actually carried BB products on their shelves.

I own a KeyOne, released last year with Android instead of BB's own OS. I love it, only downside is that I had to import it as it isn't available in my country ... I'd mainly used Samsung flagship phones before and got really tired of all the bloatware as well as typing on a touchscreen. (Can't believe more people are questioning touchscreen typing on phones, I think it's horrible and I don't have the largest set of…

I know one person with one, and that very much seems to be his impression too.

In other words it's the phone (Android + BB keyboard) they should have made years ago, and many were hoping for.

Re: BlackBerry announces a new quantum-resistant code signing service

#24

Post by capnprotonmail »

The Blackberry founder Mike Lazaridis is a physicist and huge proponent of quantum computing, he funded among other things the "quantum valley" in Canada.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Lazaridis

So no surprise they take quantum seriously ;)

Re: BlackBerry announces a new quantum-resistant code signing service

#25

Post by CiPHPerCoder »

rocqua wrote: post #19

Last time I read about quantum resistant crypto was regarding the NSA's call for papers. As I recall many of the used cryptosystems were broken by conventional computing within like a month. My point being, what reason do we have to believe these are safe cryptosystems.

There was a talk at 34C3 which covered these attacks pretty well (although those breaks were not the primary aim of the talk):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCsvBFFLsqE

https://latticehacks.cr.yp.to/

Re: BlackBerry announces a new quantum-resistant code signing service

#26

Post by walterbell »

captn3m0 wrote: post #20
da_murvel wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own a KeyOne, released last year with Android instead of BB's own OS. I love it, only downside is that I had to import it as it isn't available in my country ... I'd mainly used Samsung flagship phones before and got really tired of all the bloatware as well as typing on a touchscreen. (Can't believe more people are questioning touchscreen typing on phones, I think it's horrible and I don't have the largest set of…

How's the update cycle like?

Monthly or faster (if BB issues an out of band fix).

KEY2 is available in the US.

Re: BlackBerry announces a new quantum-resistant code signing service

#27

Post by mdm_ »

walterbell wrote: post #26
captn3m0 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's the update cycle like?

Monthly or faster (if BB issues an out of band fix). KEY2 is available in the US.

I just upgraded from a KeyOne to a Key2 and it's better in just about every way. Twice the storage and RAM, faster CPU, dual camera, more spacious keyboard, cleaner design, more solid construction, and the fingerprint sensor is faster and works better with sweaty fingers (i.e. while running/exercising) than my work-issued iPhone 7.

Re: BlackBerry announces a new quantum-resistant code signing service

#28

Post by joe_the_user »

Quantum sounds cool but what big potential application can people point to other than crypto?

And if quantum resistant crypto is in place by the time serious quantum computing is in place, I assume the main application of quantum will be to read all stored, previously encrypted secrets out there.

Re: BlackBerry announces a new quantum-resistant code signing service

#29

Post by raoulj »

olliej wrote: post #7
rictic wrote: post #3

My first reaction was "why is this news, isn't elliptic curve crypto widely deployed and quantum resistant?" It looks like the story is more complicated (and most ECC algorithms are not quantum resistant): https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/35482/which-ellip...

More generally anything based on the discrete logarithm problem (so both rsa and ecc) are not quantum resistance. As explained to me by an actual maths guy the basic issue is that DLP is heavily biased across its key space. Shor’s algorithm leverages this by doing a Fourier transform that gets the incorrect values to cancel out. The quantum resistant algorithms work by creating an unbiased key space so there’s no abi…

What mailing list? Would be interested to join!

Re: BlackBerry announces a new quantum-resistant code signing service

#30

Post by czbond »

joe_the_user wrote: post #28

Quantum sounds cool but what big potential application can people point to other than crypto? And if quantum resistant crypto is in place by the time serious quantum computing is in place, I assume the main application of quantum will be to read all stored, previously encrypted secrets out there.

Think of how fast people's Ruby on Rails projects would be now! ;)
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