[aklug] Security issue

I just ran across something on Slashdot that appears to me to be reason
to be concerned.

http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/01/13/2024237/Amazon-EC2-Enables-Cheap-Brute-Force-Attacks

That Amazon EC2 server thingie they have going on appears to have GPU
cluster arrays available, cheap. Seems some German white hat hack has
figured out a way to use one to brute force WPA-PSK wireless security in
6 minutes at about $1.68, so he claims anyway.

It seems to me if one of these GPU cluster thingies can be used to crack
this, it can be used to crack other things as well. A PGP encrypted hard
disk for instance.

Maybe someone here can explain why I have no reason for concern.

Jim G

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Received on Sat Jan 15 15:14:45 2011