IEEE Cipher --- Items from security-related news (E151)
Summary:
A researcher based in the Canary Islands alerted Apple to
a flaw in iOS 13 that allows anyone who has physical possession of a
device to read the contacts list without needing a passcode or facial
recognition. He talked to Apple about the problem, and he became
concerned that the company would not release an immediate fix.
Therefore, he went public with the information. Apple has a scheduled
update to iOS 13 on September 24.
Summary:
The US Senate has proposed $250M to to reassure the public that the
states will have the resources they needed to protect the integrity
of their elections. After rejecting similar measures as being
partisan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell backed a new
proposal, saying that it was safe from feared Federal regulation
that Democrats might have imposed.
Summary:
Microsoft announced a software suite intended as a tool for
safeguarding the integrity of paper-based US elections.
The blogpost by
Tom Burt, Corporate Vice President, Customer Security & Trust at
Microsoft, described the suite as a tool that can be used by
the existing election community. The open source system uses
cryptography to ensure that an election audit can be carried
out with confidence in the result. Microsoft will provide
a deeply discounted version of the Office 365 application suite
for political parties and campaigns.
The product, Election Guard, is based on ideas developed by Microsoft's senior cryptographer, Josh Benaloh. He has been working on election security technology for 30 years.