zaiblog | PS3s for exploiting e-commerce transactions

PS3s for exploiting e-commerce transactions

Remember the time when PS2 shipments were controlled because it was said to be able to control nuke missiles? (I think it was Tech TV who said that) Anyway…

A team of United States and European computer security researchers have used a cluster of several hundred Sony PlayStation 3 video-game machines to exploit a basic weakness in the software system used to protect commercial transactions made via the Internet.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/

Although most certificate authorities have shifted to a more modern digital fingerprinting algorithm known as SHA-1, a small number have not. The digital certificate system is designed in such a way that if a single certificate authority can be compromised, it is possible for an attacker to mass-produce forged certificates that undermine the “web of trust” the entire system is based on. It relies on public key cryptography, a system in which each user creates a public and private key — long numbers — to help mathematically prove their identity and encrypt and decrypt information.