Online privacy breakthrough: Researchers develop internet ‘security layer’

Scientists at Scentrics, working with University College London, say they have created an algorithm that can guarantee total privacy for everything from emails and text messages.Called ‘The Construct’, they hope the system could be used to give everything from desktop machines to mobile phones simple to use encryption. The Construct is the name given to […]

Scientists at Scentrics, working with University College London, say they have created an algorithm that can guarantee total privacy for everything from emails and text messages.
Called ‘The Construct’, they hope the system could be used to give everything from desktop machines to mobile phones simple to use encryption.
The Construct is the name given to the algorithm which thwarts the MiTM results in a fully automated, standards based cryptographic key management protocol for TCP/IP and the UMTS networks.
It means ‘one click privacy’ in an instant, and handles all of the key exchange and encryption that is needed – without the user having to do anything.
If you are not connected when you receive a message for example (in its messaging security application), then you will be invited to join the key management service.
The company is headed by a computer scientist and mathematician, Paran Chandrasekaran, who used to be technology counsellor to the Prince of Wales’ Business Advisory Board.
“This allows people to lock their digital front doors and alarm their online lives,” he told DailyMail.com.
‘The challenge is to give crypto to the masses, make it a one click solution and comply with corporate security.
“What we have developed is an algorithm that places a security layers into the DNA of the internet – it will have crypto for the masses, and you won’t even need a special app.”
The company has found a way of defeating what cryptologists call ‘the man-in-the-middle attack’ or MITM – the ability of someone to hack and intercept an electronic message.
This requires an attacker to have the ability to both monitor and alter or inject messages into a communication channel.
One example of this used by hackers is active eavesdropping, in which the attacker makes independent connections with the victims and relays messages between them to make them believe they are talking directly to each other over a private connection, when in fact the entire conversation is controlled by the attacker.
The attacker must be able to intercept all relevant messages passing between the two victims and inject new ones.
This is straightforward in many circumstances; for example, an attacker within reception range of an unencrypted Wi-Fi wireless access point, can insert himself as a man-in-the-middle.
Until now, Chandrasekaran said, there has been no foolproof way of blocking a third person from gaining access to the electronic conversation.
The team recently received a patent for their solution, and is currently in talks with a major backer, with a deal expected to be announced within weeks.
“The buyer of this company must be commercial and responsible, well respected and not fight with other firms,” Chandrasekaran warned.