Headworx

End-to-end security has become the norm, at least as far as the common requirements go. it all makes sense of course, as no one wants to be vulnerable to any unwanted / untrusted man-in-the middle. The end-to-end security concept removes that man-in-the-middle risk. But the real question then comes up - who is the other end and how can it be trusted? This is where the concept starts becoming tricky . One example I brought up a few weeks ago was HDMI, and more precisely HDCP (the copy protection scheme). Digital content providers consider the end-to-end concept as their core requirements. Up until recently online services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and similar were not available on Raspberry Pi for example, as this platform was not considered a trusted "end". Apple TV and other "locked" media boxes were considered trusted ends. The worry was - of course - that someone would come up with a piece of code for Raspberry Pi which could grab the protected content and d...

The credit must go to Tesla for being the first to figure out the importance of software as the foundation of a car platform. They were also the first to integrate all car subsystems into one - motor control (including charging in EVs), entertainment, navigation. Not long ago it was all (mostly) disconnected bricks - the engine had its own ECU and the radio was separate from the navigation unit. The latter two typically had their exclusive screens and any attempts to integrate them were patchy at best. And to gest software upgrades (if any) you had to visit an authorized service station. With Tesla it was the first time people experienced automatic over-the-air firmware updates. And BTW they drunk the cool aid, some still believing the Level 5 self driving is just around the corner and an overnight upgrade away (more on that in another post). About 15 years ago I had a conversation with an engineer working at BMW. He gave me the (shocking - it was circa 2005!) statistics the cost of so...

I enjoy reading "History of mankind" books. The most popular today is probably Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harrari (it is also available as an illustrated history ). I can also recommend Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond , which I read after visiting Peru about 10 years ago (it has a great description and analysis of Pizarro attack on the Inca army at Cajamarca). Both Harrari and Diamond point to the role of viruses in shaping our global history (and now we can just experience how this works...). But the grand view after these lectures is the more advanced a civilization is, the more fragile it becomes. Who knows, maybe this is the reason our search for alien life has not bear any fruit.... We have an extremely well functioning system for spreading viruses across the globe - thanks to the modern means of transport. Our ancestors definitely did not have the capacity for a global pandemic.  And today (this has practically changed over the last decade) we rely entirely of elect...

The pandemic has revealed one interesting, wide-spread behavior: people generally have expectations of "things" being "provided" to them, take them for granted and consider absolutely guaranteed. In other words having no personal backup resources or any backup plans. The key examples of such "things" are: Access to the Internet Access to banking services, including credit card and  electronic payments Access to global location services (aka GPS) The Internet may be difficult to break down entirely (after all it was designed exactly to be a communication system that cannot be brought down), barring a global power outage event. Global failure of electronic payments is probably also highly improbable (unless someone cracks the underlying security algorithms), the GPS system has silently become the single point of failure for variety of systems we rely on today. It is probably the least appreciated part of the critical infrastructure of our everyday lives. Per...