Lava Lamps vs Hackers: How Cloudflare has gone above and beyond for internet encryption

Believe it or not, these 100 or so lava lamps have provided internet encryption to millions of internet users for several years now.

The Wall of Entropy, located at the San Francisco headquarters of Cloudfare, has a camera pointing at it all the time. At regular intervals, the camera captures images of the lamps and transmits them to Cloudflare servers. These digital images are essentially encoded as sequences of numbers, where each pixel corresponds to a numerical value. Consequently, each image is essentially transformed into a string of seemingly random numbers. Cloudflare servers leverage these strings as a foundation for generating robust encryption keys, ensuring security. This is extremely important as 10% of the internal web traffic flows through Cloudfare’s servers.

What’s entropy?
Entropy quite literally means randomness or disorder. In cryptography, entropy is all about random number generation. Specifically, it measures the level of unpredictable randomness within a physical system. Hence, due to extremely unpredictability of these lava lamps, Cloudfare has christened the lava lamp wall as the Wall of Entropy.

Why use lava lamps to generate randomness instead of supercomputers?
Computers operate on logical principles, relying on if-then statements within programs to dictate actions based on specific conditions. This deterministic nature ensures consistent outputs for identical inputs. Such predictability is essential for the reliable functioning of devices like printers and smartphones, where unexpected outcomes could lead to chaos. However, this predictability becomes a drawback in generating secure encryption keys. While certain programs can simulate randomness, they often fall short in producing encryption keys with the necessary level of unpredictability and security. Hackers can exploit these predictable patterns in computer algorithms, posing significant security risks. To counter this vulnerability, randomness from the physical world, such as that provided by lava lamps, introduces an unpredictable element that greatly enhances encryption security, making it exceedingly difficult for hackers to decipher.

While you might expect such a crucial setup to be hidden away in obscurity, you can actually see these lava lamps in person at Cloudflare’s San Francisco headquarters. It might seem odd that Cloudflare lets regular folks affect the video footage, but it’s on purpose. Things like people moving around, static, and changes in light from nearby windows all make the random code harder to guess. So, by standing in front of the lava lamps, you add another layer of complexity to the code, making it tougher to hack. Essentially, by checking out Cloudflare’s lava lamp display, you’re keeping the internet safer.

What’s interesting is that a company named Silicon Graphics had designed something similar back in 1996. Called Lavarand, it worked on the same principle of random generation, albeit on a low bandwidth.

The innovative use of lava lamps at Cloudflare’s San Francisco headquarters underscores the importance of unpredictability in internet security. Cloudflare has created a novel approach to generating secure encryption keys. This serves as a reminder that in an increasingly interconnected world, unconventional solutions can play a crucial role in safeguarding sensitive information. As visitors marvel at the mesmerizing display of swirling colors, they unknowingly contribute to the collective effort of fortifying the digital infrastructure against cyber threats. In the realm of cybersecurity, where constant vigilance is paramount, the Wall of Entropy stands as a symbol of innovation and resilience in the face of evolving challenges.