Chimeras, Snake Oil and … Buy My Magic Amulet and You’ll be Fine

I recently heard of a consultant advising a company to upgrade their encryption to 256-bit AES, as 128-bit AES encryption keys had been hacked, and could easily be broken — nothing could be further from the truth . And so it took me back to a word that a heard in a presentation a couple of years ago … chimeras.

After attending so many talks on cyber security, where you feel scared to leave your home, and people talking on TV about cyber hackers, and scaring people, I loved a talk by Dr Ian Levy from GCHQ, and where he outlined …

…world-plus-dog were trying to flog security defenses to tackle “advanced persistent threats,” usually you see photos of hoodie-cloaked blokes poised over a keyboard with Matrix -style green lettering in the background. But such figures — seen as untouchable, unbeatable, and untraceable — are chimeras, and it’s just “ adequate pernicious toe-rags” who are doing the hacking

So here’s the picture I sometimes start presentations with … yes … that is me with a hoodie:

and here’s a couple of our students … not being serious …