IEEE Spectrum: "Chip Design Thwarts Sneak Attack on Data"

A nice article was publiched in IEEE spectrum. It talks about how randomizing cache entry organization makes data stealing pain stakingly difficult. The article introduces us to a new technology developed by Princeton University called NewCache. It is a must read for tech freaks.

Data encrypted on your computer should be safe, as long as you’re the only one with the key to the encryption. But one variant of newer—and sneakier—attacks
can deduce the key by striking a vulnerable spot: the CPU’s on-chip memory, called the cache. Software-based attempts to bolster cache security have bad side effects, however, which can severely degrade the computer’s performance.

Now researchers have developed a new kind of cache architecture that neutralizes
these attacks. They found that combining the best qualities of the two main types of cache had amazing results: a secure cache that also handles data faster and consumes less power.

The new technology, called Newcache, developed at Princeton University by electrical engineering professor Ruby Lee and her graduate student, Zhenghong Wang, foils these so-called cache side-channel attacks by randomizing where data is stored in the cache.

A CPU’s cache copies data that the processor uses frequently from a computer’s main memory and temporarily stores it. This reduces greatly the amount of time needed to retrieve data, so it speeds up processing.

A cache organizes the incoming data logically to make it easy to find. ”If you throw data just anywhere into your cache,” says IEEE Fellow Mark Hill, a computer science professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, ”when you need to find it, you have to look for it everywhere.” So caches use an addressing system that can be conceptually compared to a rudimentary address book. ”Your friend Alice will be stored in the ABC section or nowhere,” he explains. The good news: Finding Alice is easy. The bad news: Because the cache is comparatively small, there is room for only one entry in the ABC section. Adding your friend Bob would kick Alice out of the cache. This is called a conflict miss, a term Hill coined in his 1987 Ph.D. thesis.

Here’s how a side-channel attack works to exploit that organization. An attacker fills the address book with his own entries, including, say, Bob. When you add a new ABC entry, Alice for instance, Bob is booted out. The attacker doesn’t know that the new entry is Alice, because of the encryption. But he can deduce that the new entry belongs in the ABC group, because it was Bob that was booted. By observing millions of conflict misses and using some algorithmic magic, an attacker can figure out the key that encrypts your data.

The way Lee’s new hardware design solves this issue is subtle, Hill says. From the outside, the new cache system appears to map entries as a standard cache would—Alice in ABC, Doug in DEF, and so forth. But what it’s really doing is putting new data into available slots in any part of the cache.

That means Alice, Bob, and Carol can be stored simultaneously, because now Bob
might populate the MNO slot and Alice the STU slot. Conflict misses will still happen when the cache is full, but they no longer carry the information a hacker could use to crack the code.

Before Lee’s work, no cache architectures had been designed specifically to fend off attacks. The only previous hardware security solutions revolved around what Lee calls ”unacceptable brute-force solutions” that slowed computers down. Because it reduces the number of conflict misses, Newcache improves performance even for applications that don’t need security. It also improves power consumption and fault tolerance and keeps parts of the chip cooler, she says. ”The key point is that Newcache improves performance as it improves security,” Lee says.

Lee, who is also an IEEE Fellow, says several processor firms have already expressed interest in the technology. But its adoption will depend on more than the fact that it works better and keeps data more secure, says David Kanter, a consultant at Real World Technologies. ”That means evaluating the overall costs and benefits of a secure cache, in terms of design complexity, performance, verification, and validation—not just whether it makes your cache more secure.”

India and Israel

I found this video while surfing through Youtube. It is about similarities between India and Israel. It starts with "I".

At 2:13 there is an interesting point that both India and Israel have problems with "P".

At 4:39 there is a mistake that Nehru accepted Israel's creation. He did not. Varnam even introduced a new phrase called "doing a Nehru" in this brilliant article.

Towards the end, there is an interesting observation. Seemingly, even some Indian reporters did not know what is Anti-Semitism before 1992. I feel India and Israel are the only two places in the world where you can live life.

Interesting!

I too have a dream

And now the chatter box Mr. Rahul Bose has a dream.

We all know Rahul Bose not only from his films but also for a lot of other reasons. If you watch at least a little bit of Secular TV Channels, you would find out why a lot of them secular folks like him. He is one of those folks who run around NGOs and human rights activists. As BarbarIndians had titled a brilliant piece "NGO: Government is their middle name". Like any other person related to any of those 200,000 NGOs in India, Rahul ji also has adopted Government as his middle name after he Graduated through the "National Secular Scholars Examination", jointly conducted by NDTV-CNN IBN-Times Now whenever there is a terror attack or issues surrounding Hindu fundamentalists surface.

Well, for now, lets look what Rahul ji dreams of. He dreamt this in the inaugural function of BITS Pilani's cultural festival Oasis. Ever since Martin Luther King jr said that he had a dream, everybody seems to have started dreaming and in my view "I have a dream" is the most misused name for a speech or essay! Like the other Rahul, this Rahul also has some malfunctioning common sense element in his speech. So please keep your eyes open when you read the article.

My first reaction when I read the news piece was "wow! Bollywood people have got a unique style of doing it!". Just read the whole speech. I find this speech profoundly stupid and insincere. We all know what insincere dreams are worth of!

While Mr. Bose seems to have not yet forgotten 1992, he seems to have, without any difficulty forgotten about the atrocities on Kashmiri Pundits in 1990 and 1984 Sikh killings. Very inappropriately, he gets into political issues - an area where he is certainly holding the least percentile! He talks about Malegaon, Gujarat, article 377. Living fetuses torn is a reference here, as I understand to Gujarat 2002 again. For one thing this has been disproved categorically. Speaking in front of an audience who are mostly teenagers or early 20s, Mr. Bose doesn't hesitate to propagate the falsities of all these incidents. For once, he could have kept his dreams to "What is Good in the country". But sir, as we all know, just like in movies - good never sells but bad always gets the box office ringing!

I have a Dream “That the 26/11 attack on Mumbai will spur civil society to unite and present a force that government will never again ignore. That in time we will have the maturity to reflect on the mistakes India might have made to incite such hatred. That our new generation of political leaders will truly look beyond party lines and do what astonishingly few leaders in post-independent India have done – their duty. That Hemant Karkare’s work on the Malegaon case will not lose momentum or integrity.”

I have a dream “That one day, the next time women are thrashed anywhere in a pub in India, the entire country’s women will march half to Mangalore, stopping the entire city for months, the other half to the Prime Minister’s – stopping the government for months. That 100 million Indian Children will not go to bed hungry every night. 100 million is two United Kingdoms. That pregnant women will never again have their wombs slit, their living fetuses torn out and dashed to death while they were set on fire – Gujarat 2002. That there will not be a rape every 23 minutes in this country. Or a dowry death every 33 minutes.”

I have a dream “That small farmers will never again have to apologise to their children and then commit suicide. That Article 377 making homosexuality a crime will be abolished. That when a girl goes to her mother and says her uncle or her father has molested her, she will not be asked – Are you sure? And she will not be told – Don’t be silly – you’re imagining things. That Muslims who fled Bombay in 1992, will return to their homes and M F Husain will return to his.”

His reference to M.F.Hussain again comes with conditions. How are we supposed to accept a man of M.F.Hussain's reputation, skill and caliber when he openly denigrates Gods and Godesses of Hindu Majority. Mr. Bose might say "God is just God" but then majority doesnt agree with him. In a democratic system, you got to respect the majority belief! Well, I guess the rules of secular role play are clear. Only minority are to be respected you see!

I have a dream “Of a time when we will cheer a Younis Khan sixer as we cheer a Yuvraj Singh one. Of a time when no girl child will ever have to walk the 3 KM average to fetch water everyday - instead she will spend that time in a school. That we will allow people with AIDS to work with us, eat with us, live with us – with dignity. Where God is not a Setu, a pandal blocking the street or the reason for jihad, but is linked with our hopes, our hearts, our homes.”

You have to give it to Mr. Bose. He is a man of style. You see the movie has went on so well so far! First we started with some fight scenes by referring to 26/11. Then we had some sentimental scenes by referring to "aurat ka adhikar" and also to children. Then we had some duets and romantic songs about Malegaon, Gujarat, M.F.Hussain. Now comes some philosophy.

Rama Sethu is a representation of Hindu Culture and Heritage. Ohh yeah Mr.Bose, for you God is an abstract element in the form of hope, in hearts and homes but then for majority Hindus, God is in Sethu. God in a tree. God in another man. God is in everything that a Hindu finds Godly. The desert bloc doesnt tell you this because their God, either has no face or hangs on to a cross! I have no authority to question those Gods. Similarly, you have no authority to question my faith! Ohh but lets not get into the secular rhetoric.

I have a dream “That one day I will be six inches taller. Have a full head of hair. Look nineteen forever. And always have the right, witty answer when face to face with a beautiful woman.”

But I also have dream “That I will never ever be scared to speak the truth. That one day I will have the means, the time, the heart to gather all the street children in this country, put them on a train and take them to a land where they can heal. Where they can play, laugh, eat, do nothing. That we realize that – slum dwellers – are not the cockroaches of the world. They are fathers forced out of their villages through poverty, now struggling to make money pushed and abused by the police. They are mothers working as Kaamwalis in three houses a day so that their children can do what they didn’t – go to school. They are children, who have like all children an equal dose of delight and tears in them, not dirty, lice – ridden creatures shivering in the rain holding today’s papers in a plastic bag.”

I have a dream “Where every Indian plays a sport, any game, for at least an hour a day. Where no hockey player will ever again have to sell his medals to feed himself. Where we win twenty Olympic gold medals in London 2012 – if we do things right, its possible. Where the Indian Rugby team wins the World Cup – We are ranked 83 rd now – I will cheer from my wheelchair.”

I have dream “That one day we will all stop what we’re doing – working on laptops, tending to hundreds of patients, sweating it out at cricket practice, running our homeopathy clinic, trying to balance the books at your non-profit organization, begging our child to have bas one more bite, commuting in a local train, closing that complex merger .… we will stop what we’re doing and suddenly realize, all of us together, at the same, precise moment, that we are all Indians and that there is no one like us on this planet – we are unique. Because we fight with words all the time, with fists sometimes, we talk loudly on our phones, laugh loudest at our own jokes, we are sexist, smelly, love sweets, swear we will exercise tomorrow and don’t believe in queues. But that we are also moved by tears by a sad film song, we fight to pay the bill in a restaurant, you cannot leave our home without at least a cup of tea (and thepla and vadai and shingada and matthi ….), we feel guilty when we don’t stand up if someone elderly walks into the room, we don’t shake hands – we hug, we are all first cricket selectors, then bankers, lawyers, bad actors …., we stand up and cheer during the climax of Chak De, we all watch terrible soaps on television and swear we don’t and we all love Sachin Tendulkar.

Well you cant go on those political topics right? Obviously Mr. Bose seems to have sensed the growing frustration and boredom in his speech. So, now comes naughty and mischievous comedy track of the movie. A little bit of girls so that the girls giggle and guys stay with him till the end! Then a bit of hope starts. Really, we got to give a lot of credit to Obama for making Hope the most important selling point of anything in 2009. "Lets win 20 medals in 2012 London Olympics" sounds so much like Bollywood. Yeah well, in Bollywood even newton's laws are breakable! Then some talk of environment is necessary. After all, the quintessential Bollywood song is always in lush green terrain of Switzerland! But then "pppaaaam" times up.

So how do you end it? You know its a nice technique. It should be like "...and they lived happily ever after!....". There comes Sachin to fill in. At least fifty percent of the audience there must be sincere Sachin fan. So a reference to Sachin at the end leaves Mr. Bose with a follower or two.

If anything, we could call this speech out of focus and insincere. All Mr.Bose has done is to use the title of an inspiring speech by a great man to an undue advantage and he didnt even bother doing some justice to the title, at least! I pity those poor chaps who went through this speech on such a wonderful day when they might have been looking forward for a great week of celebration of art, culture and creativity which they call Oasis.

Asterix is 50 years old

Asterix is 50 years old. Asterix, the Gaul who fights Roman Legion turned 50 today. Asterix was created by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo for the French newspaper Pilote.

Asterix first appeared in serial form in Pilote on October 29, 1959. Fifty years
later, 34 comic albums have been published in 107 languages

Asterix was an instant success all over the world.

More than 325 million copies of the albums have been sold, making Goscinny and
Uderzo France's best-selling authors abroad

Asterix soon after its first appearnace became so popular that the first French satellite was named after Asterix. Asterix and his friend Obelix fight and ward of Julius Ceaser who has occupied rest of the country. They get power from the local druid Getafix's magic potion.
Soon after his initial successes, Asterix travelled to far off lands including India.

Asterix and Obelix (and sometimes other members of the village), go on various adventures both within the village, and in far away lands. Places visited in the series include parts of Gaul (Lutetia, Corsica etc), neighbouring nations (Belgium, Spain, Britain, Germany etc), and far away lands (North America, Middle East, India etc).

Brilliant, isnt it? Just how small things start with small goals tend to effect the whole world in so many ways. Three cheers to Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo!

Book Review: The Lost Symbol

During my BTech fourth year, when I met my good friend Ravi Kiran in Vijayawada during a placement drive, he told me about the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Though I heard about the book umpteen number of times, I was never interested. I decided to read it after Ravi insisted. I did. The moment I finished reading the book, I was off to a net cafe to search about the Divine Proportion, the secrets about Holy Grail, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo and all other historical details the book mentioned. My experience with Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress and The Deception Point was the same.

The Lost Symbol is another marvelous read. Like the other four Dan Brown's brilliant books, this book too goes into a great detail about a lot of things. Be it the Washington Capitol Dome, Smithsonian Museum Support Center, Washington Memorial or the National Cathedral. Starting with the Apotheosis of George Washington, Dan Brown sticks to his home ground and builds the plot quite well. Into a few pages and the enthusiasm to keep the pages rolling builds, exponentially.

If Da Vinci Code was about Priori of Scion, Angels & Demons about Illuminati, then this book is about Freemasons. The story of Freemasonry is a fascinating one. Freemasonry started in late 16th to early 17th century, however its origins have also been traced to much older date. Freemasonry is not a religion. In fact, Freemasons themselves are from various religions. It proclaims no religion as the one to be followed, however proclaims that there is a Great Architect of the Creation. It doesnt also play down any religion. Co-existence with respect, love and honor is something that Freemasonry insists. Their website says Initiation into Freemasonry teaches this. There exist however a lot of conspiracy theories against the Freemasons. Being an old European Fraternal Organization, most of its rituals bare Christian look. Youtube has a user by name Freemasonmovies who hosts a channel by the name Mr.Mason. This channel has detailed videos on lot of things about Freemasonry.

Going into the details of the book, Robert Langdon goes on with his adventures this time in the heart of USA - Washington D.C. There are various conspiracy theories about hidden treasure in Washington carefully put in place by the architects of Washington, who themselves were Freemasons. Robert Langdon has to save his good friend and mentor Peter Solomon and his sister Katherine Solomon from a lunatic who reads the old scriptures, infiltrates the Washington Freemason community into its thirty third degree, the highest degree bestowed upon a Freemason to find out the place where the treasure is hidden in Washington. The infiltrator calls himself Mal'Akh after the demon or demonic Sacrifice Moloch. The treasure that Mal'Akh seeks is supposed to bring him power beyond his wildest dreams, to lift him out of his mortal skull, to make him God. The story revolves around how Robert Langdon solves the mysteries upon the command of Mal'Akh who holds his dear friend Peter and Peter's sister Katherine's lives at stake.

I wont reveal any more of the plot. Dan Brown continues his rocking series of adventures with Robert Langdon as the historian detective. This is a must read if you are interested to learn about Washington's detail and history of Freemasonry. Through the book, Dan Brown makes the characters talk a lot about God, religion etc. He makes some mention about Hinduism and Hindu Gods too. However, he seems to have missed the whole point about Advaitha which proclaims the one-ness of Atman (Self) and Paramatman (God).

One of the scientists at CERN, Dr. Fritzo Capra, in his epic "Tao of Physics" arrives at some very interesting conclusions on similarity between Physics and Eastern Mysticism. Being a book on Mysticism and Freemasonry, I expected Robert Langdon to show some detail in to Eastern Mysticism too. However, there seems to be no reference in a big way. Katherine Solomon is a researcher in Noetic Sciences in the book and she proves practically that thoughts can influence matter. Dan Brown makes a point or two about Yogis and out of body experiences but this feature is a recurring theme in most of the puranas and stories from different epics of Vedic lineage. At these and some other points where Dan Brown refers to plurality of God, Apotheosis, re-birth and meditation, I expected some references to Hindu Puranas and scriptures where some brilliant philosophies and practices have been prescribed. However, Dan Brown doesnt refer to any of these. Excepting these, the whole book remains a brilliant insight into Freemasonry and the links between builders of Washington and mysticism.

To end with, out of the book, just one quote, which celebrates mankind's scientific, technological and engineering advancement just like its philosophical and theological advancement:

Langdon pictured the old sepia photographs of stonemasons on scafolding, more than five hundred feet in the air, laying each block by hand, one by one.

We are builders, he thought. We are creators.

Since the beginning of time, man had sensed there was something special about himself...something more. He had longed for powers he did not possess. He had dreamed of flying, of healing, and of transforming his world in every way imaginable.

And he had done just that.

PS : This book opened a new door into Free Masonry to me. I have learnt about Freemasonry a lot in these three or four days of reading this book. Though I find that Free Masonry is similar to just another leaf out of the Great Sanatana Dharma, I find it a little surprising that Free Masonry comes from the European continent. I guess the Egyptian, Greek, Zoroastrian and Jewish principles of tolerance and plurality of God have been passed along through Free Masons. India itself has a big group of Free Masons who even host a web-site here. For the inquisitive and the interested, this site should be of good help. In Bangaluru itself, I observed their presence at least twice. On one occasion, they conducted a seminar/conference for LGBTs. The second time was when I read an inscription on a stone bench in Bangaluru Central Railway Station platform. The stone inscription said that the bench was built by Bangalore Free Mason community. I never knew that many famous Indians were Freemasons. I knew through my good friend Pavan Kumar that Jawaharlal Nehru was initiated but then I never went into the details of his Freemason connection. It comes as a great surprise that Swami Vivekananda himself was also initiated into Freemasonry. Do go through the website. It gives a great detail into Freemasonry in general and Freemasonry in India, in particular. The need for Freemasons in India is very less given that the great Hindu thought still alive, though it is dying fast! However, like any other belief system, Freemasonry would also find its safe nest in this cradle of civilizations I guess!