Coming in capacities ranging from 80 to 320GB, Fujitsu's new MHZ2 CJ series drives don't just spin at 7200rpm -- these security-conscious drives also have full-disk hardware-based AES-256 encryption, which ought to forestall indefinitely any potential laptop-nappers. We don't yet know how much the extra security will tack on to the bottom line, but they'll be out by the end of next month (in Japan, anyway).

The last we'd heard, the Indian government had ruled out the threat of a Blackberry ban if RIM didn't allow it to snoop on messages, but it looks like some overzealous bureaucrat is getting his way after all: the Department of Telecom has issued a 15-day deadline for RIM to either open up for the G-men or get shut down. RIM says it won't comment on regulatory issues as a matter of policy, but it looks like the Indian government is playing hardball, with Telecom Minister A Raja saying that national security will not be sacrificed at any cost. Hmm, hear that? That's the sound of over 400,000 Indian Blackberry users desperately grabbing at their devices to get another quick fix -- something tells us this isn't going to end well.

[Via Cellpassion]

Sure, it's fun to say that one billion RFID cards are now at risk due to the Mifare Classic's broken encryption, but it's another thing to comprehend how widespread the fallout could potentially be -- the London Underground's Oyster Card is based on the chip, for example. And that's just the tip of the iceberg: a new report says that the system can be broken in minutes using a typical PC -- check the video after the break for a demonstration. We've also listed all the other now-potentially-vulnerable Mifare RFID implementations we could find, but there's got to be more -- put 'em in comments!

Remember the Indian government's threat to shutdown RIM's in-country network if they didn't open it up for snooping? Ain't gonna happen. Today the Indian government ruled out banning the BlackBerry service. Instead, the government will continue working with the Telecom Commission on security matters (whatever that means) with a promise to resolve the matter soon. Look India, if the notoriously controlling Chinese allow the data to run encrypted, what's your beef chicken?

Uh-oh, Indian Blackberry users -- better get ready for some major disconnection anxiety. Apparently the Indian government is demanding that RIM either allow it to snoop on its encrypted email service (or worse, drop down to 40-bit encryption), or shut down the entire Indian Blackberry network at the end of the month. That'll cut off an estimated 400,000 subscribers, so the carriers, RIM, and government officials are due to meet and try and hammer out a solution on the 14th, but the issue probably won't be easy to solve -- ISPs are now concerned that if RIM complies, all encrypted wireless data will be open to spying, which would make things like ecommerce virtually impossible. Furthermore, since Blackberry traffic gets routed to Canadian NOCs first, there are some thorny international issues at play as well -- just to put things in perspective, RIM doesn't even allow the Chinese government to snoop in this way, although we're certain there's another backdoor in place. Honestly, though, we'd suffer through a little CrackBerry withdrawal if it kept the G-men out of our hair -- let's hope RIM's got some fight in 'em.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Ruh roh, Shaggy -- you remember that disk encryption attack that involved cooling off your target's RAM and yanking it to get a bitdump before the contents faded? Well, it looks like things just got a lot simpler for would-be attackers -- check out this USB flash key designed by security researcher Robert Wesley McGrew, which can boot your machine and dump the RAM to itself without altering its contents. That means you no longer need to actually pull the DIMMs or carry around an air duster; all an attacker needs is enough time to reboot your machine and copy the contents of your RAM. Of course, that takes time -- McGrew says things are running quite slowly right now, but he suspects his test machine is dropping down to USB 1.0 speeds. That's still not too reassuring -- looks like we'll be spending even more time with our machines from now on.

[Via Hack a Day]

It's an old adage that no security measure is worth anything if an attacker has physical access to the machine, but things like heavy-duty disk encryption are supposed to at least slow things down. Sadly, that may not actually be the case, as a group of Princeton researchers has just published a paper detailing an exploit that requires little more than a spray duster and a screwdriver. Since the encryption key for systems like BitLocker and FileVault lives in RAM, all an attacker has to do to get it is cool the RAM modules with the air duster held upside down, yank the DIMM, and insert it into another machine, where it can then be read to access the key. Of course, this assumes that you've already typed in your password, but check the video after the break to see how long bits in RAM stay written -- even if you've turned off your computer, there's a chance the key can still be read. Looks like there's an actual benefit to MacBook Air's soldered-in RAM after all, eh?

Sure, we've seen cellphone encryption contraptions before, but KoolSpan's aiming to make things extra easy for green CIA agents. Set to be released next month, the microSD TrustChip slips right into a-many of smartphones and enables callers to hit up other undercover gurus and chat with 256-bit AES encryption, providing that the receiver of the call has a TrustChip jammed in his / her phone as well. Furthermore, the device itself touts enough features to make Maxwell Smart all sorts of envious: on-chip crypto processing, key management and a tamper-resistant environment for starters. Word on the street pegs this bad boy at $300, but we all know the cost of getting a call sniffed could be much more costly than that.

[Via GetFlashMemory]

Hey look, a shiny black box. Not just any box though, that's the 160GB BlackArmor portable hard drive with built-in AES encryption. Sorry, no way we could think of to photograph all that security, but we've got a few more glowing shots of overlapping rectangles in the gallery for you geometry types. If nothing else, at least you get a feel for the size of the little guy.

As if you didn't have enough options when scouting a totally locked down flash drive, Imation is cranking out a revamped Pivot and an all new Pivot Plus to quell your paranoia. As for the former, it provides "software encryption software," ReadyBoost compatibility and capacities up to 8GB, while the all new Pivot Plus ups the ante with 256-bit AES hardware encryption. And just in case you're still worried, the drive also features "one password-protected partition that only allows storage of encrypted data and a tamper-resistant housing." As for the refreshed Pivot, it's slated to land later this quarter in the US for $29.99 to $199.99, while the ultra-secure Pivot Plus is available as we speak in 1/2/4/8GB sizes for $69.99 to $249.99.

In what's being hailed as "one of the first public uses of quantum cryptography," Genevian voters who take part in the upcoming national elections can rest assured that their votes will remain a secret. Reportedly, the "city-state will use quantum technology to encrypt election results as they are sent to the capital on October 21st." A computer, provided by id Quantique, will be set up in Geneva to "fire photons down a fiber-optic link to a receiver 62-miles away," which should be sufficient to keep any potential eavesdroppers at bay. 'Course, where there's a will, there's typically a way.

Yeah, Seagate's uber-secure 2.5-inch Momentus 5400 FDE.2 hard drive has been available on the open market for some time, but Dell is looking to become to first big player to offer it up within its laptops. Starting "this week," the Latitude D630 and D830 will be available with the crypto drive as an option, and it will come bundled with the Embassy Trust Suite from software company Wave Systems. Officially, Dell has yet to reveal how much it'll cost to upgrade to the drive, but judging by the Higher Education order portal, swapping in a 120GB encrypted HDD will run you $152.10 more than the vanilla 60GB unit the D630 comes with.

It wouldn't take too many minutes of perusing the archives here to realize that we're fans of obscure emulation feats, and this one certainly ranks pretty high up there. Apparently, Capcom's CPS-3 arcade system board has finally been cracked, which means that the next logical step of bringing titles such as Red Earth, Street Fighter III, and JoJo to the emulation realm has already begun. A post over at Haze's Mame WIP page notes that the challenge has been duly accepted, and we're hoping that it won't be too much longer before success is found. Of course, it sounds like this will not be an exceptionally easy task, but at least half the battle has already been won.

[Via Exophase, thanks zshadow]

While actually picking locks is no large task these days, cracking into one's highly encrypted information in OS X could prove problematic if the culprit had something to hide. SubRosaSoft's USB key purportedly allows "law enforcement professionals to perform live forensics on Mac OS X systems," and once the software on the included drive is ran, it automatically extracts data from the Apple Keychain and system settings to "provide the examiner fast access to the suspect's critical information with as little interaction or trace as possible." The program then compiles the details into a database and stores it back on the drive's internal memory, which can supposedly be read back on Windows, Linux, or OS X machines at base. Before the devious ones in the crowd get too excited, though, we should probably warn you that interested consumers will be forced to "provide proof that they are a licensed law enforcement professional," and even then, it will run you anywhere between $399.95 to $499.95 depending on your exact profession. But hey, we're sure you know a private investigator or police officer who can hook you up, right?

[Via DragonSteelMods]