Security Another crypto-attack on SSL/TLS encryption

[J65nko]

From http://h-online.com/-1823227

SSL/TLS is the foundation of secure internet connections, with RC4, designed by Ron Rivest in 1987, often used for encryption. Researchers have now come up with an attack against the algorithm that can decrypt at least the beginning of a secure transmission. The attack is still mostly theoretical, but it clearly demonstrates that there are some issues that need to be solved.

A huge number of servers use RC4, including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft's web servers. The method has a number of advantages – it's very fast, which means that it's easier for servers to handle, and it's not vulnerable to some of the recent attacks on SSL/TLS like BEAST and Lucky13 and has therefore often been recommended as an alternative. At the same time, however, RC4 is old and has its fair share of problems.