Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
eWEEK.com
Search
eWEEK.com
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cloud
    • Cloud
    • Cybersecurity

    Microsoft Bulks Up Azure Web Sites Encryption

    By
    PEDRO HERNANDEZ
    -
    June 10, 2014
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      Azure cloud security

      In the wake of last year’s National Security Agency spying revelations and after the discovery of the high-profile “Heartbleed” vulnerability, security has become a top priority for cloud services providers.

      Microsoft, for its part, is hardening its Azure Web Sites service with support for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), announced Erez Benari, an Azure Web Sites program manager. Azure Web Sites is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering that enables customers to quickly spin up and scale Websites and applications.

      “Elliptic curve cryptography is an encryption technology based on the algebraic structure of elliptic curves over finite fields,” explained Benari in a June 9 blog post. “The symmetry and computational complexity in this sort of function allows us to efficiently create a public and private key set that are much harder to break.”

      After generating a private key, Microsoft uses “a selected elliptic function” to come up with a private key. The process yields encryption that is much tougher to crack. “Reversing this (as in, an attacker calculating the private key from the public key) is a monumental computational task that would be unrealistic with today’s technology and should remain so for many more years,” Benari said.

      “Compared to the classic private/public key generation, this is harder by a factor of 10, approximately,” he added.

      “A 256-bit long key set generated using ECC is equivalent to a key over 2,600 bits long in RSA,” versus the industry-standard 2,048 bits, Benari said. As a result, compromising an ECC key set would be “virtually impossible even for someone with access to supercomputers.”

      On Azure Web Sites, customers can now step up to “next-generation cryptography.” Benari said, “Instead of buying a regular SSL Certificate to secure your site, you can choose to purchase an ECC certificate instead, thus having better security.”

      Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) solutions have come under close scrutiny after the Heartbleed flaw in OpenSSL was discovered and subsequently patched in April. The flaw, present since March 2012, essentially undermined OpenSSL’s cryptographic protections by exposing data held in a server’s memory.

      As a precaution, security experts widely advised Internet users to change their passwords. In the months since Heartbleed, the open-source community has been busily patching OpenSSL for every new—and not so new—bug in the open-source implementation of the Web encryption standard.

      ECC certificate providers are few and far between, however. Symantec and Entrust are two, but Benari expects other providers to “soon jump on the wagon, as well.” ECC-protected sites may also not work with older software, he said. Users of the Windows Vista OS, or later, will be able to browse their sites “over SSL regularly without any configuration or changes to the client.”

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      CHRIS PREIMESBERGER - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      CHRIS PREIMESBERGER - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      EWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      ZEUS KERRAVALA - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      WAYNE RASH - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Info

      © 2020 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×