md5

Security company Barracuda Networks was itself hit by a security breach over the weekend that exposed certain information from its databases.

An unknown hacker, who apparently took credit for the break-in, launched an attack that exposed a list of Barracuda databases along with the names, phone numbers, and e-mail address of various Barracuda partners.

The attack also uncovered the e-mail addresses of different Barracuda employees along with their passwords. Though the passwords were encrypted, they were done so using a hashing algorithm called MD5, which is considered by many to be a flawed and outdated encryption method.

The attacker grabbed … Read more

MD5 Checksum Calculator is a bare-bones program for calculating and comparing MD5 files. While its layout leaves something to be desired, its results are fast and simple.

The program's interface is sparse, and the program offers no Help file or other instructions to guide users through its processes. Fortunately, some experimentation quickly produced a familiarity with the program's few command icons. You simply search a file tree to calculate your sum. Clicking on a specific file or program generates its MD5 sum, which is often used to check the integrity of files. MD5 Checksum Calculator can also compare … Read more

Cryptographic hash functions are commonly used to guard against malicious changes to protected data in a wide variety of software, Internet, and security applications, including digital signatures and other forms of authentication. Two of the most common cryptographic hash functions are the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) and Message Digest Algorithm-5 (MD5). Checksum utilities are used to verify the integrity of generated hashes. There are two basic types, those that calculate checksum values and those that also validate them by checking them against a list of values for the protected data, which is the only way it can be done. Raymond … Read more

MD5 Checksum Verifier is an easy-to-use utility for identifying changes in a file using the MD5 hash function. Although the program is straightforward, only advanced users are likely to need its functionality.

The program provides a simple tabbed interface that lets you calculate a file's checksum (which is a digit used to check whether errors have occurred in the transmission or storage of data), save the checksums of all files in a specific directory, and verify the checksums of the files against that earlier record. MD5 Checksum Verifier successfully detected changes we made in volatile files--files such as Word … Read more

Dupehunter Professional provides users with a simple tool for finding and erasing bulky duplicate files. With a simple layout, users of all levels will clear up computer space/

We ignored the mostly uninformative Help file because the program's interface was strengthened by a five-part wizard that walked us through every step of the dupe-hunting process. With the wizard we were able to quickly select folders for scanning and algorithms to search by, though we used the default option because the custom algorithm options required a higher level of computer expertise. The program whipped through our files in a few … Read more

By Jonathan Stray

Updated at 3:30 p.m. PST with Microsoft comment, at 1:50 p.m. PST with VeriSign comment, at 10 a.m. PST with comment from cryptography expert Paul Kocher, and at 9 a.m. PST to reflect that presentation has taken place and include comment from cryptography expert Bruce Schneier.

BERLIN--A key piece of Internet technology that banks, e-commerce sites, and financial institutions rely on to keep transactions safe suffers from a serious security vulnerability, an international team of researchers announced on Tuesday.

They demonstrated how to forge security certificates used by secure Web sites, … Read more