internet

ComputerWorldIndependent

Mozilla mandates that new Firefox features rely on encrypted connections

Credit to Author: Gregg Keizer| Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2018 10:37:00 -0800

Mozilla this week decreed that future web-facing features of Firefox must meet an under-development standard that requires all browser-to-server-and-back traffic be encrypted.

“Effective immediately, all new features that are web-exposed are to be restricted to secure contexts,” wrote Mozilla engineer Anne van Kesteren in a post to a company blog. “A feature can be anything from an extension of an existing IDL-defined object, a new CSS property, a new HTTP response header, to bigger features such as WebVR.”

Secure contexts, dubbed a “minimum security level,” is a pending standard of the W3 (World Wide Web Consortium), the primary standards body for the web. Secure contexts’ main purpose, according to its documentation: “Application code with access to sensitive or private data be delivered confidentially over authenticated channels that guarantee data integrity.”

To read this article in full, please click here

Read More
ComputerWorldIndependent

How blockchain makes self-sovereign identities possible

Credit to Author: Phillip Windley| Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2018 03:12:00 -0800

One of the curious constructions of the Internet is the term identity provider. You don’t need anyone to provide you with an identity, of course. You have an innate one by virtue of being human. Rather, so-called identity providers, or IDPs, provide you with an identifier, a means of recording attributes important to that provider, and some method of proving it’s you – usually a password.

This is not surprising since online identity has traditionally been viewed through the lens of an organization and its needs, not the individual and his or her needs. Identity systems are created to administer identifiers and attributes within a specific domain. The result: people end up with hundreds of online personas at hundreds of organizations. Each of these administrative identity systems is proprietary and owned by the organization that provides it; you really don’t have an online identity that’s independent of these many systems. Got a new address, or an updated credit card number? You’ll have to deal with each of these systems one at a time in whatever manner they require.

To read this article in full, please click here

Read More