Password-cracking chip causes security concerns

[mr soft]

http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12825&feedId=online-news_rss20

ohhhh those Russians.

[deddard]

Ouch!

All the more reason to ensure that there's a password timeout on your system - 5 attempts and you wait a minute etc etc.

Although there are obviously some dangers, it is actually quite a novel way of thinking - not only have they provided a wakeup call for the system security experts, but they have also provided an insight into something a lot of us didn't know about - accessing the processor of your GPU.

Taking it one step further, I'm sure that given time, the GPU when not in gaming use could be utilised as a general processor - if the thing is so powerful that it can speed up password cracking (I guess it's a brute force attack) then why not do something useful with it as well?

[Ajmukon]

now, the security firms have to create a technology that makes this "new" technique useless....