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Thread ID: 84113	2007-10-24 22:14:00	Why Your GPU is so expensive	pctek (84)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
604953	2007-10-24 22:14:00	A technique for cracking computer passwords using inexpensive off-the-shelf computer graphics hardware is causing a stir in the computer security community. Elcomsoft, a software company based in Moscow, Russia, has filed a US patent for the technique. It takes advantage of the "massively parallel processing" capabilities of a graphics processing unit (GPU) - the processor normally used to produce realistic graphics for video games. Using an $800 graphics card from nVidia called the GeForce 8800 Ultra, Elcomsoft increased the speed of its password cracking by a factor of 25, according to the company's CEO, Vladimir Katalov. The toughest passwords, including those used to log in to a Windows Vista computer, would normally take months of continuous computer processing time to crack using a computer's central processing unit (CPU). By harnessing a $150 GPU - less powerful than the nVidia 8800 card - Elcomsoft says they can cracked in just three to five days. Less complex passwords can be retrieved in minutes, rather than hours or days. It is the way a GPU processes data that provides the speed increase. NVidia spokesman Andrew Humber describes the process using the analogy of searching for words in a book. "A [normal computer processor] would read the book, starting at page 1 and finishing at page 500," he says. "A GPU would take the book, tear it into a 100,000 pieces, and read all of those pieces at the same time." Benjamin Jun, of Cryptography Research based in San Francisco, US, says massively parallel processing is ideally suited to the task of breaking passwords. And, while concerned about the development, Jun also pays tribute to the achievement: "A number of us have been following advances in those platforms, and there's a lot of elegant, intelligent design." Password cracking can be used to unlock data on a computer, but will not usually work on a banking or commercial website. This is because is takes too long to run through multiple passwords, and because a site will normally block a user after several failed attempts. Jun adds that the trend towards encrypting whole hard drives with increasingly long cryptographic keys still means it is becoming more difficult to access sensitive data. "Should I throw away my web server and run for the hills?" he says. "I don't think so." NVidia released a software development kit for its graphics hardware in February 2007. Known as CUDA, the kit lets programmers access the computing power of the GPU directly. It has gained a following among those with a need for high-performance computing, particularly in fields such as science and engineering. "[CUDA] is a huge thing for the oil and gas industry, for the financial sector, and for scientists," Humber says. He adds that CUDA is also be being used by a company called Evolved Machines to simulate the way the human brain wires itself. Elcomsoft says it took three months to develop code to take advantage of a GPU, and the company plans to introduce the feature into some of its password cracking products over time.	pctek (84)
604954	2007-10-25 00:24:00	Sweet, I'm off to buy a 8800. Be right back:lol:	beeswax34 (63)
604955	2007-10-25 06:17:00	A great read ! Buy how can you set up a company to break passwords ? That is like setting up a road side bomb company ! Or a polytech course on bank robbery ! Regards Digby	Digby (677)
604956	2007-10-25 06:28:00	A great read ! Buy how can you set up a company to break passwords ? That is like setting up a road side bomb company ! Or a polytech course on bank robbery ! Regards Digby we have companies that sell Guns, they market them as being for hunting, they don't market them as being for armed robbery and terrorism I would assume that this password cracking company would be marketing themselves in the computer security/ webmaster help fields It's all about how you market your self you can pretend that your product won't be used for nefarious purposes if there is a potential legitimate side and focus on that legit side while turning a blind eye to the other uses as the money rolls in	Morgenmuffel (187)
604957	2007-10-25 11:12:00	just like how antivirus companies have people writing viruses for them, and funnily enough pharmaceutical pharmacies and governments do the same thing! it's to try to keep ahead of the hackers/diseases/threats well, that's what they tell us;)	motorbyclist (188)
604958	2007-10-25 18:45:00	A great read ! Buy how can you set up a company to break passwords ? That is like setting up a road side bomb company ! Or a polytech course on bank robbery ! Regards Digby It is Russia we are talking about,say no more;)	Cicero (40)
604959	2007-10-25 20:01:00	just like how antivirus companies have people writing viruses for them I doubt that. Wheres your proof? AV companies could write their own if they wanted. And in any case viruses are not the main malware problem these days. Spyware is.	pctek (84)
604960	2007-10-25 20:19:00	Hmmm... similar article to the one on how PS3's potential can be harvested for research purposes. Cheers :)	Renmoo (66)
604961	2007-10-25 23:30:00	I doubt that. Wheres your proof? AV companies could write their own if they wanted. And in any case viruses are not the main malware problem these days. Spyware is. i didn't mean for malicious reasons, but i do know they have hackers writing programs so that the company can pre-empt the internet. releasing those viruses would be extremely illegal of course. i hear UofA used to include virus writing in one of their software papers until a few years ago similarily, companies like microsoft employ people to find security holes in software so they can fix them before they're exploited and as i said, in the real world with biological viruses we do take the same approach news.zdnet.co.uk about a minute of google gave me that, but also gave me a blog saying it's a conspiracy theory/urban myth....	motorbyclist (188)
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