Andy Jeong (EE ’18) and Kevin Sheng (EE ’18)

On Thursday, February 5^th, Bloomberg hosted a talk regarding a somewhat obscure topic, cryptovirology, a field of research focused around the application of modern cryptographic paradigms and tools towards the creation of powerful malicious software. The speaker,, Adam Lucas Young, Ph.D, introduced by Christopher Hong (EE ’13) and his coworkers from Bloomberg, touched on a wide variety of topics, from the birth of the field to the new developments being discovered due to the current efforts of many computer scientists.

One of the pioneers of the field, Young coined the term cryptovirology as he worked with his graduate advisor, Moti M. Yung of Columbia University. This research, which had started before the concept of cryptovirology was conceived, captured the interest of Young and Yung at a time when computer viruses were merely a myth. Experienced in electrical engineering and computer science, Young realized that the two fields he studied could merged through hacking. By 1995, he had subconsciously formulated a number of scientific problems that hackers themselves faced when infiltrating computer systems.

He described two attacks in particular—cryptoviral extortion, or ransomware in modern terms, and the Deniable Password Snatching Attack, which prevents network defenders seeking to thwart attacks from incriminating the attacker when the attacks occur.

In the former attack method, a virus, worm or Trojan hybrid encrypts the victim’s files. The victim must then pay the attacker in order to obtain the session key. This session key is encrypted under the malware creator’s public key within the malware.

The latter method is an attack that can be mounted by a cryptotrojan that allows the attacker to garner information from the victim’s system in a way that, even if the attacker is under surveillance on the local machine at the time of attack and when obtaining the information, he cannot be incriminated due to plausible deniability. This algorithm is derived through a combination of public key cryptography, probabilistic encryption, and the use of public information channels, together forming a secure receiver-anonymous channel.  This gives the attacker sole authority to decode and control while the victim cannot have access. Young also discussed the use of hybrid encryption, combining symmetric and asymmetric as well as public and private keys, to increase the effectiveness of these attacks.

To read more about his work, visit www.cryptovirology.com.

Brenda So (CE ‘18)

“Single Ladies”, “Run the world”, “If I were a boy” – even if you have never heard them, you know the artist behind these award-winning songs – Beyoncé. Beyoncé has always been seen as an advocate of black female empowerment and in 2014, Beyoncé publicly declared herself a “feminist”, hence launching her career to a more political arena.

At the beginning of “Beyoncé’s blueprint of the Queer World”, the Rose auditorium was already packed with an audience eagerly waiting for the lecture. Kevin Allred, who is currently a women-studies professor teaching at the State University of New Jersey, spoke – or rather, discussed – with the audience about Beyoncé’s career at a gender-studies lens and the respective implications.

First the audience explored the general background on sex and sexuality in our discussion. The word “queer” indicates an aversion in normativity, and the term “heteronormativity” is the belief that males and females fall into specific and complementary groups of natural roles. The opposite of heteronormativity is homonormativity. Groups that were commonly involved in discussions include the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community, drags etc.

In her music videos, like “Suga Mama” and “Upgrade U”, Beyoncé plays heavily on gender roles. She adopted masculinity into femininity – Herself being a sugar mama instead of sugar daddy, or playing the role of Jay-Z. However, Allred pointed out that using masculinity and femininity would never break heteronormativity down. A play on stereotypes – such as associating the male gender to being a policeman and the female gender to a white collar in “If I were a boy” – did not, in any way, facilitate the deconstruction of heteronormativity in the society.

Some members of the audience even came to suggest that Beyoncé was not in control of her own career. It was suggested that because of the hype on the idea of feminism Beyoncé’s managerial group was simply seeking more attention and trying to attract more fans. Beyoncé claims that she is a feminist and yet dances around in a half-naked dress at the same time. Is she just another icon of the entertainment industry, where she can use an over-the-top femininity and exploit queer issues for more fame and money?

The audience was then stuck between two issues – was Beyoncé a feminist, or was she not? At last, a brave member in the audience told Kevin, “After all we talked about Beyoncé, we still don’t know what you think.” His response was simple – it was Beyoncé’s way to talk about the queer world. Even though we might not know Beyoncé’s true intention – whether she was actually a feminist or another instrument of the music industry – it was an undeniable fact that Beyoncé was different from other feminists. As an artist, she posed questions on sex and sexuality and engaged people into conversations on what it meant to be a feminist. She started by deconstructing the rigid ideas on gender and opened up gender to a broader discussion and eventually a broader definition.

 Joseph Colonel  (EE ‘15)

Lecture on explicit and implicit intents by Natanel Fuchs from Google during break time.

Though Cooper staff was on holiday from this past Thursday to Monday, the NAB opened to host the Cooper Union’s second annual hackathon. HackCooper, a Major League Hacking (MLH) sanctioned event, brought together corporate sponsors that donated hardware and software packages to the more than 150 student participants. The students, who ranged from high school to graduate students, had 24 hours to create their “hack” and present it to a panel of judges for a chance to win prizes.

MLH strives to “spread the hacker ethos to every student on the planet; to cultivate communities where aspiring hackers have the opportunity to learn, build, and share their creations with the world.” As such, hackathons are hosted around the country, enticing students to take a project from concept to final product with free food, energy drinks, and “swag.”

HackCooper was sponsored by IBM®, yodle®, Dow Jones, The Hackerati, LinkedIn, Rhine API, littleBits™, Make School, Burak Kanber, Hack Manhattan, Thalmic Labs™, Device Factory, MakerBot®, and MLH. “Hackers” could rent out hardware ranging from an Oculus Rift, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi to a menagerie of littleBits™ modules as well as use software packages and services from IBM and Rhine API. All devices had to be returned after the winners were announced.

All “hacking” had to stop by noon on Sunday for projects to be considered for prizes. Each team presented their “hack” in the Rose Auditorium to a panel of judges and semi-lucid students. A group of sophomores in high school won first place with their “Hopulus Rift,” a frogger game built from the ground up that placed a hopping player in the titular frog’s place by incorporating an Oculus Rift and Xbox Kinekt. Second prize went to “Tunetap | Touring,” a website that promised to overthrow the current paradigm governing music gig booking. Third went to “Palmitron,” a prosthetic hand controlled by a wearable device. Nobody from Cooper cracked the top three.

Prizes were also awarded for humorous design (Gif Me), technical prowess (String2String), and extraordinary design (littlePinball). Corporations, too, handed out awards. IBM® gave an award for best use of their Bluemix platform (readme-dot-text); littleBits™ gave an award for best use of their hardware (littlePinball);  Make School gave an award for best mobile hack (Myout). A full list of “hacks” may be found at https://www.hackerleague.org/hackathons/hackcooper-2015/hacks

My hack, “DreadBot,” won no prizes.