About Us
Founded in 1944, the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science develops philanthropic support for the Weizmann Institute in Israel, and advances its mission of science for the benefit of humanity.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/scientists-reveal-new-way-to-hide-secret-messages/
May 04, 2016...
This might sound like something from a Bond movie. But a team from Israel has used some rather nifty chemistry to come up with a way to use common chemicals such as cola as the encryption key to code and decode hidden messages
Next time you see someone spilling a drink in a bar, you could actually be witnessing a spy secretly decoding an encrypted message.
This might sound like something from a Bond movie.
Mar 02, 2016...
Rock Stars of Cryptography. Courtesy RSA Conference
During a panel at the RSA cybersecurity conference yesterday in San Francisco, Adi Shamir, a cryptographer at the Weizmann Institute of Science and co-inventor of the RSA public-key cryptographic standard that became a widely used method to send encrypted messages, sided with the FBI in the ongoing fight about whether Apple must unlock the iPhone of Syed Rizwan Farook, a shooter in the December 2015 San Bernardino attack. His comments sparked a polite but pointed debate about privacy versus security among some of the most distinguished figures in cryptography, including Ron Rivest, who collaborated with Shamir on the groundbreaking RSA work. Also taking part were Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman, who minutes earlier had been named recipients of the $1 million Turing Award for 1976 cryptography work that helped pave the way for secure Internet communication, and Moxie Marlinspike, who founded the company that developed the popular open-source encryption tool Signal.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/zero-knowledge-keeps-your-secrets-safe/
Jun 06, 2010...
If you feel secure keying your credit card information onto a website, thank Prof. Shafrira Goldwasser.
At the end of April, this Israeli professor traveled to Philadelphia's Franklin Institute to accept the 2010 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science for her fundamental contributions to cryptography theory, the basis of techniques for encoding anything from secret messages to financial information on the Internet.
Jan 16, 2018... MADRID, Jan. 16, 2018/ The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Information and Communication Technologies category goes, in this tenth edition, to Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, Ronald Rivest and Adi Shamir for their “fundamental contributions to modern cryptology, an area of a tremendous impact on our everyday life,” in the words of the jury’s citation. “Their advanced crypto-protocols enable the safe and secure transmission of electronic data, ranging from e-mail to financial transactions. In addition, their work provides the underpinning for digital signatures, blockchains and crypto-currencies,” like Bitcoin.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/security-through-science/
Nov 01, 2006...
With the need for security at an all-time high, finding new ways to stay ahead of terrorists is an ongoing challenge—and Weizmann Institute scientists are using new discoveries in basic research to stay ahead in the security game.
Prof. Yehiam Prior of the Institute's Department of Chemical Physics is researching the detection of trace explosives with lasers and developing an innovative method to protect computer conversations from eavesdroppers.
Apr 22, 2015...
Credit: Tim Greene
Some of the world’s best known cryptographers – veterans of the crypto wars of the 1990s – say government access to encryption keys is still a bad idea, but is an issue that will never go away because it’s something intelligence agencies crave.
Speaking at RSA 2015’s Cryptographer’s panel, Whitfield Diffie, who pioneered public-key encryption, says key escrow schemes where government could gain access to encrypted data works mainly to the benefit of government. “They want you to be secure but not against them,” he says.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/defending-against-chemical-acts-of-terrorism/
Apr 19, 2012... Researchers may have found a way to protect us against otherwise deadly chemical attacks, such as the subway sarin incident in Tokyo that left thirteen people dead and thousands more injured or with temporary vision problems. The method is based on a new and improved version of a detoxifying enzyme produced naturally by our livers, according to the report in the April 2012 issue of Chemistry & Biology, a Cell Press publication.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/adding-math-to-list-of-security-threats/
Nov 17, 2007...
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 16 — One of the world’s most prominent cryptographers issued a warning on Friday about a hypothetical incident in which a math error in a widely used computing chip places the security of the global electronic commerce system at risk.
Adi Shamir, a cryptographer and professor in Israel. Gabriel Bouys/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Adi Shamir, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, circulated a research note about the problem to a small group of colleagues. He wrote that the increasing complexity of modern microprocessor chips is almost certain to lead to undetected errors. Historically, the risk has been demonstrated in incidents like the discovery of an obscure division bug in Intel’s Pentium microprocessor in 1994 and, more recently, in a multiplication bug in Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet program, he wrote.
https://weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/unsafe-and-sound/
Jan 18, 2014...
Photo: Shutterstock.com
EAVESDROPPING, be it simply sticking an ear against a door or listening to and analysing the noises made by tapping different keys on a keyboard, is a stock-in-trade of spying. Listening to a computer itself, though, as it hums away doing its calculations, is a new idea. But it is one whose time has come, according to Adi Shamir, of the Weizmann Institute, in Israel, and his colleagues. And Dr Shamir should know. He donated the initial letter of his surname to the acronym “RSA”, one of the most commonly used forms of encryption. Acoustic cryptanalysis, as the new method is known, threatens RSA’s security.
May 13, 2020...
A group of experts advising Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the national response to the coronavirus pandemic found a correlation between one's income and education level and the chance they would contract coronavirus, N12 reported Wednesday.
The report published on Tuesday by the team headed by Professor Eli Waxman of the Weizmann Institute of Science suggested people with lower levels of income and education are more likely to contract the virus. According to N12, the team said people with higher education were less likely to contract the disease, even if their income level was low.
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