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“This system is provably secure.” Okay, against what specific threat model? Can it protect against an admin’s password/key being stolen/hacked/guessed or any o

“This system is provably secure.” Okay, against what specific threat model? Can it protect against an admin’s password/key being stolen/hacked/guessed or any of the other extremely mundane attacks you’re actually likely to encounter in the real world? I’m sure the CS is novel and excellent. But the grandiose framing seems a bit… much.

marmaduke 5y ago
> But the grandiose framing seems a bit… Appropriate/necessary for a publicly funded research project?
- craftinator 5y ago
  Inappropriate, because to someone who has real knowledge on the subject, it sounds like bullshit, and to everyone else it sounds like a quantum leap. Smells like Theranos.
  - dvfjsdhgfv 5y ago
    The main job of the PR manager who wrote this piece is to make stories like these heard. The researchers did a very good job indeed and I doubt any of them would use such a silly title - since the very core of their research is formal verification, it means they're very precise folks and would never call their system "hacker-resistant"; there are several other names, more adequate but less clickbaity.
    - craftinator 5y ago
      I don't disagree with you, but on the same line of thinking, why not call it "A system that solves all hacking everywhere, permanently"? When going down the rabbit hole of disingenuousness for the sake of wider reach, the more you lie about the actual subject, the less you are actually talking about the subject, and the more you're talking about something that doesn't exist. It is very bad marketing to describe a precise system using very little precision.
- rambojazz 5y ago
  Your comment actually matches my experience. Projects with grandiose descriptions that sound completely BS. Why do publicly funded research project need to use these "tactics"? In my experience these projects attract the very kind of people that I don't like to work with; people with long CVs that like to speak with buzzwords and that don't build anything interesting or valuable.

marmaduke 5y ago

> But the grandiose framing seems a bit… Appropriate/necessary for a publicly funded research project?

craftinator 5y ago
Inappropriate, because to someone who has real knowledge on the subject, it sounds like bullshit, and to everyone else it sounds like a quantum leap. Smells like Theranos.
- dvfjsdhgfv 5y ago
  The main job of the PR manager who wrote this piece is to make stories like these heard. The researchers did a very good job indeed and I doubt any of them would use such a silly title - since the very core of their research is formal verification, it means they're very precise folks and would never call their system "hacker-resistant"; there are several other names, more adequate but less clickbaity.
  - craftinator 5y ago
    I don't disagree with you, but on the same line of thinking, why not call it "A system that solves all hacking everywhere, permanently"? When going down the rabbit hole of disingenuousness for the sake of wider reach, the more you lie about the actual subject, the less you are actually talking about the subject, and the more you're talking about something that doesn't exist. It is very bad marketing to describe a precise system using very little precision.
rambojazz 5y ago
Your comment actually matches my experience. Projects with grandiose descriptions that sound completely BS. Why do publicly funded research project need to use these "tactics"? In my experience these projects attract the very kind of people that I don't like to work with; people with long CVs that like to speak with buzzwords and that don't build anything interesting or valuable.