Has the cryptocurrency gold rush come to an end? Nvidia thinks so

17 Aug 2018

Nvidia graphics chip. Image: B Zhorov/Shutterstock

Nvidia says the demand for its graphics chips from cryptocurrency miners has plummeted.

Earlier this week, Intel disclosed details of a new vulnerability. L1TF, or Foreshadow, affects Intel Core and Xeon processors and it can be exploited to read data from Intel’s security guard extensions technology. Read our full rundown here.

As the Google plan for the distrust of Symantec web certificates rolls on, new research shows that many websites are still using them. This could cause some major problems for websites, particularly in e-commerce.

In other Google news, the company landed in hot water for its location tracking methods and the language it uses to explain the process.

A new study from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism also showed that GDPR has changed how news sites use cookies in just a few months.

Read on for your extra helping of enterprise news.

Cryptocurrency gold rush dries up for Nvidia

According to Nvidia, sales of its graphics chips to cryptocurrency miners have dwindled even faster than previous expectations.

Founder and CEO Jensen Huang said that although Nvidia’s core markets exceeded predictions, its cryptocurrency market “largely disappeared”. He added that the company foresees “no crypto-mining going forward”.

Demand for graphics chips had shot up, as they excel in making a number of small calculations at the same time. This capability is ideal for mining cryptocurrencies. Nvidia had expected around $100m in sales of chips purchased by cryptocurrency miners for Q2. In reality, the total sits at $18m.

Hacking election results is child’s play

At Def Con this year, an 11-year-old boy was able to hack into a replica of the Florida state election website.

A group of children attempted to hack 13 imitation websites linked to voting in several US states. Emmett Brewer was able to access the Florida replica and change voting results found there in less than 10 minutes.

Some people criticised the conference’s environment due to its ‘unrealistic’ nature, but Def Con said: “At a time when there is significant concern about the integrity of our election system, the public needs now more than ever to know that election equipment has been rigorously evaluated and that vulnerabilities are not just being swept under the rug.”

Facebook awards $200,000 to winners of its Internet Defense Prize

Facebook started the Internet Defense Prize in partnership with Usenix. It aims to recognise research intended to improve internet security.

According to Dark Reading, the prize awards $100,000 to the author(s) of the winning paper. This year’s top prizewinners were from KU Leuven and their research focused on improving the ways browsers prevent cross-site attacks and third-party tracking using cookies.

UK researchers spot a serious WordPress PHP flaw

A researcher from UK cybersecurity firm Secarma, Sam Thomas, presented findings about a serious WordPress PHP flaw.

PHP is a general-purpose scripting language. By uploading a specially crafted file to the targeted app, attackers can trigger a file operation through the ‘phar://’ stream wrapper.

This then triggers flaws that can force the app to ‘unserialise’ metadata contained in the file. Malicious code could potentially be an outcome of the flaw.

WordPress was notified of the problem in February of 2017, but Secarma said it has not fully rectified the issue.

Nvidia graphics chip. Image: B Zhorov/Shutterstock

Ellen Tannam was a journalist with Silicon Republic, covering all manner of business and tech subjects

editorial@siliconrepublic.com