Encryption algorithms can be intimidating to approach, what’s with all the math involved. However, once you start digging into them, you can break the math apart into smaller steps, and get a feel of what goes into encryption being the modern-day magic they take for granted. Today, [Henry Schmale] writes to us about his small contribution to making cryptography easier to understand – lifting the veil on the RSA asymmetric encryption technique through an RSA calculator.

With [Henry]’s calculator, you can only encrypt and decrypt a single integer, but you’re able to view each individual step of an RSA calculation as you do so. If you want to understand what makes RSA and other similar algorithms tick, this site is an excellent starting point. Now, this is not something you should use when roll your crypto implementations – as cryptographers say in unison, writing your own crypto from scratch is extremely inadvisable. [Henry] does say that this calculator could be useful for CTF players, for instance, but it’s also undeniably an accessible learning tool for any hacker out there wishing to understand what goes on under the wraps of the libraries they use.

In modern day, cryptography is instrumental to protecting their freedoms, and it’s a joy to see people work towards explaining the algorithms used. The cryptography tools they use day-to-day are also highly valuable targets for governments and intelligence agencies, willing to go to great lengths to subvert their communication security – so it’s even more important that they get acquianted with the tools that protect us. After all, it only takes a piece of paper to encrypt your communications with someone.

12 Hot Cybersecurity Startups You Need To Know About At RSA 2020
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Connections is the latest puzzle game from the New York Times. The game tasks you with categorizing a pool of 16 words into four secret (for now) groups by figuring out how the words relate to each other. The puzzle resets every night at midnight and each new puzzle has a varying degree of difficulty. Just like Wordle, you can keep track of your winning streak and compare your scores with friends.

Some days are trickier than others. If you’re having a little trouble solving today’s Connections puzzle, check out their tips and hints below. And if you still can’t get it, we’ll tell you today’s answers at the very end.

How to play Connections

Hints for today’s Connections

We can help you solve today’s Connection by telling you the four themes. If you need more assistance, we’ll also supply you one word from each group below.

Today’s themes

• Gift-Giving Accessories
• Dating App Actions
• Cool, In Slang
• Lucky ___

One-answer reveals

• Gift-Giving Accessories – Bow
• Dating App Actions – Block
• Cool, In Slang – Fire
• Lucky ___ – Break

Today’s Connections answers

Phaedra Propp^1,2 and Allan Becker*^1–3

¹The Manitoba Institute of Child Health, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3P4, Canada
²Allergy Genes and the Environment Network (AllerGen nce) of the Networks of Centres of Excellence, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada
³Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Section of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada

Financial & competing interests disclosure
A Becker is supported by CIHR, AllerGen NCE and NSERC-CHRP. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

*Author for correspondence
Tel.: +1 204 789 3755 Fax: +1 204 789 3986 becker@cc.umanitoba.ca

The RSA Conference returns to San Francisco this week, with tens of thousands descending on the Moscone Center to discuss — and debate — the latest developments and new trends in the world of cybersecurity. Many vendors and partners focused on the security industry will be present, of course, and that means lots of news. CRN will be on hand to interview top executives and channel partners, scope out the existing product offerings and find out what’s on the minds of cybersecurity experts. RSAC 2023 is expected to bring a special focus on AI, as the first major security industry conference to take place since the debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the resulting rush — by both defenders and attackers — to tap into generative AI.

Keep an eye on this page for all of CRN’s news coverage, interviews and product roundups out of RSA Conference 2023.

Here’s What 15 Top CEOs And Cybersecurity Experts Told Us At RSAC 2023
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RSAC 2023: 10 Coolest Cybersecurity Startup Companies
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RSAC 2023 Sees Big Moves From SentinelOne, CrowdStrike, Google Cloud, Accenture
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Optiv Launches ‘Data-Driven’ Program For Cybersecurity Partnerships
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5 Big Statements From Cybersecurity Leaders At RSAC 2023
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10 Hot Generative AI Products And Companies At RSAC 2023
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20 Hottest Cybersecurity Products At RSAC 2023
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10 Cool New Cybersecurity Tools Announced At RSAC 2023
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Google Cloud Debuts Security-Focused Generative AI Platform
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Accenture Doubles Down On Google Cloud Security With New Managed Service
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SentinelOne Unveils Generative AI-Powered Threat Hunting Tool
The new offering is the ‘first-of-its-kind’ in cybersecurity and will allow security teams to use generative AI to Strengthen their productivity and uncover more threats, according to SentinelOne.

Bungie and the Destiny 2 playerbase are doing some soul-searching after a traumatic week of mass layoffs and (unconfirmed but definitely happening) delays. Externally and internally, it’s known these layoffs have been triggered by the poor performance of Destiny 2 after this year’s Lightfall expansion, with player engagement down and revenue goals missed by a massive 45%.

The answer to this so far seems to be putting all stock in The Final Shape, the game’s last Light and Darkness era expansion. But with a delay, the declines ahead of that release are bound to accelerate, and it being an “ending,” drop-offs will also happen afterward.

Bungie seems like it’s in an almost impossible position at this point, trying to please Sony, trying to build multiple new games, trying to stabilize playercounts and revenue for Destiny 2, trying to increase employee and player morale in a terrible moment.

And the problem is, I don’t think there really is an answer. At least not one that isn’t extremely drastic.

I was just watching SkillUp’s show Friends Per Second where he had on Datto, Byf and Aztecross, three giants of the Destiny 2 community. When he asked a fairly simple question, what could Bungie do to turn things around from here, specifically after The Final Shape, everyone mostly looked around and shrugged. After years of suggestions, almost everyone is out of meaningful ideas. Better onboarding was one thing brought up, but what that even means seven years in with 50% of the game’s content deleted is unclear.

In the wider community, the proposed “fixes” are impossible, like “just unvault all destinations and raids” like you’re flipping a light switch (ironically, location lighting is a big technical reason why it’s so hard to bring old areas back).

What I keep coming back to is that I do not think there is an answer except for…Destiny 3, something that does not seem to be on the table at all, but it is essentially the only thing that I can see working as a jump start and refresh for the series. And to build that may require a break of (gasp) a couple of years so Bungie can work on it instead of grinding out seasonal episodes or more yearly expansions around the clock.

My fear is that Bungie will stay on the exact same cadence of content release they are on now and it will do nothing to reverse declines. Staying with Destiny 2 indefinitely, all the same problems remain, and you’re not going to get some major surge in player population if some new “saga” launches in 2025, built on the back of 7/8 previous years of content. All the problems will still be there.

I think everyone needs a break. If Bungie was allowed to put Destiny 2 in maintenance mode for a period of time ahead of making a fully new sequel, players could just play as they felt like it without feeling the pressure to “keep up” the way they do now. Bungie could allow its seasonal teams to start working on larger content for a full sequel. And this has to be a real sequel, not just a new D2 expansion that vaults all past content and is called “Destiny 3,” which would probably be the worst of all worlds.

I know this is not how every game does it. WoW and Final Fantasy XIV and such don’t simply “stop,” and yet I don’t know if Destiny can continue this dream of being a full MMO like those games given the live service model it’s adopted where it can’t just return for huge, sweeping expansions, but it needs to be pumping out new content around the clock.

You may say “well if you’re worried about player and revenue falloffs before this, stopping live content delivery would kill everything,” I get that. However, it feels like the kind of drastic step that would be needed if Destiny, or even Bungie, is going to survive in the long term. Maybe they couldn’t have survived a move like that as an independent studio, but this is where they would have to rely on Sony to supply them runway to turn things around in their flagship series.

I understand Destiny is a live game, but at a certain point, that works against it as Bungie constantly has to build a road as they’re driving on it. Sony’s studios thrive by being able to take their time in between sprawling single player games, and while sure, it’s a different genre here, if Bungie wants to re-engage players on the whole, a big new start, a clean slate, new classes, new races, a new galaxy even, a place where new players can join on day one and veterans can be excited to return, they should be allowed that chance.

But I don’t think this is happening. From my time spent speaking with former and current Bungie employees during this past week, few seem to know or will share anything happening past the post-Final Shape episodes, and Destiny 3 doesn’t really seem to be coming up in conversation at all. I simply do not believe that even if The Final Shape is good, it will allow for anything other than a very brief surge in players and sales. After that, if we’re still just trying to trudge through years with similar seasonal content and similar expansions built in D2, I don’t think anything ever changes, and the declines will only continue. Sometimes you need drastic action to save a franchise and make sure it’s healthy long term, and as much as I may not want to believe it, I think taking a few years off to craft Destiny 3 as a clean slate for new players and veterans alike is the thing that makes the most sense, as scary as it may be for everyone involved. This current path leads nowhere good.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.

The Minister for Finance has called for the National Driver Licence Service (NDLS) to reverse its policy of refusing to accept cash payments.

In a statement to Prime Time, Minister Michael McGrath said he had made it clear on a number of occasions that cash will continue to be an integral part of the payment system in Ireland and he believes the NDLS should make cash payment facilities available to those who require them.

"I expect all essential public services provided by the State and on behalf of the State to be accessible to members of the public whose preference is to transact in cash."

Earlier this year, the minister wrote to Government colleagues asking that public bodies maintain their existing payment methods in relation to cash pending the completion of the National Payments Strategy.

However, the NDLS told Prime Time that cash is still not accepted at 34 driving licence centres around the country as the move predated the minister's guidance.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA), which operates the service, said the cashless policy was introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"This policy is consistent with the most up-to-date Government guidance which advises organisations that currently accept cash to continue to do so, until a new National Payment Strategy is brought forward."

"The RSA will not change the cashless model in place, until further Government guidance is provided to do so," the statement added.

Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae said the NDLS should "wake up" and reverse its decision.

"Covid has now gone and they shouldn’t be implementing rules from Covid times," he said.

"They can’t say they are refusing to accept legal tender. It’s very unfair on the general public."

READ MORE: Cash or card: Are they tapping their way to a cashless society?

New driving licences and renewals cost €55 while learner permits are €35. Those wishing to pay for a licence in person must use a card, mobile phone or Payzone vouchers.

Cash handling introduces additional complexity, including security, safe storage, transfer to the bank and reconciliation, the RSA said.

It added that licence applicants are welcome to be accompanied by a person who can make a payment on their behalf and there is no charge for persons aged 70 years and over.

An online service is available for all licences once applicants have a public services card.

A public consultation is under way ahead of the drafting of the new National Payments Strategy. The consultation window will remain open until 14 February 2024.

New legislation is being considered as part of the strategy which would mandate certain sectors to accept cash.

"I look forward to the formal conclusion of the National Payments Strategy. If necessary, I will bring forward legislation to supply effect to the government’s final policy decision in this area to ensure full compliance," Minister McGrath said.