On September 12th of this month, MySQL, the #1 database software in the world, suffered a 0-day exposure of a bug of the worst kind. It allows an authenticated remote attacker to take full control of any server running the software, regardless of the user's privileges in the database. This Escalation of…
The MacArthur Foundation has started a new competition for a large grant called 100 & Change. This grant gives the winner $100,000,000 USD with the aim of solving a real world problem. The OSTIF has officially registered for the contest, and we believe we have are in a position to…
OSTIF + QuarksLab Audit of VeraCrypt Completed - Phase II Begins The audit of VeraCrypt has been completed, and the final report is being created over the coming days. The VeraCrypt developers have the preliminary results and we are working with both VeraCrypt and QuarksLab on the timetable for releasing…
OSTIF, QuarksLab, and VeraCrypt E-mails are Being Intercepted As we have began the process of staging our audit, we have set up PGP encrypted communications between OSTIF, QuarksLab, and the lead developer of the VeraCrypt project. In these communications we have discussed vulnerability information, processes and procedures for reporting findings,…
OSTIF is proud to announce that we have come to an agreement to fully fund an audit of VeraCrypt. Using funds that were donated by DuckDuckGo and VikingVPN, we plan to hire QuarksLab to go over the code and search for vulnerabilities and backdoors. VeraCrypt is a crucial piece of…
We are proud to announce the addition of a new member of our team! Samara Renovato is joining us to help manage our PR and Social Media operations. She is a student at the University of Chicago studying Psychology. With a new focus on how people interact with one another…
OSTIF Transparency - We are opening up our books Edit: Our public books were last updated on 9/16/2016 In an effort to increase our transparency about where money in our organization goes, we are opening up our books to scrutiny by the public. You can see how our money is…
The Haystack - Four Woman Journalists Explore the Scope, Legality, and Ethical Pitfalls of Mass Surveillance. What is mass surveillance? How do investigative powers of governments differ today from thirty years ago? How intrusive are these powers? Are these powers legal within the constitutions of their respective countries? Who decides…
DuckDuckGo, the privacy search engine that does not track its users, has made a $25,000 contribution to the OSTIF, with the funds earmarked for the VeraCrypt project. These funds will be instrumental in supporting our goals of strengthening VeraCrypt and will directly assist the project in moving forward. DuckDuckGo's business…
It has been a while since we have told you all what we are up to. We have a number of news items to cover in the coming weeks, including updates to our transparency, bringing on additional staff, development of guide videos for all of our supported software applications on…