Auckland Security Consultant uses PS3 for Cryptography

As the title states, a Senior Security Consultant by the name of Nick Breese is using a PS3 to crack MD5 hashes. Aside from this article incorrectly stating that the security expert is stealing passwords, as of now he has only shown how fast the machines can process MD5 hashes. This is just a small glimpse of what the software and hardware can do, the article compares how many cycles can be completed using Vector Computing:

By implementing common ciphers and hash functions using vector computing, Breese has pushed the current upper limit of 10–15 million cycles per second — in Intel-based architecture — up to 1.4 billion cycles per second.

The project that Nick Breese is working on is called Crackstation, which he has been developing for a better part of 6 months. A lot of writers are saying that this is a “Hacking” tool and saying that its down right malicious. But they fail to realize that the PS3 hardware, combined with the software that is being developed by Nick Breese will in fact allow for some of the most commonly used encryption methods to be tested and seen for what they’re. Strong or weak.

But the biggest thing that erks me, is the phrases these technology writers use at the various new sites. They seem to love to use the word “hacker” even though it is the most mis-understood word you could use in the security and technology industry. But the amount of attention the word gets from the mass audiences is astounding, anything on the front page of any article that states “HACKER” will have people reading. But why? Is it because our entire day to day life revolves around technology?

Good job Nick Breese, if we didn’t have people like you, then we would still be using cryptography from the 70’s.

Read the PCWorld article.
Read the Gizmodo article.
Article about Crackstation Software for the PS3