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Frédéric Jacobs

Personal blog · fredericjacobs.com/blog · on HN as FredericJsecurityprogramming

Frédéric Jacobs writes BrainOverfl0w, a personal blog at fredericjacobs.com about security and programming. Since 2012, 13 different Hacker News readers have linked it 30 times, most often “On SMS Logins: An Example from Telegram in Iran”. The last post was in 2024, but the archive is still widely read.

Visit the blog
30mentions?
13HN people?
2012–2020first – last linked?
Links on Hacker News per year · peak 14 in 2012

Too few sampled comments (5) to say how often HN recommends it.?

Why HN links it

HN readers link Frédéric Jacobs' blog for its security and cryptography posts: Signal and Telegram account takeovers, post-quantum key exchange, the NSA's shift to post-quantum crypto, and UDID tracking.

Summarised by Claude from a sample of 5 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.

Frédéric Jacobs - Cryptographic & Software Engineering. Welcome to my corner of the Internet 👋

The author on HN?

FredericJ · 3,533 karma · member since 2012

meet.hn/city/ch-Lausanne Socials: - FredericJ .at.hn - bsky.app/profile/fredericjacobs.com - linkedin.com/in/jacobsf Interests: Cybersecurity, Entrepreneurship, Hardware, Mobile Development, Outdoor Activities, Open Source, Privacy, Remote Work, Research, Science, Running, Space Tech --- https://www.fredericjacobs.com [ my public key: https://keybase.io/fj; my proof: https://keybase.io/fj/sigs/e3rY17MpkBX1jZhBeZNehXRVLcKvDxglvCpgChFC5hE ]

From their public HN profile, which links to this site.

Most-linked posts?

  1. On SMS Logins: An Example from Telegram in Iran
    3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-01-14
  2. UDID Leak : Identifying the Traitor
    3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2012-09-04
  3. Revisiting the NSA Suite B Announcement
    3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-01-27
  4. Some Bits from the NSA COMSEC Guide
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-12-18
  5. Double Ratchet and the Quantum Computers
    2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-12-27

What Hacker News says?

  1. I think tptacek was talking about actual takeovers of Telegram accounts. AFAIK there have been documented cases of this in Iran and Russia. See e.g. https://www.fredericjacobs.com/blog/2016/01/14/sms-login/

    Comment linking /blog/2016/01/14/sms-login/

    on “Why I won't recommend Signal anymore”
  2. Submitted UDID Leak : Identifying the Traitor as a story · 141 points

    HN discussion
  3. https://www.fredericjacobs.com/blog/2016/04/07/qc-axolotl/ might be a good place to start answering this question. If you can break the ECDH, you can figure out the key that was calculated. However, if other unknown data (e.g. past ECDH outputs) is hashed together to generate the key (like Signal does, as a very rough description), it's only post-quantum secure if the adversary ever misses a single message . Other t…

    Comment linking /blog/2016/04/07/qc-axolotl/

    on “NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Round 1 Submissions”
  4. Submitted One Million page views on movies.io as a story · 81 points

    HN discussion
  5. Isn't that what http://fredericjacobs.com/identifying-the-traitor is?

    Comment linking /identifying-the-traitor

    on “That UDID script I wrote - 350K hits... (w/source)”
  6. Submitted Bumping into Stallman, again as a story · 30 points

    HN discussion
  7. If your UDID script returns a positve, could you display a link to http://fredericjacobs.com/identifying-the-traitor and his "identifying the traitor" survey?

    Comment linking /identifying-the-traitor

    on “That UDID script I wrote - 350K hits... (w/source)”
  8. Submitted Revisiting the NSA Suite B Announcement as a story · 14 points

    HN discussion
  9. According to NIST, researchers are suggesting that a quantum computer capable of breaking 2048 will be available for less than a billion dollars within the next 15 years: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/nistir-8105/nistir_... Also relevant is Frederic Jacob's analysis of the NSA's relatively sudden shift towards post-quantum cryptography: "[It] says that it takes up to 20 years for algorithms to be fully de…

    Comment linking /blog/2016/01/27/NSA-QC/

    on “The Long-Awaited Promise of a Programmable Quantum Computer”
  10. Submitted The Hypocrisy of the West - Angry Syrians rejected by Apple as a story · 10 points

    HN discussion
  11. Submitted What we know about the UDID Leak (and what we don't) as a story · 9 points

    HN discussion
  12. Submitted Check.torproject.org and IPv6 as a story · 5 points

    HN discussion
  13. Submitted The Broken Mindset as a story · 5 points

    HN discussion
  14. Submitted On SMS Logins II: An Example from Telegram in Russia as a story · 4 points

    HN discussion
  15. Submitted Some Bits from the NSA COMSEC Guide as a story · 4 points

    HN discussion
  16. Submitted What I know about successful software releases. as a story · 4 points

    HN discussion
  17. Submitted On SMS Logins: An Example from Telegram in Iran as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
  18. Submitted The Broken Mindset as a story · 3 points

    HN discussion
  19. Submitted Axolotl and the Quantum Computers as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  20. Submitted On SMS Logins: An Example from Telegram in Iran as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  21. Submitted Some Bits from the NSA COMSEC Guide as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  22. Submitted The Value of Retail as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  23. Submitted Here is the new iPhone packaging as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  24. Submitted How to Record your Y Combinator Application as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  25. Submitted Windows Phone is all about UX as a story · 2 points

    HN discussion
  26. Submitted Double Ratchet and the Quantum Computers as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  27. Submitted Revisiting the NSA Suite B Announcement as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  28. Submitted Facebook Graph Search - The Monetization Theory as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  29. Submitted What I know about software releases as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion
  30. Submitted Is Social Media Killing Journalism? as a story · 1 points

    HN discussion

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