Prevent the Next XZ Incident: Galois’s LAGOON Tool Offers an Answer to Open-Source Software Threats

In March, 2024, researchers discovered a backdoor hidden in an update of open-source Linux tool XZ Utils – a vulnerability that appears likely to be the result of a multi-year, state-sponsored supply chain attack. This latest close call is only the most recent in a growing history of incidents underscoring the fragility of a modern […]

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Formal Verso: the Formal Methods Future of Smart Contract Security

In May 2016, the newly created Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), an investor-directed venture capital fund built as a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain, raised around $150 million worth of digital currency. Hopes were high. The fund was to be a fully transparent and decentralized organization, with investment decisions made collectively through member votes, and […]

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Introducing Cheesecloth: A Tool for Proving Software Vulnerabilities in Zero Knowledge

In the world of cybersecurity, proving software vulnerabilities responsibly is a critical challenge.  Imagine a security analyst discovers a vulnerability and wants to tell a software company that their program can be hacked. Here, they face a common dilemma: when they tell the software company about the vulnerability, the company may choose to simply ignore […]

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Galois Unlocks the Power of Private Set Intersection: A Game-Changer for Data Privacy

The US Department of Education (DOE) was in a quandary. Every few years, they were required to report to Congress on the state of undergraduate student financial aid in the United States, but the confidential data needed to create the report was divided between two different internal offices—offices forbidden by policy to share data with […]

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Bringing Zero Knowledge Proofs to the Masses

The arcane world of cryptographic proofs seldom finds expression on the dashboard of your average automobile, but a partnership between Galois and Cybernetica is steering the state of the art in privacy-preserving technology towards the road less traveled—in Estonia, to be precise. In 2020, Estonia’s Environmental Investment Centre introduced a public program to encourage the […]

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Subverting Censorship: How a Galois-developed Android App Could Change the Game for Pro-Democracy Activists

For pro-democracy activists living under authoritarian regimes, communication can be a tricky – and often dangerous – endeavor. Posting dissident messages to social media, sending an email, or texting a friend or colleague can risk interception by vigilant government agents, censorship, and even jail time. Over the past few years, Galois has been developing, in […]

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Cryptol, SAW, and the Galois Origin Story

Among the many tales of innovation and impact to come from Galois over the years, the origin story of Cryptol and SAW is perhaps the most closely tied with that of the company itself. Today, these open-source verification tools have been used in national security, fintech, and cloud computing applications to keep citizens, systems, and […]

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Galois Engineer Fosters Future Tech Talent with LEGO Robotics Competition

Galois is full of fascinating people with remarkable stories. In addition to being research engineers building tools for space exploration, mathematicians writing proofs to secure some of the world’s most valuable data, and spreadsheet wizards managing complex projects, we are musicians and artists, mountaineers and spelunkers, philosophers and flower farmers. Every once in a while, […]

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Shaping Tomorrow’s Innovators

Every year, college seniors in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) program at Portland State University (PSU) and the computer science program at North Dakota State University (NDSU) are required to participate in a capstone project. These initiatives pair teams of students with local or regional companies to work on industry-relevant projects and give students […]

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