How These Lava Lamps Are Securing The Internet [Video]

One of the Secrets Guarding the Secure Internet Is a Wall of Lava Lamps | Cloudflare is protecting the internet using groovy lava lamps | How These Lava Lamps Are Securing The Internet | Cloudflare videotapes its wall of colourful constantly morphing lava lamps and translates that video information into unique cryptographic keys. | Cloudflare is known for providing good standards of encryption, but it seems the secret is out -- this reputation is built in part on lava lamps. | In order to keep client's protected, Cloudflare need to generate a lot of unpredictable, completely random numbers. That's where this wall of lava lamps comes in. | Roughly 10 percent of the Internet's traffic passes through Cloudflare, and as the firm deals with so much encrypted traffic, many random numbers are required. According to Nick Sullivan, Cloudfare's head of cryptography, this is where the lava lamps shine. | Cloudflare's "Wall of Entropy" sits in the lobby of their headquarters in San Francisco. It uses the unpredictability of its flowing "lava" to assist in randomly generating numbers. | Cloudflare has revealed an interesting way to ensure randomness when generating encryption keys -- lava lamps. | The Lava Lamps That Help Keep The Internet Secure | Internet firm Cloudflare's San Francisco office analyses the movement of lava in the lamps to create truly random numbers for its encryption system. | Giant Wall of Lava Lamps Helps to Protect 10% of Internet Traffic (Seriously) | The lava lamp usually gets a bum rap as some kind of lowbrow psychedelic entertainment system for people who are too strung out to enjoy any stimulation of real substance. But the lazy loafing sources of light and blobs (endless blobs!) are most definitely a lot more than a way to keep somebody distracted while they’re coming down off a Kalaxian Crystal high. | A wall of lava lamps is a critical component of the encryption effort responsible for about 10% of internet traffic. | Cloudflare’s encryption secret? Meet the wall of lava lamps | Cloudflare reveals its Lava Lamp powered cryptography | The wall of lava lamps, which is also known as the “Entropy Wall,” is supremely important for protecting internet traffic. But how exactly does it do that? "Something like ten percent of the web flows through Cloudflare's network," states Nick Sullivan, Head of Cryptography for internet "gatekeeping" service Cloudflare.

So, in order to keep their client's protected, they need to generate a lot of unpredictable, completely random numbers. That's where this wall of lava lamps comes in.

Cloudflare's "Wall of Entropy" sits in the lobby of their headquarters in San Francisco. It uses the unpredictability of its flowing "lava" to assist in randomly generating numbers.

On their blog, they explain how it works, for people both with technical and non-technical backgrounds.


Featured image: Cloudflare/Facebook | H/T: Boingboing.
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