Requests for Question of The Week blog posts

Question

Since starting the Security Stack Exchange Blog on 15 July 2011 we have some excellent blog posts, and a large number of these are from our Question of the Week posts. Going forwards, it is probably simplest to post your favourite Questions of the week as answers on this question, and vote for your which ones you want to see. Once questions are accepted and posted we will delete them off here allowing the next most popular to rise to the top. So if you had a favourite question which didn't get selected in a previous week it may yet have it's turn in the spotlight.

There may be ones which are hot topics that week - and these may get posted despite not being at the top of the pile. Discussion in the DMZ will identify and select these.

Please post any question that you feel is of worth and the reason why as an answer below. Try not to promote your own questions or answers for publicity's sake. We are looking for questions that are of great interest, or have exceptional answers. If you like a posted question then vote it up. Each week we are going to try to post about the question and its contents. Also, have a look at the blog to check it hasn't already been written about.

When submitting a QotW, please indicate if you would be interested in writing about it for the blog. This is a factor which we take into consideration when selecting what to blog about - we need a post we can actually say something interesting about, it shouldn't be something we've written about too much before, and it helps to have somebody interested in writing the article.

I repeat - volunteer authors are always welcome - we get a wider range of styles, and it puts less of a load on the regulars

Note to the answerers, if you dig a question, you can always submit a draft blog post about it, even if its not picked as QotW. Contact a moderator, or come and chat in the DMZ if you need more information.

Posts can be written whenever you like - if we have a queue of good blog posts then that can tide us through holidays or times when folks are busy.

Timings:

• Question and author selection: 1700 UTC Tuesday
• Draft submission: 0800 UTC Thursday to enable review
• Publication: 1200 UTC Friday.

For a list of previous proposed and featured questions, look at @Iszi's question here.

Answer 1

I propose this question:

How valuable is secrecy of an algorithm?

because it tries to explore the limits of a well-known security slogan. Also, I am narcissic enough to enjoy reading my own answer.

Answer 2

While my question did not receive a shocking amount of traffic, I think the implications of it are shocking:

Authenticating a Proxy server over HTTPS

I think corporate types installing authenticated proxies all over their networks would be interested in knowing this...

P.s. I could try to find time to write this up.... sometime....

Answer 3

I propose: How practical/important is the Lucky Thirteen TLS attack?

More attacks against the SSL/TLS protocol is always interesing. Our resident Bear could give it a nice write up if he has the time.

Answer 4

I propose a question regarding this topic:

Is Adblock (Plus) a security risk?

The article itself doesn't need to center itself in the AdBlock thing, but it really can go further into the security implications about browser's plugin.

I would love to help with the writing =)

Answer 5

I think Jack's question "Can my IT department read my Google Hangouts chats while at work?" is definitely interesting. We have various questions on privacy expectations at work, and the answers on this one are nice and clear.

Another example:

Can an employer access Whatsapp messages if you are using their servers?