{{Short description|Russian software company}} {{distinguish|text = Elcom Technology, the Australian Internet solutions software company}} {{Infobox company | name = ElcomSoft Co.Ltd. | logo = Elcomsoft.png | type = Private | founded = 1990 | hq_location = Moscow, Russia | industry = Software | genre = Password Cracking, Operating System Audit | website = {{URL|https://www.elcomsoft.com}} }}
'''ElcomSoft''' is a privately owned software company headquartered in Moscow, Russia. Since its establishment in 1990, the company has been working on computer security programs, with the main focus on password and system recovery software.
== History == On July 16, 2001, Dmitry Sklyarov, a Russian citizen employed by ElcomSoft who was at the time visiting the United States for DEF CON, was arrested and charged for violating the United States DMCA law by writing ElcomSoft's Advanced eBook Processor software. He was later released on bail and allowed to return to Russia, and the charges against him were dropped. The charges against ElcomSoft were not, and a court case ensued, attracting much public attention and protest. On December 17, 2002, ElcomSoft was found not guilty of all four charges under the DMCA.<ref name="Ardito">{{cite journal |title=The Case of Dmitry Sklyarov—This is the first criminal lawsuit under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act |author=Stephanie Ardito |journal=Information Today |volume=18 |issue=10 |date=November 2001 |url=https://www.infotoday.com/IT/nov01/ardito.htm |accessdate=March 18, 2021}}</ref>
Thunder Tables is the company's own technology developed to ensure guaranteed recovery of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel documents protected with 40-bit encryption. The technology first appeared in 2007 and employs the time–memory tradeoff method to build pre-computed hash tables, which open the corresponding files in a matter of seconds instead of days. These tables take around four gigabytes. So far, the technology is used in two password recovery programs: Advanced Office Password Breaker and Advanced PDF Password Recovery.<ref>{{cite web |title=Password Recovery, License to crack |publisher=International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) |author=Yury Ushakov |url=http://www.icsti.su/uploaded/201306/Ushakov.pdf |accessdate=March 17, 2021}}</ref>
In 2009 ElcomSoft released a tool that takes WPA/WPA2 Hash Codes and uses brute-force methods to guess the password associated with a wireless network.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://hothardware.com/cs/forums/t/41491.aspx | title=HotHardware Forums}}</ref>
On November 30, 2010, Elcomsoft announced that the encryption system used by Canon cameras to ensure that pictures and Exif metadata have not been altered was flawed and cannot be fixed. On that same day, Dmitry Sklyarov gave a presentation at the Confidence 2.0 conference in Prague demonstrating the flaws.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://201002.confidence.org.pl/prelegenci/dmitry-sklyarov|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181025001307/http://201002.confidence.org.pl/prelegenci/dmitry-sklyarov|title=Dmitry Sklyarov|archive-date=2018-10-25|access-date=2023-08-08}}</ref> Among others, he showed an image of an astronaut planting a flag of the Soviet Union on the moon; all the images pass Canon's authenticity verification.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kirk |first1=Jeremy |title=Analyst finds flaws in Canon image verification system |url=https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/369757/analyst_finds_flaws_canon_image_verification_system/ |website=PC World from IDG |publisher=IDG Communications |accessdate=27 September 2019 |date=1 December 2010 |archive-date=27 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927181108/https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/369757/analyst_finds_flaws_canon_image_verification_system/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Doctorow |first1=Cory |title=Dmitry Sklyarov and co. crack Canon's "image verification" anti-photoshopping tool |url=https://boingboing.net/2010/11/30/dmitry-sklyarov-and.html |website=Boing Boing |accessdate=27 September 2019 |date=30 Nov 2010}}</ref>
In 2014 an attacker used the Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker to determine celebrity Jennifer Lawrence's password and obtain nude photos.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Nude Celebrity Photo Leak Was Made Possible By Law Enforcement Software That Anyone Can Get |author=Dylan Love |date=September 3, 2014 |publisher=IBT Media |work=International Business Times |url=https://www.ibtimes.com/nude-celebrity-photo-leak-was-made-possible-law-enforcement-software-anyone-can-get-1677314 |accessdate=March 17, 2021}}</ref> Wired said about Apple's cloud services, "...cloud services might be about as secure as leaving your front door key under the mat."<ref>{{cite news |title= The Celebrity Photo Hacks Couldn't Have Come at a Worse Time for Apple--The message to the world is that if it's that easy to hack Jennifer Lawrence's iCloud account, it's probably that easy to hack mine, too. |author=Marcus Wohlsen |date=November 2, 2014 |url=https://www.wired.com/2014/09/the-celebrity-photo-hacks-couldnt-have-come-at-a-worse-time-for-apple/ |accessdate=March 17, 2021}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist|2}}
== External links == * {{Official website|https://www.elcomsoft.com}}
{{Portalbar|Companies|Russia}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Software companies established in 1990 Category:Computer law Category:Cryptography law Category:Software companies of Russia Category:Computer security software companies Category:Companies based in Moscow Category:Russian companies established in 1990 Category:Cryptographic attacks Category:Password cracking software