#API design

At the 2026 Linux Security Summit North America, Eric Biggers presented ongoing efforts to replace the traditional Linux kernel crypto API with new library APIs that are safer and simpler to use. This modernization reduces complexity and potential security bugs in kernel cryptography, benefiting all kernel subsystems that rely on encryption, hashing, and authentication. The traditional crypto API, introduced in 2002, has become complex, slow, and poorly optimized for modern CPU-based acceleration, leading to maintenance and performance issues.

A fintech engineering handbook titled 'Fintech Engineering Handbook' was published, but drew criticism from the community for recommending practices like storing monetary values as decimals or floats instead of integers, and for oversimplifying foreign exchange handling. This discussion highlights critical engineering decisions in fintech, such as monetary representation and FX handling, which have significant consequences for accuracy and compliance. The debate underscores the need for rigorous best practices in financial software, affecting developers and companies building financial systems. Critics pointed out that storing monetary values as integers in the smallest currency unit (e.g., cents) is safer to avoid floating-point rounding errors. The handbook's advice on using decimals or floats for JSON interchange was specifically called out as risky, especially when dealing with currencies having different minor unit counts.