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Technology Industry News & Career Management information, brought to you by BrainWave Consulting Company.
April 2009 - Posts
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Interesting article from The New York Times. Because so many aspects of the American effort to develop cyberweapons and define their proper use remain classified, many of those officials declined to speak on the record. The White House declined several requests for interviews or to say whether Mr. Obama as a matter of policy supports or opposes the use of... Share Post: Read More...
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From The Daily WTF: Johnny was what you might call a "gym rat." In incredible shape from almost-daily gym visits, a tight Lycra tank top, iPod strapped to his sizable bicep, underneath which was a large black tribal tattoo. He scanned his finger on his way out, but the turnstile wouldn't budge. "Uh, just a second," the receptionist furiously typed... Share Post: Read More...
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They're voting on paper again; smart country. I wrote about electronic voting machines back in 2004.... Share Post: Read More...
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Lots of high-tech gear, but that's not what makes schools safe: Some of the noticeable security measures remain, but experts say the country is exploring a new way to protect kids from in-school violence: administrators now want to foster school communities that essentially can protect themselves with or without the high-tech gear. "The first and best line of defense is... Share Post: Read More...
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I've previously written about the piece of counterterrorism silliness known as the no-fly list: Imagine a list of suspected terrorists so dangerous that we can't ever let them fly, yet so innocent that we can't arrest them -- even under the draconian provisions of the Patriot Act. Turns out these people are so dangerous that they can't be allowed to... Share Post: Read More...
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This apparently non-ironic video warns that people might impersonate census workers in an effort to rob you. But while you shouldn't trust the ID of a stranger, you should trust that same stranger to give you a phone number where you can verify that ID. This, of course, makes no sense. Preventing impersonation is hard.... Share Post: Read More...
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I haven't read this book on the Columbine school shooting and massacre, but the New York Times review had an interesting paragraph about cell phones in a hostage situation: Fuselier is one of the people Cullen spotlights in his retelling in order to clear up the historical record. Some of the confusion generated by Columbine was inevitable: Harris and Klebold... Share Post: Read More...
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Do you know what your data did last night? Almost none of more than 27 million people who took the RealAge quiz realized that their personal health data was sold to drug companies, who in turned used that information for targeted e-mail marketing campaigns. There's a basic consumer protection principle at work here, and it's the concept of "unfair and... Share Post: Read More...
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Not what you think; it's about forensics of the Squid web/proxy cache. Note the squid stamp, though.... Share Post: Read More...
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The RSA Conference organizers asked me to write a restaurant review column for their show daily -- distributed only electronically. I called my column "The Dining Cryptographer." Here are links to them. I reviewed two restaurants each day: one walking distance from Moscone Center, and one a taxi ride away.... Share Post: Read More...
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Remember those terrorism arrests that the UK government conducted, after a secret document was accidentally photographed? No one was charged: The Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to press charges or hold them any longer. The Muslim Council of Britain said the government behaved "very dishonourably" over the treatment of the men should admit it had made a... Share Post Read More...
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Clever hack: Back during the debate for HR 1, I was amazed at how easily conservatives were willing to accept and repeat lies about spending in the stimulus package, even after those provisions had been debunked as fabrications. The $30 million for the salt marsh mouse is a perfect example, and Kagro X documented well over a dozen congressmen repeating... Share Post: Read More...
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The problem is more widespread than you might think: First lofted into orbit in the 1970s, the FLTSATCOM bird was at the time a major advance in military communications. Their 23 channels were used by every branch of the U.S. armed forces and the White House for encrypted data and voice, typically from portable ground units that could be quickly... Share Post: Read More...
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Confickerâs April Foolâs joke -- the huge, menacing build-up and then nothing -- is a good case study on how we think about risks, one whose lessons are applicable far outside computer security. Generally, our brains aren't very good at probability and risk analysis. We tend to use cognitive shortcuts instead of thoughtful analysis. This worked fine for the simple... Share Post: Read More...
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Encrypting your USB drive is smart. Writing the encryption key on a piece of paper and attaching it to the USB drive is not.... Share Post: Read More...
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Sometimes the basic tricks work best: Police say a man posing as a waiter collected $186 in cash from diners at two restaurants in New Jersey and walked out with the money in his pocket. Diners described the bogus waiter as a spikey-haired 20-something wearing a dark blue or black button-down shirt, yellow tie and khaki pants. Police say he... Share Post: Read More...
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I was going to write a commentary on the RSA Conference keynote speech by General Alexander, NSA Director. But he didn't actually say anything. Does anyone have any other opinions?... Share Post: Read More...
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Posting an excerpt would give it away.... Share Post: Read More...
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Anyone interested? General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could "think like the bad guy." Applicants, it said, must understand hackers' tools and tactics and be able to analyze Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems. In the Pentagon's budget request submitted last week, Defense... Read More...
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Not a particularly subtle hack, but clever nonetheless.... Share Post: Read More...
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Daniel Gardner's The Science of Fear was published last July, but I've only just gotten around to reading it. That was a big mistake. It's a fantastic book at how how humans deal with fear: exactly the kind of thing I have been reading and writing about for the past couple of years. It's the book I wanted to write,... Share Post: Read More...
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Ears? Arm swinging? I guess biometrics is now the "it" thing to study.... Share Post: Read More...
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This is pretty awful. More war on the unexpected.... Share Post: Read More...
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From Foreign Affairs, of all places: 8. If you are still having trouble working the Chinese or the Russian governments into your story, why not throw in some geopolitical kerfuffle that involves a country located in between? Not only would it implicate both governments, it would also make cyberspace seem relevant to geopolitics. I suggest you settle on Kyrgyzstan, as... Share Post: Read More...
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Dear Bob ... After reading your columns on companies looking for ways to cut costs, I would like to share a bit of contrary cost cutting. We were acquired a couple of years ago. Prior to that, management had always provided coffee service. Our new owners discontinued it at the start of the new fiscal Read More...
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Dear Bob ... What do you think of a company where headquarters, in order to cut costs, reduces or eliminates some essential core services? And then when those of us out in the field have to take care of them ourselves and try to build them into the budget, get complaints, namely, "We did our part to Read More...
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Details of the arrests made in haste after this inadvertant disclosure.... Share Post: Read More...
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Dear Bob ... I'm the CIO in a mid-size company (~750 employees left after layoffs; 50 in IT). I report to the CEO. As of this week, I report to a different CEO than I used to report to, because the Board of Directors fired the last one ("left to pursue other interests") and his replacement just came Read More...
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Tweenbots: Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal. Given their extreme vulnerability, the... Share Post: Read More...
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Here's a tip: when walking around in public with secret government documents, put them in an envelope. A huge MI5 and police counterterrorist operation against al-Qaeda suspects had to be brought forward at short notice last night after Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism chief accidentally revealed a briefing document. [...] The operation was nearly blown when Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick walked Read More...
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Yesterday I talked to at least a dozen reporters about this breathless Wall Street Journal story: Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials. The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be... Share Post Read More...
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Interesting research: The team of researchers, which includes graduate students David Choffnes (electrical engineering and computer science) and Dean Malmgren (chemical and biological engineering), and postdoctoral fellow Jordi Duch (chemical and biological engineering), studied connection patterns in the BitTorrent file-sharing network -- one of the largest and most popular P2P systems today. They Read More...
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I found this great paragraph in this article on the future of privacy in the UK: One of the few home secretaries who dominated his department rather than be cowed by it was Lord Whitelaw in the 1980s. He boasted how after any security lapse, the police would come to beg for new and draconian powers. He laughed and sent... Share Post: Read More...
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Clever: I'm going to tell you exactly how someone can trick you into thinking they're your friend. Now, before you send me hate mail for revealing this deep, dark secret, let me assure you that the scammers, crooks, predators, stalkers and identity thieves are already aware of this trick. It works only because the public is not aware of it.... Share Post: Read More...
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From Cryptosmith: The NSA had an incinerator in their old Arlington Hall facility that was designed to reduce top secret crypto materials and such to ash. Someone discovered that it wasn't in fact working. Contract disposal trucks had been disposing of this not-quite-sanitized rubish, and officers tracked down a huge pile in a field in Ft. Meyer. How did they... Share Post: Read More...
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Dear Bob ... For some time, I have been looking for a non-IT, business-executive-level publication that I might be able to share with the senior management team here to help them stay more up-to-date on technology trends. Our executive management committee is the steering committee for IT, and most of Read More...
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Nice rundown of the statistics. The single greatest killer of Americans is the so-called "lifestyle disease." Somewhere between half a million and a million of us get a short ride in a long hearse every year because of smoking, lousy diets, parking our bodies in front of the TV instead of operating them, and downing yet another six pack and... Share Post: Read More...
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Dear Bob ... A month or so ago you gave some advice to "Unhappy, with choices," who had been offered two alternatives: take a 20 percent pay cut or accept a severance package (" Choosing between a buyout and a salary cut ," Advice Line, 3/1/2009). read more Share Post: Read More...
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At least, according to U.S. law: 18 U.S.C. 2332a (2) the term "weapon of mass destruction" means— (A) any destructive device as defined in section 921 of this title; (B) any weapon that is designed or intended to cause death or serious bodily injury through the release, dissemination, or impact of toxic or poisonous chemicals, or their precursors; (C) any... Share Post: Read More...
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Interesting: Computer scientists Arvind Narayanan and Dr Vitaly Shmatikov, from the University of Texas at Austin, developed the algorithm which turned the anonymous data back into names and addresses. The data sets are usually stripped of personally identifiable information, such as names, before it is sold to marketing companies or researchers keen to plumb it for useful information. Before now,... Read More...
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There is an excellent discussion taking place on the LinkedIn group for CIO magazine under the heading of: Some thoughts on IT-Business Alignment from the Chase Zander IT Director Forum (as influenced by CIO Forum members) So far, there are over 35 responses,...( read more ) Share Post: Read More...
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Dear Bob ... I'm out of work anyway (laid off), received an acceptable severance as a cushion, and am thinking of starting a small consulting business. I know you've answered questions about this before ... in particular, I remember your advice that if I'm not comfortable selling I shouldn't even consider Read More...
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Interesting research: By looking in the stomachs of three sperm whales stranded in the Bay of Biscay, Cherel recovered hundreds of beaks from 19 separate species -- 17 squids including the giant squid, the seven-arm octopus (the largest in the world) and the bizarre vampire squid. Together, these species represent a decent spread of the full diversity of deep-sea cephalopods.... Share Post: Read More...
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Before his arrest, Tom Berge stole lead roof tiles from several buildings in south-east England, including the Honeywood Museum in Carshalton, the Croydon parish church, and the Sutton high school for girls. He then sold those tiles to scrap metal dealers. As a security expert, I find this story interesting for two reasons. First, amongst increasingly ridiculous attempts to ban,... Share Post: Read More...
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A story about a very expensive series of false positives. The German police spent years and millions of dollars tracking a mysterious killer whose DNA had been found at the scenes of six murders. Finally they realized they were tracking a worker at the factory that assembled the prepackaged swabs used for DNA testing. This story could be used as... Share Post: Read More...
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U.S. government cybersecurity is an insecure mess, and fixing it is going to take considerable attention and resources. Trying to make sense of this, President Barack Obama ordered a 60-day review of government cybersecurity initiatives. Meanwhile, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, Science and Technology is holding hearings on the same topic. One of the areas of contention... Read More...
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I'm not making this up: The loss of two MOBA works to theft has drawn media attention, and enhanced the museum's stature. In 1996, the painting Eileen, by R. Angelo Le, vanished from MOBA. Eileen was acquired from the trash by Wilson, and features a rip in the canvas where someone slashed it with a knife even before the museum... Share Post: Read More...
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Let's face it, the War on Terror is a tired brand. There just isn't enough action out there to scare people. If this keeps up, people will forget to be scared. And then both the terrorists and the terror-industrial complex lose. We can't have that. We're going to help revive the fear. There's plenty to be scared about, if only... Share Post: Read More...
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