Quiddit.ch

Interesting post from Bruce Schneier:

[…] It took the police two weeks to notice the Mooninite blinkies, but once they did, they overreacted because their jobs were at stake.
This is “Cover Your Ass” security, and unfortunately it’s very common.
Airplane security seems to forever be looking backwards. Pre-9/11, it was bombs, guns, and knives. Then it was small blades and box cutters. Richard Reid tried to blow up a plane, and suddenly we all have to take off our shoes. And after last summer’s liquid plot, we’re stuck with a series of nonsensical bans on liquids and gels.
Once you think about this in terms of CYA, it starts to make sense.

Read it here.

Investigators believe hackers stole sensitive U.S. information and passwords and implanted backdoors in unclassified government computers to allow them to return at will, said U.S. officials familiar with the hacking.[…]
In the tense weeks preceding North Korea’s missile tests, that bureau lost its Internet connectivity for several days.[..]
The department also temporarily disabled a technology known as secure sockets layer, used to transmit encrypted information over the Internet.
Hackers can exploit weaknesses in this technology to break into computers, and they can use the same technology to transmit stolen information covertly off a victim’s network.
Many diplomats were unable to access their online bank accounts using government computers because most financial institutions require the security technology to be turned on. Cooper said the department has since fixed that problem.

From CNN.com. Read the whole article here.

One argument why the NSA’s data mining efforts won’t work:

A problem with the spy agency’s apparent methodology lies in the way terrorist groups operate and what scientists call the “strength of weak ties.” As the military scientist Robert Spulak has described it to me, you might not see your college roommate for 10 years, but if he were to call you up and ask to stay in your apartment, you’d let him. This is the principle under which sleeper cells operate: there is no communication for years. Thus for the most dangerous threats, the links between nodes that the agency is looking for simply might not exist.

I found this in a post by Bruce Schneier. Bruce was quoting Jonathan Farley, math professor at Harvard.

(posted by Aymeric)

And Government smiles in anticipation!

Google will have copies of your tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files, and whatever other text-based documents the Desktop software can index. The government could then demand these personal files with only a subpoena rather than the search warrant it would need to seize the same things from your home or business, and in many cases you wouldn’t even be notified in time to challenge it.

Read the full article here, it’s a statement made by the EFF. At least you will have been warned before using the new Google Desktop Search!

(posted by Aymeric).

A useful tool: Steganos Lock Note. It will crypt your text with AES (256 bits), and it doesn’t require any installation. It’s free and open-source. A good and safe way to keep your password list.
Steganos. Privacy Software made easy.

(posted by Aymeric)