Great commentary
Another great column from Security Focus regular Richard Forno. This piece addresses the top cybersecurity officer in the land - Richard Clarke.

Career politicians, desk-bound analysts, and people lacking real-world operational IT experience are the wrong ones to be advising the President and working with industry leaders to develop stronger security programs.

The opinion columnists at Security Focus continue to impress.

posted by mt at 10:30

Media Hack
According to the Drude Report, USA Today experienced a major crack last night. Supposedly, the standard template was kept in tact, but the site was defaced with several false news stories.
posted by mt at 09:31

Worth a thousand words
Salon has an article on Palladium up. No comment needed, the picture says it all.

Perens says that "what is new here is that the customer's PC is getting hardware with the specific purpose of constraining the customer. Never before has a customer received a speed governor on his car -- and this is worse than a speed governor. It's like saying, 'You may never drive into this part of town.'"

It's worth pausing to think about Perens' example for just a second. Surely some lawyer somewhere has suggested to one of the Big Three automakers that adding speed governors to its fleet could save the company a penny or two in legal costs. So why don't we have speed governors in our Fords? Right -- because you wouldn't buy a car that's constrained by a speed governor, just as you wouldn't want to buy a CD that doesn't play in your DiscMan, or pay for a music subscription service that doesn't allow you to permanently record its music.

posted by mt at 10:52

PC Mag
Just flipped through the new issue of PC Mag, July 2002. It has a big section on privacy and several of the commentaries are about security. Check it out if you're a subscriber.
posted by mt at 14:13

A Linux virus?
Found this discussion on the concept of a Linux virus via Scott Granneman's blog. It's unlikely to happen because of the fundamental differences between Windows and Unix. The piece also contains some other Linux security myths.
posted by mt at 12:39

Details
A comprehensive list of Palladium details, by far the best I've seen. If you've been following the developments, this is a great summary page.
posted by mt at 11:34

Havens
Slashdot links to a BBC report that claims HavenCo, an offshore data haven, is still alive. Believe it or not, they're doing OK. The real test, IMHO, will come when they host something that a major government wants. We shall see.


posted by mt at 22:35

Random defense
Kuro5hin commentary on using randomness to protect privacy. The author hypothesizes that by filling "the system" with junk, it will ultimately become worthless.

YOU are being watched. You, hiding behind the monitor, there.

Yeah, there probably aren't any cameras around. However, almost any time you interact with some electronic device high on the food chain - an ATM, a supermarket cash register, a computer - you leave an imprint. Sometimes you don't even have to go that far: there are 'smart' security cameras, trained to recognize faces or things out of the ordinary.

posted by mt at 14:08

Hmmm
You have to wonder why they released this statement. Are the lights accessible remotely?

Federal investigators have determined that a computer malfunction stopped runway lights at Miami International Airport from being turned on for about half an hour Saturday evening, an FBI spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Airport officials were initially concerned that a hacker caused the disruption.

''We looked into it and determined it was not a hacker,'' FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said.

posted by mt at 12:27

Slow
Not much new stuff floating around out there.
posted by mt at 10:50

Blog tech
I'm getting close to pulling the trigger on Moveable Type. It's very powerful, but kind of slow. Tomorrow I'm hoping to import all the old posts over, so anyday now I might make the switch. It's got an RSS feed, commenting system and distribution/update list. On an unrelated note, I got my brother to start a blog - cool.
posted by mt at 23:19

Criminal tech
More organized crime meets technology talk. This time, it's a motorcycle gang. Some of it sounds a bit far fetched, i.e. satellite dish in a jail cell?

This is just one example of how the Angels and other outlaw biker gangs have grasped the advantages of the information age — and how they put that information to use. Within months of the computer theft, an undercover police agent was dead.

posted by mt at 11:21

What happens now?
From the Washington Times:

"WorldCom is a very key component of our nation's telecommunications and security infrastructure," said Mr. Sidgmore, noting that the sprawling telecommunications giant provides critical services to the Pentagon, State Department, homeland security agency and Nasdaq Stock Market.

posted by mt at 09:29

Certifications
Brief descriptions of multiple security certifications. Like other specialty fields, more and more certs will pop up, unfortunately most will be worthless.
posted by mt at 09:25