Monthly Archives: September 2007

Interesting Red-Light Camera Perspective

Posted on September 23, 2007 | 1 Comment

Glenn Reynolds (aka InstaPundit) has this article in Popular Mechanics about red-light camera systems in the US. It’s a good summary of the issue; pointing out that:

  • These systems don’t really result in any reduction of accidents

  • It’s really all about revenue generation anyway

  • There are tremendous privacy implications

As a related article in PM notes, questions are being raised about the legality of such systems. The problem is that these systems cite the owner of the car who may or may not be the driver when the infraction occurs.

 It’s interesting that Glenn mentions the various kinds of counter measures that drivers try employing to thwart camera-based systems. MythBusters addressed a variety of these schemes (episodes 72 and 84)  and found that none of them could beat the cameras. They did manage to beat the cameras by simply driving fast enough to be out of the frame before the camera was triggered. To do this they merely had to use a 300 MPH jet powered car.

(Mirrored from TalkBMC)

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Posted in Identity, Privacy, Security, Surveillance

Corporate Surveillance

Posted on September 20, 2007 | 1 Comment

There is this interesting article on corporate surveillance of employees in Popular Mechanics. From the article by Glenn Derene:

More stealthy and prevalent than ever before, corporate security software is monitoring your every move inside and out of the office, whether it’s with your corporate computer, e-mail, phone or BlackBerry. As PM’s senior technology editor reports in his biweekly trends column, your employer has more powerful tools to watch over you than the cops – and there’s nothing you can do about it.

There is one easy rule of thumb to follow. Don’t do anything at work you aren’t willing to discuss with your boss or IT security department. Act like your job depends on your workplace behavior. It probably does.

(Mirrored from TalkBMC)

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Posted in BMC Software, Identity, Identity Management, Privacy, Security

Well That Didn’t Go Well

Posted on September 19, 2007 | Leave a comment

Apparently Apple tried to add DRM to the latest versions of its iPod. The DRM scheme only lasted a short while before being cracked. From Security Watch:

Well, the good news is that iPod DRM system was cracked over the weekend, with crackers managing to by-pass the hash algorithms and open up the iPod to music from almost any source.
Which is where we were a few months ago.
Apple 0, Crackers 1

I’m surprise it took even that long.

(Mirrored from TalkBMC)

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Posted in DRM, Identity, Identity Management, Security

Starbucks Recycling

Posted on September 19, 2007 | Leave a comment

It turns out Starbucks is being a little disingenuous about recycling. Apparently their coffee cups can’t be recycled with normal paper (via JunkScience.com).

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Posted in Environment, Skeptic

Beware Facebook Buccaneers Says a Friendly Pirate

Posted on September 19, 2007 | Leave a comment

Friendly Pirate Carnage4Life speaks true words on those fearsome buccaneers that prowl the water off the Isle of Facebook. Looking to plunder your very soul are they, so beware who you call friends in that strange land.

Keep your powder dry and your data locked up if you want to keep what is yours!

(Mirrored from TalkBMC)

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Posted in Facebook, Identity, Identity Management, Privacy, Security

A Good Step, But a Small One

Posted on September 19, 2007 | Leave a comment

There is some attention being given to the new Bandit InfoCard Selector for the Mac. Phil Windley, Dale Olds, and Kim Cameron give their thoughts on this. As a non-Mac user I can’t get very excited about this but I suppose that it’s a good thing.

I am a big believer in the Information Card paradigm. I think it has great potential. In that respect I like seeing news like this.

But I always come back to the fact that there is virtually nothing practical I can do with this technology today no matter what browser I use. So far all I can do is use it to authenticate to a handful of test sites, a couple of OpenID providers, a blog or two, and Microsoft LiveID.

I would love to hear about some Information Card relying parties that are in place or in development. Something useful like an e-commerce site, or a financial institution. Now that’s something I could get excited about.

(Mirrored from TalkBMC)

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Posted in Authentication, BMC Software, Cardspace, Identity, Identity Management, Information Card

Schadenfreude Alert

Posted on September 18, 2007 | Leave a comment

Apparently the latest court decision against SCO could prove fatal. From InfoWorld:

With its cash reserves running out and its legal case against IBM unravelling, The SCO Group now says there is doubt that it will remain afloat.

This travesty can’t end soon enough as far as I am concerned.

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Posted in Uncategorized

SUV Mounted Gatling Gun

Posted on September 18, 2007 | 1 Comment

A 3,000 round per minute Gatling gun mounted in GMC Yukon (via Popular Mechanics). Watch the video here.

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Posted in Uncategorized

More Out-of-Band Banking AuthN

Posted on September 17, 2007 | Leave a comment

I recently wrote about HSBC moving to out-of-band AuthN for consumer banking (i.e. using a PIN delivered to a preregistered phone). Now Bank of America is announcing a similar mechanism (via PaymentNews). Bank of America currently uses SiteKey which doesn’t really provide much additional security, so the addition of an out-of-band authentication could be very beneficial. It will all depend of the authentication needed to set the callback number.

(Mirrored from TalkBMC)

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Posted in Authentication, BMC Software, Identity, Identity Management, Security

UK House of Lords Proposes Eliminating Open Source SW and OpenID

Posted on September 12, 2007 | Leave a comment

That’s not what they think they are doing, of course. But the law of unintended consequences will ensure that outcome. SD Times has this article on a proposal floating around the UK House of Lords that suggests that SW companies be held liable for defects, regardless of the terms of the SW license. In other words the standard SW disclaimers would have not legal standing in the UK.

So what does all this have to do with Open Source? The article makes it clear that they intend that the law would apply to Open Source software, even if it’s free. If this happens who in their right mind would ever contribute to an open source project as an individual? Vendor driven open source efforts could continue, but individual contributions would vanish, or have to be made anonymously.

So what does this have to do with OpenID? Because of the open ended trust model of OpenID an Identity Provider has no idea of how sensitive the resources are that the relying party is providing for the user. If a provider is compromised and that results in a serious financial loss for a user at a relying party, the provider is liable under the proposed framework. The provider can’t make any reasonable risk assessments because the relying party isn’t even known ahead of time.

(Mirrored from TalkBMC)

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Posted in Authentication, BMC Software, Identity, Identity Management, OpenID