Weekly Edition
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Security quotes of the week
Like the FTC on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
-- The evidently irony-impaired US Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) announces a privacy settlement with Facebook
Will there also be "If You See Something, Say Something™" Day, with Janet Napolitano bobbleheads given to all the kids?
-- Bruce
Schneier comments on Major League Soccer's partnership with the US
Department of Homeland Security
This kind of thing only serves to ratchet up fear, and doesn't make us any safer.
I believe that smart phones are going to become the primary platform of
attack for cybercriminals in the coming years. As the phones become more
integrated into people's lives -- smart phone banking, electronic wallets
-- they're simply going to become the most valuable device for criminals to
go after. And I don't believe the iPhone will be more secure because of
Apple's rigid policies for the app store.
-- Schneier again
[Michael] Osterholm says he can't discuss details of the papers because
he's an NSABB [US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity]
member. But he says it should be possible to omit certain key details from
controversial papers and make them available to people who really need to
know. "We don't want to give bad guys a road map on how to make bad bugs
really bad," he says.
-- ScienceInsider
reports on disclosure policy questions in the world of virology (by way of Schneier).(Log in to post comments)
Security quotes of the week Posted Dec 1, 2011 10:46 UTC (Thu) by Thue (subscriber, #14277) [Link]
"If You See Something, Say Something™"
The ™ trademark sign is the best part.
Security quotes of the week Posted Dec 1, 2011 13:46 UTC (Thu) by clugstj (subscriber, #4020) [Link]
Here in (DC) suburban Maryland, they erected large electric signs over the interstates that provide this useful piece of information, "Report suspicious activity (phone number)". That's helpful.
Security quotes of the week Posted Dec 1, 2011 17:00 UTC (Thu) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]
The truth is that it's not designed to make you feel safer, it's designed to make you easier to control.
Hiring or threatening a portion of the population to spy on the other portion, while never revealing who are spying on whom, is a very cost effect way to control populations. This is something the East Germans perfected during the cold war era.
I guess our 'glorious leaders' were envious and decided to try emulating them.
Security quotes of the week Posted Dec 1, 2011 17:23 UTC (Thu) by Thue (subscriber, #14277) [Link]
Are you sure you didn't confuse Maryland with Nazi Germany? That formulation sounds straight out of 1984.
Security quotes of the week Posted Dec 1, 2011 18:37 UTC (Thu) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]
It's more and more common now.
Recently the Federal government has decided that it's time to start setting up checkpoints on highways to examine travelers like they do in airports.
So far I've noticed this happening through two methods:
2. Tennessee has decided to work with the TSA to setup 'VIPR' check points through out the state. They are using weight stations to pull over people and search commercial vehicles for suspicious items. Using X-rays and the whole ten yards.
Most recently some members of Congress (mainly Democratic Sen. Carl Levin and GOP Sen. John McCain) decided to introduce a bipartisan bill that would effectively repeal the Posse Comitatus Act. Posse Comitatus was implemented after the reconstruction effort of the South after the civil war. It forbids the USA military to operate on USA soil as a police force without a specific act of Congress.
http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/senators-deman...
So far it seems like it has a very good chance of passing.
Not to mention that Obama has decided that he has the right to authorize the executions of American citizens with no trial and is not obligated to show any proof. The only proof that he needs, I guess, is to say the guy is a terrorist. He has a secret committee that advises the white house when it is acceptable to kill USA citizens without a trial. So it is ok, I guess.
On top of all this we now have a lovely situation were CIA has operational capabilities through drone strikes. They can operate these drones in any country in the world and are not under any obligation to report their activities to Congress. Last I heard CIA using drones are responsible for about 50 assassination attempts on foreign leaders.
Increasingly law enforcement organizations in the USA are getting green lights to use drones on US soil and are getting homeland security funding to pay for it.
Things are not looking up for us right now.
Security quotes of the week Posted Dec 7, 2011 12:41 UTC (Wed) by Seegras (subscriber, #20463) [Link]
It's not him that confuses Maryland with Nazi Germany. It's the US Government trying to re-enact it.
Security quotes of the week Posted Dec 10, 2011 17:24 UTC (Sat) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link]
The whole "Homeland Security" thing always has and continues to send shivers down my spine every time I read or hear it. Previous to 9-11, close enough to 100% of the times I'd seen "Homeland" had been in association with Nazi Germany, that for me it's a permanent association.
I've sometimes wondered if they had chosen something, anything else, other than "Homeland", if there would have been anywhere near the resistance to it that there has been. Of course, I've also wondered how news reporters, etc, could talk about it with a straight face, given all the associations with the "Nazi Homeland" there are, and why there weren't demonstrations on the order of Tienanmen Square here in the US, at the mere mention of actually implementing "Homeland" anything, here.
But I guess it's true what Ben Franklin said about liberty and security, and the vast majority are willing to trade just about anything for that security, these days...
Duncan
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