Security quotes of the week

One that I’ve wondered about, but haven’t seen discussed is the risk of the QR code being malicious. So I found the Google Glass vulnerability very interesting – basically, until Google fixed this bug, if an attacker could get a Google Glass wearer to take a picture of a QR code, they could install malware in the Google Glass device. This is exactly the same issue as getting an election office to take a picture of the QR code on a ballot (which would be a normal part of ballot processing) – is it possible for a voter to install malware into the ballot processing system by sending a deliberately malformed QR code?

The demand stunned the hospital employee. She had picked up the emergency room's phone line, expecting to hear a dispatcher or a doctor. But instead, an unfamiliar male greeted her by name and then threatened to paralyze the hospital's phone service if she didn't pay him hundreds of dollars.

Shortly after the worker hung up on the caller, the ER's six phone lines went dead. For nearly two days in March, ambulances and patients' families calling the San Diego hospital heard nothing but busy signals.

I wish to have unfiltered access to all Web sites irrespective of Her Majesty's government's superior sensibilities, and accept being placed on all associated surveillance watch lists designated for the tracking of perverts such as myself.

It's like President Obama claiming that the NSA programs are "transparent" because they were cleared by a secret court that only ever sees one side of the argument, or that Congress has provided oversight because a few legislators were allowed to know some of what was going on but forbidden from talking to anyone about it.