From Jared Jacang Maher’s “DIA Conspiracies Take Off” (Denver Westword News: 30 August 2007):
Chris from Indianapolis has heard that the tunnels below DIA [Denver International Airport] were constructed as a kind of Noah’s Ark so that five million people could escape the coming earth change; shaken and earnest, he asks how someone might go about [...]
Posted on November 30th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Webster U: infosec management, art, history, politics, religion, security, weird | No Comments »
From Ian Urbina’s “High Turnout May Add to Problems at Polling Places” (The New York Times: 3 November 2008):
Two-thirds of voters will mark their choice with a pencil on a paper ballot that is counted by an optical scanning machine, a method considered far more reliable and verifiable than touch screens. But paper ballots bring [...]
Posted on November 28th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, Webster U: infosec management, history, law, politics, security | No Comments »
From James Bamford’s “Big Brother Is Listening” (The Atlantic: April 2006):
This legislation, the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, established the FISA court—made up of eleven judges handpicked by the chief justice of the United States—as a secret part of the federal judiciary. The court’s job is to decide whether to grant warrants requested by [...]
Posted on November 27th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, Webster U: infosec management, history, law, politics, security, technology | No Comments »
From Shane Harris’ “China’s Cyber-Militia” (National Journal: 31 May 2008):
Computer hackers in China, including those working on behalf of the Chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of U.S. companies and government agencies, stolen proprietary information from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few [...]
Posted on November 22nd, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, Webster U: infosec management, business, history, politics, security | No Comments »
From James Turner’s interview with Dr. Barbara Simons, past President of the Association for Computing Machinery & recent appointee to the Advisory Board of the Federal Election Assistance Commission, at “A 2008 e-Voting Wrapup with Dr. Barbara Simons” (O’Reilly Media: 7 November 2008):
[Note from Scott: headers added by me]
Optical Scan: Good & Bad
And most of [...]
Posted on November 22nd, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, Webster U: infosec management, history, law, politics, science, security | No Comments »
From Declan McCullagh’s “E-voting predicament: Not-so-secret ballots” (CNET News: 20 August 2007):
Two Ohio activists have discovered that e-voting machines made by Election Systems and Software and used across the country produce time-stamped paper trails that permit the reconstruction of an election’s results — including allowing voter names to be matched to their actual votes.
…
Ohio [...]
Posted on November 21st, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, Webster U: infosec management, politics, security | No Comments »
From Claudia Roth Pierpont’s “The Florentine” (The New Yorker: 15 September 2008): 92:
… the rules by which conspirators must proceed: confide in absolutely no one except when absolutely necessary, try to leave no one alive who might be able to take revenge, and, above all, never put anything in writing.
Related posts
The Chinese Internet [...]
Posted on September 19th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: art, business, history, language & literature, security | No Comments »
From Reuters’s “Chinese fugitive leaves cave after 8 years” (5 October 2006):
A Chinese man wanted by police on gun charges has given himself up after hiding in a cave constructed at the back of his house for eight years, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The 35-year-old man from the southeastern city of Fuzhou had tunneled [...]
Posted on October 5th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
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From Dana Priest’s “CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons” (The Washington Post: 2 November 2005):
The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.
The secret facility is part of a covert prison [...]
Posted on July 18th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, Webster U: infosec management, law, politics, security | Comments Off
From Noah Shachtman’s “Chameleon Weapons Defy Detection” (Defense Tech: 27 March 2006):
Last week I talked to Anthony Taylor, managing partner of an outfit which makes weapons which can be hidden in plain sight. You can be looking right at one without realizing what it is.
One type is the exact size and shape of a credit [...]
Posted on July 11th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, Webster U: infosec management, cool stuff, security | Comments Off
From Bruce Schneier’s “Microsoft’s BitLocker” (Crypto-Gram Newsletter: 15 May 2006):
BitLocker is not a DRM system. However, it is straightforward to turn it into a DRM system. Simply give programs the ability to require that files be stored only on BitLocker-enabled drives, and then only be transferable to other BitLocker-enabled drives. How easy this would be [...]
Posted on June 19th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, Webster U: infosec management, business, security, technology | Comments Off
From Dan Ilett’s Evil twin could pose Wi-Fi threat (CNET News.com: 21 January 2005):
Researchers at Cranfield University are warning that “evil twin” hot spots, networks set up by hackers to resemble legitimate Wi-Fi hot spots, present the latest security threat to Web users.
Attackers interfere with a connection to the legitimate network by sending a stronger [...]
Posted on June 14th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, Webster U: infosec management, law, security, technology | Comments Off
From Robert Lemos’s Plague carriers: Most users unaware of PC infections (CNET News.com: 25 October 2004):
A study of home PCs released Monday found that about 80 percent had been infected with spyware almost entirely unbeknownst to their users.
The study, funded by America Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance, found home users mostly unprotected from [...]
Posted on June 14th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, Webster U: infosec management, law, security, technology | Comments Off
From Paul Graham’s “Are Software Patents Evil?“:
The most memorable example of medieval industrial secrecy is probably Venice, which forbade glassblowers to leave the city, and sent assassins after those who tried.
Related posts
The rules of conspiracy
The Chinese Internet threat
The latest on electronic voting machines
More problems with voting, election 2008
Denver International Airport, home to alien reptilians enslaving [...]
Posted on April 21st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Wash U: tech in changing society, business, commonplace book, history, security, technology | Comments Off
From The Atlantic’s “Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?” (February 1982):
The diamond invention - the creation of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem - is a relatively recent development in the history of the diamond trade. Until the late nineteenth century, diamonds were found only [...]
Posted on April 18th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, history | Comments Off
From Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: Fort Sumter to Perryville (138):
[John Slidell] was aptly named, being noted for his slyness. At the outbreak of hostilities, back in the spring, an English journalist called him, “a man of iron will and strong passions, who loves the excitement of combinations and who, in his dungeon, or whatever [...]
Posted on April 16th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, language & literature | Comments Off
From Bruce Schneier’s “Trusted Computing Best Practices“:
The language [in the Trusted Computing Group's best practices document] has too much wiggle room for companies to break interoperability under the guise of security: “Furthermore, implementations and deployments of TCG specifications should not introduce any new interoperability obstacles that are not for the purpose of security.”
That sounds good, [...]
Posted on April 2nd, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: security | Comments Off
From SmartWater Technology:
SmartWater Security Systems are forensic coding systems which can be applied in several ways:
SmartWater Tracer
An aqueous based solution with a unique forensic code.
SmartWater Tracer uniquely codes your property, whilst being virtually invisible to the naked eye, glows under UV light and is practically impossible to remove entirely. Tracer is used in commercial businesses, [...]
Posted on April 1st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: science, security, writing ideas | Comments Off
From Bruce Schneier’s “Brandeis Quote on Openness“:
Louis D. Brandeis, Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It 92 (1914): “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”
[Note: Also in Harper's Weekly, Dec 20 1913]
Related posts
The [...]
Posted on April 1st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, commonplace book, politics, security | Comments Off
From The New York Times Magazine’s “Skin Literature“:
Most artists spend their careers trying to create something that will live forever. But the writer Shelley Jackson is creating a work of literature that is intentionally and indisputably mortal. Jackson is publishing her latest short story by recruiting 2,095 people, each of whom will have one word [...]
Posted on April 1st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, cool stuff, fiction, language & literature, on writing, weird | Comments Off