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Technology Industry News & Career Management information, brought to you by BrainWave Consulting Company.
August 2008 - Posts
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Advice for marketing a start-up (or any other tough situation): Give yourself the same advice you'd give anyone else. READ MORE Share Post: Read More...
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You know your industry has problems when mainstream comic strips make fun of you.... Share Post: Read More...
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Weird story. Mr Jetley said he first realised his security password had been changed when a call centre staff member told him his code word did not match with the one on the computer. "I thought it was actually quite a funny response," he said. "But what really incensed me was when I was told I could not change it... Share Post: Read More...
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This is serious stuff. (Kim Zetter's posts on the topic are excellent; read them.) It's a man-in-the-middle attack. "The Internet's Biggest Security Hole" (the title of that first link) has been that interior relays have always been trusted even though they are not trustworthy.... Share Post: Read More...
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So weird: A plane was forced to land when a passenger had an extreme allergic reaction to a leaking jar of mushroom soup, it was revealed today. The soup fell on the man from an overhead locker on a Ryanair flight to Dublin from Budapest. He reportedly suffered allergic swelling in his neck and struggled to breathe, forcing staff to... Share Post: Read More...
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Premier Election Solutions, formerly called Diebold Election Systems, has finally admitted that a ten-year-old error has caused votes to be dropped. It's unclear if this error is random or systemic. If it's random -- a small percentage of all votes are dropped -- then it is highly unlikely that this affected the outcome of any election. If it's systemic --... Share Post: Read More...
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Laptops aboard the International Space Station have been infected with the W32.Gammima.AG worm. And it's not the first time this sort of thing has happened.... Share Post: Read More...
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It's all about the captions: ...doctored photographs are the least of our worries. If you want to trick someone with a photograph, there are lots of easy ways to do it. You don't need Photoshop. You don't need sophisticated digital photo-manipulation. You don't need a computer. All you need to do is change the caption. The photographs presented by Colin... Share Post: Read More...
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Hired, then fired along with the manager who brought him in. READ MORE Share Post: Read More...
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When IT centralized support, support became terrible. What went wrong? READ MORE Share Post: Read More...
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In eerily similar cases in the Netherlands and the United States, courts have recently grappled with the computer-security norm of "full disclosure," asking whether researchers should be permitted to disclose details of a fare-card vulnerability that allows people to ride the subway for free. The "Oyster card" used on the London Tube was at issue in the Dutch case, and... Share Post: Read More...
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Interesting: the solution to one problem causes another. "The rigorous studies clearly show red-light cameras don't work," said lead author Barbara Langland-Orban, professor and chair of health policy and management at the USF College of Public Health. "Instead, they increase crashes and injuries as drivers attempt to abruptly stop at camera intersections." Comprehensive studies from North Carolina, Read More...
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Dear Bob -Our company is in the process of deciding if we will outsource a core part of our business. The stakes are high in this decision because of the potential financial impact of a wrong decision and the potential impact of a degradation of service.What makes this decision difficult are the unknowns. Read More...
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Starting September 27th: a 36-foot-long, 330-lb female and a 20-foot-long, 100-lb male.... Share Post: Read More...
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Interesting paper: "Challenges and Directions for Monitoring P2P File Sharing Networks ÃÂÃÂorÃÂÃÂ Why My Printer Received a DMCA Takedown Notice": Abstract -- We reverse engineer copyright enforcement in the popular BitTorrent file sharing network and find that a common approach for identifying infringing users is not conclusive. We describe simple techniques for implicating arbitrary network Read More...
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There's no profile: MI5 has concluded that there is no easy way to identify those who become involved in terrorism in Britain, according to a classified internal research document on radicalisation seen by the Guardian. [...] The main findings include: • The majority are British nationals and the remainder, with a few exceptions, are here legally. Around half were born... Share Post: Read More...
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They break planes: Citing sources within the aviation industry, ABC News reports an overzealous TSA employee attempted to gain access to the parked aircraft by climbing up the fuselage... reportedly using the Total Air Temperature (TAT) probes mounted to the planes' noses as handholds. "The brilliant employees used an instrument located just below the cockpit window that is critical to... Share Post Read More...
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Nice article on personal surveillance from the London Review of Books.... Share Post: Read More...
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Comments on centralization and decentralization. READ MORE Share Post: Read More...
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Interesting: Preface The TCP/IP protocols were conceived during a time that was quite different from the hostile environment they operate in now. Yet a direct result of their effectiveness and widespread early adoption is that much of today's global economy remains dependent upon them. While many textbooks and articles have created the myth that the Internet Protocols (IP) were designed... Share Post Read More...
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Contrary to popular belief, homocide due to mental illness is declining, at least in England and Wales: The rate of total homicide and the rate of homicide due to mental disorder rose steadily until the mid-1970s. From then there was a reversal in the rate of homicides attributed to mental disorder, which declined to historically low levels, while other homicides... Share Post: Read More...
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At this moment, Adi Shamir is giving an invited talk at the Crypto 2008 conference about a new type of cryptanalytic attack called "cube attacks." He claims very broad applicability to block ciphers, stream ciphers, hash functions, etc. My personal joke -- at least I hope it's a joke -- is that he's going to break every NIST hash submission... Share Post: Read More...
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Illegally diverting water is terrorism: South Australian Premier Mike Rann says the diversion of water from the Paroo River in Queensland is an act of terrorism during a water crisis. Anonymously threatening people with messages on playing cards, like the Joker in The Dark Knight, is terrorism: Giles County deputies arrest two county teenagers they say made terroristic threats to... Share Post: Read More...
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This is interesting: Exactly who was behind the cyberattack is not known. The Georgian government blamed Russia for the attacks, but the Russian government said it was not involved. In the end, Georgia, with a population of just 4.6 million and a relative latecomer to the Internet, saw little effect beyond inaccessibility to many of its government Web sites, which... Share Post: Read More...
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Architectural lock-in can make pleasing customers irrelevant to business success. READ MORE Share Post: Read More...
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Wow: The provisional, 8,000-man Cyber Command has been ordered to stop all activities, just weeks before it was supposed to be declared operational.... Share Post: Read More...
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Adding diplomacy to difficult messages. READ MORE Share Post: Read More...
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An index of fiction. The site was inspired by Margaret Atwood's infamous comment that Oryx and Crake isn't really science fiction, because science fiction is "talking squids in outer space." This prompted a hunt for science fiction which actually did feature talking squids in outer space.... Share Post: Read More...
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This comment is absolutely correct.... Share Post: Read More...
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They said -- and it's almost to stupid to believe -- that: the balaclava "could be used to conceal someone's identity or could be used in the course of a criminal act". Don't they realize that balaclavas are for sale everywhere in the UK? Or that scarves, hoods, handkerchiefs, and dark glasses could also be used to conceal someone's identity?... Share Post: Read More...
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In the middle of a sensationalist article about risks to children and how giving them cell phones can help, there's at least one person who gets it. Since the 1999 Columbine High School shootings and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many parents feel better having a way to contact their children. But hundreds of students on cell phones during an emergency... Share Post: Read More...
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I don't know any of the details, but this seems like a good use of data mining: Mr Tancredi said Verisign's fraud detection kit would help "decrease the time between the attack being launched and the brokerage being able to respond". Before now, he said, brokerages relied on counter measures such as restrictive stock trading or analysis packages that only... Share Post: Read More...
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Some reality to counter the hype. The Bottom Line While there has been much consternation and alarm-raising over the potential for widespread proliferation of biological weapons and the possible use of such weapons on a massive scale, there are significant constraints on such designs. The current dearth of substantial biological weapons programs and arsenals by governments worldwide, and the even... Read More...
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The UK has made public its previously classified National Risk Register. The National Risk Register is intended to capture the range of emergencies that might have a major impact on all, or significant parts of, the UK. It provides a national picture of the risks we face, and is designed to complement Community Risk Registers, already produced and published locally... Share Post: Read More...
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It starts with a difference between how engineers and business executives see the world READ MORE Share Post: Read More...
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Seems like the procedure has changed: Mr. Peters nodded, and then looked down at the sheet which I had filled out and signed. “I’m going to have to make some calls to verify your identity.” I nodded. He pulled out a cell phone. I had assumed that we would be going to some separate screening room, but that wasn’t the... Share Post: Read More...
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Dear Bob ...A suggestion for Advice Line readers:On long projects, at least twice a year, management should set aside a few days to re-ask themselves the same three fundamental questions they presumably asked when they started the project:1. What is it that we were originally trying to accomplish? (the Read More...
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Obama has a cyber security plan. It's basically what you would expect: Appoint a national cyber security advisor, invest in math and science education, establish standards for critical infrastructure, spend money on enforcement, establish national standards for securing personal data and data-breach disclosure, and work with industry and academia to develop a bunch of needed technologies. I could comment Read More...
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This is huge: Two security researchers have developed a new technique that essentially bypasses all of the memory protection safeguards in the Windows Vista operating system, an advance that many in the security community say will have far-reaching implications not only for Microsoft, but also on how the entire technology industry thinks about attacks. In a presentation at the Black... Share Post: Read More...
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Interesting analysis: Since its birth 12 years ago after a fatal kidnapping in Texas, Amber Alert has quickly become one of the best-known tools in the national law enforcement arsenal. The warnings are familiar to anyone who watches cable TV news, especially during the summer, when the drumbeat of abduction stories seems to increase. Last year, 227 alerts were issued... Share Post: Read More...
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The ability to read character and detect false statements has been scientifically disproved. Here are some alternatives. READ MORE Share Post: Read More...
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The Onion reminds us that we can never be too careful.... Share Post: Read More...
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According to a recent court ruling, we are all subject to the provisions of the DMCA, but the government is not: he Court of Federal Claims that first heard the case threw it out, and the new Appellate ruling upholds that decision. The reasoning behind the decisions focuses on the US government's sovereign immunity, which the court describes thusly: "The... Share Post: Read More...
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It was really big news yesterday, but I don't think it's that much of a big deal. These crimes are still easy to commit and it's still too hard to catch the criminals. Catching one gang, even a large one, isn't going to make us any safer. If we want to mitigate identity theft, we have to make it harder... Share Post: Read More...
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The headline says it all: "‘Fakeproof’ e-passport is cloned in minutes." Does this surprise anyone? This is what I wrote about electronic passports two years ago in The Washington Post: The other security mechanisms are also vulnerable, and several security researchers have already discovered flaws. One found that he could identify individual chips via unique characteristics of the radio transmissions.... Read More...
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London's Oyster card has been cracked, and the final details will become public in October. NXP Semiconductors, the Philips spin-off that makes the system, lost a court battle to prevent the researchers from publishing. People might be able to use this information to ride for free, but the sky won't be falling. And the publication of this serious vulnerability actually... Share Post: Read More...
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From the Dilbert blog: They then said that I could not fill it out - my manager had to. I told them that my manager doesn't work in the building, nor does anyone in my management chain. This posed a problem for the crack security team. At last, they formulated a brilliant solution to the problem. They told me that... Share Post: Read More...
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Bad planning or effective backstabbing? READ MORE Share Post: Read More...
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They're all here: Via a Freedom of Information Act request (which involved paying $700 and waiting almost 4 years), The Memory Hole has obtained blank copies of most forms used by the National Security Agency. Most are not very interesting, but I agree with Russ Kick: They range from the exotic to the pedestrian, but even the most prosaic form... Share Post: Read More...
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Oops. A laptop with the names of 33,000 people enrolled in the Clear program -- the most popular airport "trusted traveller" program -- has been stolen at SFO. The TSA is unhappy. Stealing databases of personal information is never good, but this doesn't make a bit of difference to airport security. I've already written about the Clear program: it's a... Share Post: Read More...
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Interesting: Soldiers were deployed throughout Italy on Monday to embassies, subway and railway stations, as part of broader government measures to fight violent crime here for which illegal immigrants are broadly blamed. [...] The conservative government of Silvio Berlusconi won elections in April while promising to crack down on petty crime and illegal immigrants. The new patrols of soldiers, who... Read More...
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Good perspective on Garuy McKinnon's exradition to the United States.... Share Post: Read More...
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Today, I'm passing along some excellent advice on handling a political situation. A long-time correspondent, Dov Trietsch, gets the credit. - BobDear Bob ...You must have already encountered this scenario. We have amongst us a blame-passing-glory-hog (BPGH) and many benevolent yet innocent contributors Read More...
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After a random and horrific knife decapitation on a Greyhound bus last week, does this surprise anyone: A grisly slaying on a Greyhound bus has prompted calls for tighter security on Canadian bus lines, despite the company and Canada's transport agency calling the stabbing death a tragic but isolated incident. Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh said bus travel is the safest... Share Post: Read More...
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One reader's suggestion: Connect COBOL to Web 2.0, and pay programmers more to support it. READ MORE Share Post: Read More...
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There's a quote attributed to me here: Well-known author and expert on security, Bruce Schneier, born in 1963, maintains "Terrorists can only take my life. Only my government can take my freedom." I don't think I've ever said that. It certainly doesn't sound like something I would say. It's not in any of my books. It's not in any of... Share Post: Read More...
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Pretty. It was the National Geographic Photo of the Day on June 16th.... Share Post: Read More...
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Amazing. The U.S. government has published its policy: they can take you laptop anywhere they want, for as long as they want, and share the information with anyone they want. Here's the actual policy: Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing,... Share Post: Read More...
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Fascinating stuff, although this early story leaves me with more questions than answers.... Share Post: Read More...
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Remember when I said that I keep my home wireless network open? Here's a reason not to listen to me: When Indian police investigating bomb blasts which killed 42 people traced an email claiming responsibility to a Mumbai apartment, they ordered an immediate raid. But at the address, rather than seizing militants from the Islamist group which said it carried... Share Post: Read More...
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