From Bruce Schneier’s “Airport Passenger Screening” (Crypto-Gram Newsletter: 15 April 2006): It seems like every time someone tests airport security, airport security fails. In tests between November 2001 and February 2002, screeners missed 70 percent of knives, 30 percent of guns, and 60 percent of (fake) bombs. And recently, testers were able to smuggle bomb-making […]
Posted on June 19th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: law, science, security, tech in changing society, technology | Comments Off on Why airport security fails constantly
From Matt Tanase’s Don’t let this happen to you: Smaller companies often assume they have nothing of interest to hackers. Often times that is the case, but they are still after resources, as in this case. Unfortunately, the hackers in this case are tied to Al Qaeda. They placed the recent hostage video on a […]
Posted on June 14th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, security, tech in changing society, technology | Comments Off on Al Qaeda hijacks web server to distribute video
From John Diamond and Leslie Cauley’s “Pre-9/11 records help flag suspicious calling” (USA TODAY: 22 May 2006): Armed with details of billions of telephone calls, the National Security Agency used phone records linked to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to create a template of how phone activity among terrorists looks, say current and former intelligence […]
Posted on June 3rd, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: law, politics, tech in changing society, technology | Comments Off on Social network analysis by the NSA
From MIT Technology Review‘s’ “Blindfolding Big Brother, Sort of“: In 1983, entrepreneur Jeff Jonas founded Systems Research and Development (SRD), a firm that provided software to identify people and determine who was in their circle of friends. In the early 1990s, the company moved to Las Vegas, where it worked on security software for casinos. […]
Posted on May 14th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: security, technology | Comments Off on Matching identities across databases, anonymously
From Technology Review‘s “Terror’s Server“: Zittrain [Jonathan Zittrain, codirector of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School] concurs with Neumann [Peter Neumann, a computer scientist at SRI International, a nonprofit research institute in Menlo Park, CA] but also predicts an impending overreaction. Terrorism or no terrorism, he sees a convergence of […]
Posted on April 18th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, security, tech in changing society, technology | Comments Off on Security will retard innovation
From Technology Review‘s “Terror’s Server“: For example, research suggests that people with nefarious intent tend to exhibit distinct patterns in their use of e-mails or online forums like chat rooms. Whereas most people establish a wide variety of contacts over time, those engaged in plotting a crime tend to keep in touch only with a […]
Posted on April 18th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: social software, tech in changing society, technology | Comments Off on Terrorist social networks
From Technology Review‘s “Terror’s Server“: According to [Gabriel] Weimann [professor of communications at University of Haifa], the number of [terror-related] websites has leapt from only 12 in 1997 to around 4,300 today. … These sites serve as a means to recruit members, solicit funds, and promote and spread ideology. … The September 11 hijackers used […]
Posted on April 18th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: politics, tech in changing society, technology | Comments Off on How terrorists use the Web
From Bruce Schneier’s “Searching Bags in Subways“: Final note: I often get comments along the lines of “Stop criticizing stuff; tell us what we should do.” My answer is always the same. Counterterrorism is most effective when it doesn’t make arbitrary assumptions about the terrorists’ plans. Stop searching bags on the subways, and spend the […]
Posted on April 6th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: security, tech in changing society | Comments Off on Bruce Schneier on what we should do
From “New search engine to help thwart terrorists“: With news that the London bombers were British citizens, radicalised on the streets of England and with squeaky-clean police records, comes the realisation that new mechanisms for hunting terrorists before they strike must be developed. Researchers at the University of Buffalo, US, believe they have discovered a […]
Posted on April 2nd, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: security, writing ideas | Comments Off on Tracking terrorists with Unintended Information Revelation
From Bruce Schneier’s “The Silliness of Secrecy“, quoting The Wall Street Journal: Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, the federal government has advised airplane pilots against flying near 100 nuclear power plants around the country or they will be forced down by fighter jets. But pilots say there’s a hitch in the instructions: aviation security officials […]
Posted on April 1st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: security, true stories | Comments Off on Don’t fly where we won’t tell you not to fly
From Bruce Schneier’s “White Powder Anthrax Hoaxes“: Earlier this month, there was an anthrax scare at the Indonesian embassy in Australia. Someone sent them some white powder in an envelope, which was scary enough. Then it tested positive for bacillus. The building was decontaminated, and the staff was quarantined for twelve hours. By then, tests […]
Posted on April 1st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: science, security, writing ideas | Comments Off on How to fake an anthrax scare
From Glenn Fleishman’s post to the Interesting People mailing list: I heard the strangely frank head of TSA on NPR this morning–perhaps he forgot he was speaking to the public?–talk quite honestly about what I would describe as “yield management for risk.” Basically: * The pilots are now protected, so the plane won’t be weaponized […]
Posted on January 2nd, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: security | Comments Off on Risk management
Back in November 2002, a bunch of us went camping in a cabin in the woods. Around midnight, we were sitting around the fire, talking. The subject of crime came up, specifically the statute of limitations. Scott: I think the statute of limitations doesn’t apply only in cases of murder and rape. Denise: That’s right. […]
Posted on November 23rd, 2005 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: overheard | Comments Off on Jans clarifies it for us
