tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94332572012-02-16T12:50:30.951-08:00Items of interest in computer and network security, privacy, voting, public policy, etc., plus a few that just tickled my fancy or provoked my outrage.Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.comBlogger4981100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-21673319242599295772012-01-24T21:52:00.002-08:002012-01-24T21:52:37.323-08:00

Google started its journey towards the dark side back when they bought DoubleClick. Now the have announced a giant step in that direction. I've switched search engines and am retiring my Google+ account, and will try to live without Google Maps. I never did trust gmail...

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-38517981185047301122010-03-09T12:50:00.000-08:002010-03-10T15:08:05.166-08:00

The A.M Turing Award is the closest thing computer science and information technology have to a Nobel Prize. To my great pleasure, this year the award is going to Chuck Thacker, who designed or strongly influenced many of the machines I used during a very productive part of my career (Maxc, Alto, Dolphin, Dorado, Firefly).Although Chuck has called himself "a humble purveyor of cycles," the

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-18203349309121719222009-12-14T12:43:00.000-08:002009-12-14T19:03:53.374-08:00

I found this video to be most fascinating. James Duane, a professor at Regent Law School and a former defense attorney, tells his class why no one should ever agree to be interviewed by the police without their lawyer present. This segment is primarily relevant to those who are innocent and have nothing to hide.A second video gives equal time to a police detective. He basically agrees that

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-69674656733531488732009-08-31T20:49:00.000-07:002009-08-31T20:54:05.605-07:00

Name an industry that can produce 1 million new, high-paying jobs over the next three years. You can't, because there isn't one. And that's the problem. America needs good jobs, soon. We need 6.7 million just to replace losses from the current recession, then another 10 million to spark demand over the next decade. That's 15 million to 17 million new jobs. In the 1990s, the U.S. economy created

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-74950463571278082072009-07-31T23:56:00.000-07:002009-08-01T00:02:38.300-07:00

I've parted amicably from SPARTA, and am preparing to join Advanced Elemental Technologies. No, I can't tell you yet what AET does, but I can say that I'm excited about the opportunity.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-58672168341677818602009-04-11T14:35:00.000-07:002009-04-11T15:36:46.283-07:00

An interesting story by Greg Gordon of McClatchy Newspapers on testimony by CIA agent Steven Stigall to the US Election Assistance Commission.Basically what I'm saying, you heard the old adage, follow the money. Here I follow the vote. And wherever the vote becomes an electron and touches a computer, that's an opportunity for a malicious actor potentially to get into the system and tamper with

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-61740121795480753492009-04-05T01:02:00.000-07:002009-04-05T01:17:49.923-07:00

Global warming brings more bad news from the Antarctic: Several ice shelves are collapsing, breaking up, or floating away.2009: Wilkins2009: Wordie2009: Northern Larsen2003: Ward Hunt2003: West Antarctic2002: Larsen BRecent Reuters story.Other news stories.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-49477612555276321942009-03-31T11:33:00.000-07:002009-04-05T01:18:22.743-07:00

As of today, my employer, SPARTA, Inc., will be doing business under the Cobham brand. More specifically, it will be known as "SPARTA, Inc., doing business as Cobham Analytic Solutions."My new email address is the same as the old, with "Cobham" substituted for "SPARTA". Telephone remains the same.More about Cobham.Jim HorningSPARTA National Security SectorCobham Analytic Solutions710 Lakeway

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-23740185092015353082009-03-13T16:27:00.000-07:002009-03-13T16:37:07.680-07:00

A trillion dollars.How various bailouts and other government budgets compare.It's not so long ago that I was told, "It takes a very big company to lose a billion dollars." Times have changed.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-88499038224214807242009-03-10T10:26:00.000-07:002009-03-10T18:50:54.794-07:00

ACM has just announced that Barbara Liskov is the winner of this year's A.M. Turing Award, widely considered to be "the Nobel Prize of computing."I am especially pleased at this award. Barbara is not only a wonderful person, she is the one who introduced me to the concept of abstract data types, and her student, Steve Zilles, introduced me to algebraic specifications. These ideas had a major

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-62710755924665200412008-12-09T13:15:00.000-08:002008-12-09T13:30:19.128-08:00

Freedom to Tinker has a good post by Ed Felten on a discovery by the Humboldt County Election Transparency Project, as reported in Wired. Election officials in a small county in California discovered by chance last week that the tabulation software they used to tally votes in this year's general election dropped 197 paper ballots from the totals at one precinct. The system's audit log also

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-37172677783446520132008-12-01T17:17:00.000-08:002008-12-01T17:29:10.775-08:00

The US Department of Defense Science & Technology program has released a very effective five-minute video commercial on YouTube, making the case for basic research as a practical necessity, not an optional luxury. The fact that they have a vested interest should not detract from its message.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-43987764394771923282008-11-30T23:15:00.000-08:002008-11-30T23:29:52.666-08:00

The December 1 issue of The New Yorker has an excellent article by John Cassidy about Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank. It contains a brief anecdote that I think provides a pretty good illustration of why George Bush has been able to preside so nonchalantly over the greatest financial debacle of his (or my) lifetime.In June, 2005, Bernanke was sworn in at the Eisenhower

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-57984612899489840182008-11-17T15:00:00.000-08:002008-11-17T15:18:28.363-08:00

Although the "outside the box" metaphor has become overworked, don't let that stop you from reading Ed Lazowska's post on the CCC Blog. I won't quote from it here, because it's pretty short, and worth reading in its entirety.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-58284827014206203202008-11-17T14:19:00.000-08:002008-11-17T14:32:58.503-08:00

As found in Congressional testimony titled "Actions to Avoid 'IT' Train-wrecks: An Agenda for Change," by Norm. V. Brown, Executive Director, Center for Program Transformation.Planning is a continuous process, not a one-time event.Complexity kills IT projects since defects and security vulnerabilities increase nonlinearly with increased complexity.Schedules and project chaos create Event Horizons

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-12186407814786211112008-11-14T13:10:00.000-08:002008-11-14T16:30:53.951-08:00

The costs of currently predicted climate changes in California over the next century could be as low as $7.3 billion per year, or as high as $46.6 billion per year, according to a new report by two University of California-Berkeley agricultural and resource economics professors. The 127-page report was funded by the nonprofit Next 10 foundation that studies California's future and the

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-77790313780604717582008-11-10T15:52:00.000-08:002008-11-10T16:26:05.435-08:00

Very thoughtful blog post on As Your World Changes about how accommodation of various disabilities can benefit us all. Curb cuts for wheelchairs also guide blind persons into street crossings and prevent accidents for baby strollers, bicyclists, skateboarders, and inattentive walkers. The “curb cuts” principle is that removing a barrier for persons with disabilities improves the situation for

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-69741735524488082232008-09-25T11:46:00.001-07:002008-09-25T11:57:54.923-07:00

Highly relevant Wall Street Journal piece by Thomas Frank: Last week, Republican presidential candidate John McCain called for a commission to "find out what went wrong" on Wall Street. It was an excellent suggestion: Public inquiries into Wall Street practices served the country well in the 1930s.And Mr. McCain has a special advantage to bring to any such investigation -- many of the relevant

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-26158681203010607852008-09-23T22:32:00.001-07:002008-09-23T22:35:53.262-07:00

[Text of emails sent to my Senators and Congresswoman.]While I support rapid action to free up the credit markets, I think the suggestions by various Democratic legislators are an essential part of the solution:1) Relief for homeowners who cannot afford the mortgages they got; at least half the money should go to their direct relief.2) A substantial equity position by the US in any financial

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-9213368288140651682008-09-20T22:49:00.000-07:002008-09-21T16:12:31.165-07:00

Déjà vu (history, comments and contemporary quotations):12/31: New York Times Industrials close at 331.JuneNew York Times Industrials gain 52 to close at 391.JulyNew York Times Industrials gain 25 to close at 416.AugustNew York Times Industrials gain 33 to close at 449.September9/3: New York Times Industrials close at 452.In retrospect, the great bull market of the decade comes to an end.9/5:

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-87249318916067279452008-09-15T18:13:00.000-07:002008-09-15T18:20:52.279-07:00

Spotted in a ComputerWorld article by Grant Gross: The groups, including Common Cause, Verified Voting and the Brennan Center for Justice, called on states to require post-election audits of electronic voting systems, including touch-screen voting machines and optical scan systems. The groups also released a set of recommendations (PDF format) for best practices in election audits...Three

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-74576787248447118032008-09-04T12:00:00.000-07:002008-09-20T23:23:44.705-07:00

Most of us are now exposed to the privacy policies of many companies that we deal with, via annual mailings, clickthrough licenses, or pages on their websites. The cynical among us tend to think that these policies are carefully prepared with the intent that they not be understood.This blog post by Erik Sherman supports the cynics' view.See also this 2005 paper by Annie I. Antón, et al., focusing

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-59008189313377293622008-08-27T14:01:00.000-07:002008-08-27T14:12:44.049-07:00

Google has taken an interesting step in the quest to reverse the decline in students majoring in computer science--especially students in under-represented groups, where the decline is even more precipitous. At a time when more and more digital technologies are becoming indispensable to millions of people, the field of computer science (CS) is in trouble. Enrollment and retention of CS students,

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-3047283457526813572008-08-27T11:47:00.000-07:002008-08-27T14:11:20.069-07:00

Interesting BBC story. It is thought that the virus might have travelled via a flash or USB drive owned by an astronaut and taken into space.The space agency also plans to put in place security systems to stop such incidents happening in the future.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-83375899101236324192008-07-17T18:59:00.000-07:002008-07-17T19:01:31.083-07:00

It's qualified for the November ballot in San Francisco.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-65100554318199033722008-07-15T12:33:00.000-07:002008-07-15T12:42:44.985-07:00

The San Francisco Chronicle has a story by Jaxon Van Derbeken about how a disgruntled programmer has managed to lock San Francisco officials out of major parts of the city's computer system. Apparently he was able to put a non-escrowed password, known only to himself, on the system--as job insurance.Prosecutors say Childs, who works in the Department of Technology at a base salary of just over

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-44394468089684744502008-07-11T16:31:00.000-07:002008-07-11T17:17:53.890-07:00

[I should note at the outset that I am still a fan of both Java and Adobe products.]For reasons that need not concern us here, my desktop machine was current on Microsoft updates, but had fallen behind on Java, Adobe Reader, and Flash. I have spent the better part of a working day getting current versions of these programs installed.My initial tries to update Java, Reader, and Flash all failed,

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-7309112351225415732008-06-18T22:37:00.000-07:002008-06-18T22:45:35.900-07:00

Good BBC News story by Richard Black.Nothing to worry about for the next five years, as long as you don't depend on anything or anyone located less than 22 feet above sea level.A few years ago, scientists were predicting ice-free Arctic summers by about 2080. Then computer models started projecting earlier dates, around 2030 to 2050. Then came the 2007 summer that saw Arctic sea ice shrink to the

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-90365115181243805972008-06-12T12:55:00.000-07:002008-06-12T12:59:01.602-07:00

Excellent post by Jon Stokes on Ars Technica. Stuff readers here will be familiar with, but nicely collected and summarized.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-13898009277998706582008-06-05T15:00:00.000-07:002008-06-05T15:17:13.972-07:00

On March 7 the Hatch nuclear power plant near Baxley, Georgia was forced into an emergency shutdown for 48 hours after a software update was installed on a single computer. The trouble started after an engineer from Southern Company, which manages the technology operations for the plant, installed a software update on a computer operating on the plant's business network.The Washington Post has a

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-16829375393644811532008-06-05T14:47:00.000-07:002008-06-05T14:54:35.381-07:00

Bruce Schneier has a nice post on the Center for American Progress paper on identification and identification technologies: "The ID Divide: Addressing the Challenges of Identification and Authentication in American Society."Among other things, the paper identifies six principles for identification systems:Achieve real security or other goalsAccuracy InclusionFairness and equality Effective

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-74754060474832876172008-06-03T18:46:00.000-07:002008-06-03T19:06:47.318-07:00

A common response to reports of data breaches is that "that's just the number of people whose data was exposed--there's no reason to believe that the data will be used fraudulently."ComputerWorld has an article by Robert McMillan reporting on one case where there definitely is reason to suspect fraudulent use. A data breach at United Healthcare Services Inc. has led to a rash of identity-theft

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-69941080436840261692008-06-03T12:33:00.000-07:002008-06-03T12:39:42.104-07:00

I previously posted about the proposed sale of SPARTA. It's now happened.Today SPARTA, Inc. officially became a subsidiary of Cobham plc.My job has not changed, just its corporate framework.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-46402336619396613132008-06-02T17:25:00.000-07:002008-06-02T18:07:40.527-07:00

Following up on "The power grid? Why would hackers want to mess with that?":House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson and Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology Chairman James Langevin sent a letter late Thursday to Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell detailing their recent efforts to review the United States' bulk power systems

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-57131810294661136112008-05-30T17:51:00.000-07:002008-05-30T17:55:01.379-07:00

Fascinating blog post by my onetime colleague Susan Gerhart about dealing with the challenges to writing and editing imposed by steeply declining vision. One of the things I found most interesting is how many of her suggestions seemed to be things that would help a sighted writer or editor do a better job.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-64970269160322281102008-05-30T16:27:00.000-07:002008-05-30T16:43:03.968-07:00

Interesting blog post from the Federation of American Scientists, taking off from testimony by Stephen Flynn at a May 15 hearing of a House Homeland Security subcommittee.The basic thesis is that often secrecy undermines, rather than supports, security, particularly in situations where the public itself constitutes the bulk of “first responders.”On September 11, 2001, Mr. Flynn recalled, the

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-29750327373698729892008-05-29T16:13:00.000-07:002008-06-03T12:52:30.091-07:00

I ordered my Amazon Kindle within 24 hours of its announcement last winter. No surprise there, I'm a technophiliac. I'd previously tried two other electronic books. They didn't work out well, but hope springs eternal, and the Kindle seemed to offer things that they didn't, like the size, weight, and readability of a paperback book. I looked forward to a much larger selection of books and

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-76852388653409815742008-05-27T12:18:00.000-07:002008-05-27T12:41:49.953-07:00

Interesting story by Andy Greenberg at Forbes.com on a few folks who are uncomfortable that the US power grid is hackable, and that neither DHS nor the power industry seem to be working very hard to improve its security. Last June, the Department of Homeland Security leaked a video documenting a disturbing experiment. Using only digital means, researchers hacked into a power plant's generator and

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-73606816208063368912008-05-21T11:12:00.002-07:002008-05-21T11:36:59.222-07:00

Close on the heels of the carbon footprint comes the concept of virtual water, as explained by Fred Pearce in an article in NewScientist. ... The term was the invention of water scientist Tony Allan from King's College London [winner of the 2008 Stockholm Water Prize] and, I think, it goes a long way to explaining why the world is currently in the grips of a food crisis.Most crops take

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-3284132422748010112008-05-19T13:14:00.000-07:002008-05-20T01:00:32.184-07:00

ComputerWorld has an article by Sharon Gaudin about the threat to computers of the "Crazy Raspberry Ants" that are spreading around Houston.A flood of voracious ants is heading straight for Houston, taking out computers, radios and even vehicles in their path. Even the Johnson Space Center has called in extermination experts to keep the pests out of their sensitive and critical systems.The ants

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-79651697095535268532008-05-14T16:22:00.000-07:002008-05-14T18:41:19.272-07:00

As I previously noted, the Rutgers University program on Interdisciplinary Studies in Information Privacy and Security sponsors an annual workshop on the topic. This year's workshop was last Monday. The conference proceedings will be published in the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) published by Springer.The caliber of the participants was high; they were interesting people with

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-3885517002782640732008-05-08T18:15:00.000-07:002008-05-08T18:25:28.883-07:00

... IBM intended this ad to be displayed?Link to story.Link connected to ad.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-11429210143735844462008-04-28T11:01:00.000-07:002008-04-28T11:15:54.296-07:00

Scary opinion piece by Mark Gibbs in ComputerWorld. Just imagine if one day in the near future the FBI comes to your enterprise with warrants that allow them to seize and remove any computer-related equipment, utility bills, telephone bills, any addressed correspondence sent through the U.S. mail, video gear, camera equipment, checkbooks, bank statements and credit card statements. The first

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-41414242138043521732008-04-23T13:39:00.000-07:002008-04-23T13:53:56.938-07:00

Ed Felten has a new post on the discrepancies observed in vote totals from some of New Jersey's electronic voting machines in the 2008 presidental primary. See also this post.Every time Ed (with the assistance of troubled voting officials) documents a new inconsistency in the machine reports, the vendor (Sequoia) and the New Jersey Secretary of State come up with a new explanation of how a

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-88567050458868761522008-04-22T15:43:00.000-07:002008-04-22T15:53:48.041-07:00

The privacy community has been concerned for some time about the ethical, legal, and practical issues surrounding DNA testing and the fact that you share a lot of your DNA with relatives. Much of the concern had been for things like insurance: Should the fact that I carry a gene predisposing me to blood clots affect my sister's insurance rates, even though she has not been tested for that gene?

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-75852169222847642842008-04-16T18:49:00.000-07:002008-04-17T10:44:06.347-07:00

No matter how often people are reminded that they shouldn't click on links in unexpected emails, and that they shouldn't download software from an unknown source, there are still victims. Even highly-placed, affluent victims. The kind phishers really like.A ComputerWorld story by Robert McMillan details a recent example.Panos Anastassiadis didn't click on the fake subpoena that popped into his

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-44539848544343424242008-04-10T10:28:00.000-07:002008-04-10T10:44:16.765-07:00

Harlan Yu has a good post on Freedom to Tinker, explaining why Phorm is worse than I had realized.New technical details about its Webwise system have since emerged, and it’s not just privacy that now seems to be at risk. The report exposes a system that actively degrades user experience and alters the interaction with content providers. Even more importantly, the Webwise system is a clear

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-45432326814503766062008-04-09T15:32:00.000-07:002008-04-09T15:37:38.722-07:00

Michael Krigsman has a very good post on ZDnet about how the UK's largest bank sent unencrypted data on 370,000 customers through the mail, and lost it. It's amazing who shows up prominently on the list of those who don't have a clue about data security... They should have read this.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-75574120645241519012008-04-09T14:45:00.000-07:002008-04-09T14:53:10.623-07:00

ComputerWorld has a nice article by Charlie Martin on "Assessing the risks and cost of encryption." It not only gives a reasoned justification for encryption of personal data on a laptop's disk, it explains a general method for doing a back of the envelope calculation (BOTEC) for any similar security/risk question.This technique of risk analysis can be applied to almost any decision about any

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-34538076197523397102008-04-04T13:55:00.000-07:002008-04-04T14:15:11.337-07:00

Ho, hum! The US wastes another $3Billion in a failed automation project.Reports in The New York Times, ZDnet, Digital Trends.My previous post.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-65917669050940843772008-04-02T18:50:00.000-07:002008-04-02T18:51:49.738-07:00

There seem to have been an unusual number of April Fool pranks this year--or perhaps word about them just spreads more efficiently these days?

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-78891227933055417522008-03-28T17:20:00.000-07:002008-03-28T23:42:11.492-07:00

ComputerWorld has an article by Paul F. Roberts about the inherent weakness and dangers of "knowledge based authentication." This refers to the canned questions that many online entities use as secondary authenticators (e.g., when you need to recover a lost password).For some time now, I've adopted the practice of making up harder-to-guess answers to such questions, e.g., saying that my first

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-42527895087773977002008-03-26T18:51:00.000-07:002008-03-26T19:01:49.940-07:00

An article by Mark Boslet in the San Jose Mercury News reports that 2007 was 40% worse than 2006, in terms of number of reported personal data breaches in the US; however the number of records compromised grew sixfold, to 128 million.There's a good chance that at least one of those compromised records was yours."We think people are going to learn from their mistakes, but they aren't," said Mary

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-17954055608535544262008-03-26T18:40:00.001-07:002008-03-26T18:46:06.210-07:00

"Don't be evil."Then.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-10509039234605479722008-03-26T18:09:00.000-07:002008-03-26T18:31:24.468-07:00

Ross Anderson, Rainer Böhme, Richard Clayton, and Tyler Moore have just published a 114-page study commissioned by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). The executive summary contains 15 recommendations for the European Union, most of which are just as appropriate for the United States. We recommend that the EU introduce a comprehensive security-breach notification law.We

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-16581214162315574172008-03-26T10:25:00.000-07:002008-03-26T10:41:08.195-07:00

Now it's the Wilkins Ice Shelf. Good New Scientist article by Catherine Brahic. A thin strip of ice, just 6 kilometres wide, is all that is holding back the collapse of a huge ice shelf in Antarctica, according to glaciologists.The Wilkins ice shelf – previously some 16,000 square kilometres in area – has been disintegrating fast. On 28 February, an iceberg 41 km long and 2.5 km wide broke off

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-37140808343336795012008-03-24T16:50:00.000-07:002008-03-24T16:54:46.352-07:00

The 2008 inductees to the National Inventors Hall of Fame (and their honored inventions) include Robert Adler, Television remote controlAmar Bose, Feedback control for noise cancellation headphonesWillem Einthoven, ElectrocardiographErna Schneider Hoover, Computerized telephone switchingAmos Joel, Cellular telephone system

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-53175166526495381872008-03-21T18:37:00.000-07:002008-03-21T18:45:57.385-07:00

Good analysis by Peter Harsha on the Computing Research Policy Blog.While it's great news that two of the titans of the IT industry are stepping up to fill some of the gap left by DARPA's withdrawal, their $20 million investment over 5 years represents just a tiny fraction of the DARPA shortfall. The difference in DARPA funding for university computer science between 2001 and 2004 was $91 million

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-41613107248220759122008-03-21T18:08:00.000-07:002008-03-21T18:15:11.069-07:00

This story by Bob Brewin in GovExec.com says that we're already engaged in cyberwar, but aren't anywhere close to prepared."Cyberwarfare is already here.... It's one of our major challenges," said Defense Deputy Secretary Gordon England on Monday at the annual National Community Service and Legislative Conference of the Veterans of Foreign Wars."I think cyberattacks are probably analogous to the

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-84268016388706839812008-03-21T17:56:00.000-07:002008-03-21T17:58:20.908-07:00

This story speaks for itself.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-60367466203938044422008-03-21T16:06:00.000-07:002008-03-21T18:18:33.002-07:00

This post on a ZDnet blog says that the US Census Bureau faces cost overruns up to $2 billion on an IT initiative replacing paper-based data collection methods with specialized handheld devices for the upcoming 2010 census. The Bureau has not implemented longstanding Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendations and may therefore be forced to scrap the program. Harris Corp., the

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-9079351760355476942008-03-21T15:35:00.000-07:002008-03-21T18:55:13.733-07:00

A ComputerWorld article by Robert McMillan reports that a group representing county clerks in New Jersey has asked the state's attorney general to step in and investigate voting discrepancies observed in e-voting machines used in last month's presidential primary election. "We want to know what the problems were and how do we fix them," Michael Dressler, the group's president, told IDG News

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-36186500210181054622008-03-18T00:19:00.000-07:002008-03-18T01:01:09.953-07:00

According to this story in the New York Times, the Hannaford Brothers supermarket chain has reported a security breach that potentially exposed 4.2. million credit and debit card numbers. However, only 1,800 cases of resulting fraud have been identified so far.Stay tuned.This is a problem that won't go away until all companies processing financial information are put on the hook for all resulting

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-30278210445140246792008-03-17T21:22:00.000-07:002008-04-09T18:30:38.903-07:00

This shocking post by Mike Scott in RISKS DIGEST deserves the widest possible publicity--and condemnation of the plan. Three major UK ISPs apparently are in advanced talks with a company called Phorm, intending to let Phorm monitor all unsecured web traffic to and from their users. The expressed intent is to offer an "improved browsing experience" through better targeted web advertising, and

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-38418888213797552612008-03-10T14:19:00.000-07:002008-03-18T01:03:30.336-07:00

I know, it's simply too easy to ridicule existing machine translation services. But Microsoft Research is trumpeting a new advance, so I thought I'd look again.Here is the result of translating the first few of their paragraphs into German: Leute benutzen auf der ganzen Erde das tägliche Internet, um Waren oder Dienstleistungen zu kaufen, um zu Information zu suchen, Ablenkungen zu finden.Aber

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-6733022442217788122008-02-28T18:56:00.000-08:002008-02-28T19:03:20.232-08:00

Excellent editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle. I couldn't have said it better myself:Ralph Nader sure knows how to marginalize his candidacy for president: He picked a brooding, far-left running mate who couldn't get elected mayor of San Francisco.Perhaps Nader sees a younger version of himself in 42-year-old Matt Gonzalez. Each wields a keen intellect, a certitude about his standing in the

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-74702814638324565192008-02-28T16:17:00.000-08:002008-02-29T17:39:32.512-08:00

Interesting story by Dennis Fisher about a hearing by the House Committee on Homeland Security on the Bush Administration's Cyber Initiative. Congressional leaders on Thursday questioned the Department of Homeland Security's past and present efforts to secure the government's networks and dismissed its new plan to improve security as inadequate and behind the times."It's hard to believe that this

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-76958745192755160322008-02-28T15:49:00.000-08:002008-02-28T16:00:13.203-08:00

The Pew Center on the States has just issued a major study on the American penal system. For a good summary, see the Reuters article by James Vicini.The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world and for the first time in the nation's history, more than one in every 100 American adults is confined in a prison or jail, according to a report released on Thursday.The

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-23472607627135818402008-02-28T13:12:00.000-08:002008-02-28T13:37:01.115-08:00

I've been wondering why so little attention has been paid to the connection between the Iraq war and the crumbling economy. Here's an article from The Australian about an attempt to quantify it. The Iraq war has cost the US 50-60 times more than the Bush administration predicted and was a central cause of the sub-prime banking crisis threatening the world economy, according to Nobel Prize-winning

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-69123670933782103412008-02-28T12:33:00.000-08:002008-02-28T12:50:16.969-08:00

Matt Blaze uses publicly available documents to correct the record on the demise of the Clipper chip, in response to claims by Mike McConnell in a New Yorker article by Lawrence Wright. The New Yorker's justly famed fact-checkers seem to have nodded on this one.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-62532496872903003552008-02-28T11:58:00.000-08:002008-03-21T17:06:07.225-07:00

A workshop and conference on Interdisciplinary Studies in Information Privacy and Security will be held May 12, 2008, in New Brunswick, NJ. There's particular interest in homeland security and the needs of the intelligence community.Introduction and overview.Call for papers.Submission guidelines:Extended abstracts due March 30.I'm on the (large) Program Committee.Updated March 21, 2008 to reflect

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-44051458568524628292008-02-28T11:19:00.000-08:002008-02-28T11:48:15.650-08:00

The TSA's terrorist watch list is approaching a million entries. Since many people have the same or similar names, that ensnares several million people. The ACLU has a good discussion of the implications.IEEE's The Risk Factor has a good overview and summary.If you are unlucky enough to get on this list, it's probably easier to stop traveling than to get off the list. And safer.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-65368757607134885542008-02-27T13:13:00.000-08:002008-02-27T13:18:39.052-08:00

Story in the Washington Post about Republicans giving up on retrieving emails that were legally required to be kept for the National Archives. A former White House technology manager told the committee in statements released yesterday that the Bush administration's e-mail system "was primitive and the risk that data would be lost was high."Steven McDevitt, who left the White House in 2006, said

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-91087774222878931602008-02-26T14:22:00.000-08:002008-02-26T14:31:21.705-08:00

Exposé by The Onion ("America's Finest News Source").See also: these and this.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-53379228821758611072008-02-25T14:47:00.000-08:002008-02-25T15:20:56.842-08:00

Surely a digital photo frame ought to be a safe gift, even to unsophisticated computer users? Think again.Best Buy has revealed that an unknown number of digital photo frames it sold recently contained a sophisticated computer virus. There have been many stories about it. The San Francisco Chronicle article by Deborah Gage is pretty good. "It is a nasty worm that has a great deal of intelligence,

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-74719358216553444722008-02-21T18:25:00.000-08:002008-02-21T18:34:12.581-08:00

"Loose lips may sink ships, but a 'divide by zero' stopped the USS Yorktown dead in her tracks." -- Tim Teitelbaum

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-79697958203265969442008-02-21T18:13:00.000-08:002008-02-21T18:18:17.932-08:00

I have just learned of a software development contest that is open to undergraduates attending U.S. universities, sponsored by Cretaceous Software Inc. Contest entries must use their proprietary software development environment, but a free trial version is available.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-68645167306013526312008-02-21T13:33:00.001-08:002008-02-21T13:44:24.168-08:00

Ed Felten has a very interesting post on defeating disk encryption.Today eight colleagues and I are releasing a significant new research result. We show that disk encryption, the standard approach to protecting sensitive data on laptops, can be defeated by relatively simple methods. We demonstrate our methods by using them to defeat three popular disk encryption products: BitLocker, which comes

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-59327879443040810202008-02-19T15:30:00.000-08:002008-02-19T15:31:33.807-08:00

Even getting paper ballots right can be a challenge, especially if you aren't particularly motivated to count all the votes.IEEE Spectrum Online's "The Risk Factor" has a terse summary of a longer article by the Los Angeles Times.Six years ago, Los Angeles County began using a ballot for nonpartisan voters that had a little-noticed design flaw. Confusion over how to mark the ballot, critics say,

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-5496413612059215882008-02-15T17:55:00.000-08:002008-02-15T18:18:06.851-08:00

Very scary paper by David Dagon, Niels Provos, Christopher P. Lee, and Wenke Lee.Good summary of its implications by Kelly Jackson Higgins in Dark Reading. The industry is just one multi-million-dollar corporate data breach away from waking up to the serious and often-silent threat of corrupted DNS resolution servers, says DNS inventor Paul Mockapetris.Mockapetris--who is also chief scientist and

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-54454093156430815032008-02-15T16:24:00.000-08:002008-02-15T16:26:50.152-08:00

Fair warning on Antiworm.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-24676268216907775962008-02-12T16:21:00.000-08:002008-03-09T20:51:02.826-07:00

February 12, 2008State Farm InsuranceCalifornia Reconsideration of Fault DepartmentP.O. Box 22664Bakersfield, CA 93390-2664Re: Claim Number: [redacted]Policy Number: [redacted]Date of Accident: January 28, 2008I respectfully request reconsideration of the claim department’s determination that I am principally responsible for this accident. Claim representative [redacted] stated that this

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-16385923596861457222008-02-11T16:45:00.000-08:002008-02-11T17:17:52.894-08:00

Good thought-piece by Michael Assante and Mark Weatherford in CSOonline.com.Some time around 313 B.C., the Romans built the first of eleven aqueducts--engineering marvels that would become critical to their capitol and to the influence of the Roman Empire. This first aqueduct was built completely underground for what historians have concluded were three main advantages: first, to conceal and to

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-68411890277944530012008-02-11T14:08:00.000-08:002008-02-11T14:13:29.962-08:00

Very informative post on Ed Felten's "Freedom to Tinker."I have a very high respect in general for the Government Accountability Office's processes and reports, so it's disappointing to see them muff this one so badly.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-5754922619025590932008-02-11T13:43:00.000-08:002008-02-11T13:57:57.228-08:00

[An open response to an opinion piece by Dan Reed on the CRA Policy Blog.]I read your piece in the CRA blog, and I must take mild exception. (And not just because you made me feel old. I did not have the luxury of majoring in computer science--there were no departments then.)When I look back on my undergraduate and M.S. education in physics, it devoted very little time to the outer layers of the

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-42402202609575252972008-02-06T18:06:00.000-08:002008-02-06T18:16:31.722-08:00

Interesting story in PC World A US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bug-fixing scheme has uncovered an average of one security glitch per 1,000 lines of code in 180 widely used open source software projects.The program, called the Open Source Hardening Project, is sponsored by the DHS and carried out by Coverity and Stanford University. Launched in March 2006, the US$300,000 project was

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-10725632631217602752008-02-04T13:42:00.000-08:002008-02-05T02:16:42.933-08:00

The 2007 A.M. Turing Award, the most prestigious in computing, is going to Ed Clark, Allen Emerson, and Joseph Sifakis for their work in Model Checking, which has, over the past 25 years, revolutionized formal verification, especially of computer hardware designs. See the ACM announcement and press release.Several other sources are carrying the news.Updated 14:33 2/4/08 with ACM links. PS For

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-70982266748624452492008-02-04T13:32:00.000-08:002008-02-04T13:39:12.651-08:00

David Dill and Barbara Simons have written a worrying column about the Democratic Party using internet voting for delegates representing overseas voters. "Like whack-a-mole, internet voting proposals have reappeared in different guises in the U.S. for much of the past decade."See also "A seductively bad idea," and "This time, internet voting is being deployed."

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-59017211426663875442008-02-04T11:54:00.000-08:002008-02-04T12:03:05.372-08:00

New book from the National Academies Press. Free online, cheap in hardcopy.NAP is one of the best sources of authoritative information on science, engineering, technology, and medicine, and also one of the least expensive.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-85841423263400030972008-01-30T13:56:00.000-08:002008-01-30T14:02:34.341-08:00

The relation between George W. Bush and Reality is indeed beyond satire.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-68583476472145276332008-01-24T11:54:00.000-08:002008-01-24T12:30:31.452-08:00

The New York Times is reporting that a fraud by a single employee has cost the French bank Société Générale 4.9 billion euros. The fraud was committed by a trader in charge of “plain vanilla” hedging on European index futures.The trader’s actions were found to be a case of “isolated fraud,” the bank said, and officials said they were convinced the trader had acted alone.Speaking at an afternoon

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-953111783094911192008-01-24T11:07:00.000-08:002008-01-24T11:22:08.640-08:00

I don't normally quote extensively from political email, but one from John Kerry struck a chord with me.From: John KerrySent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 4:28 PMSubject: SwiftboatingDear James,... I support Barack Obama because he doesn't seek to perfect the politics of Swiftboating -- he seeks to end it.This is personal for me, and for a whole lot of Americans who lived through the 2004

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-69193710411017005282008-01-23T14:23:00.000-08:002008-01-23T14:33:35.254-08:00

And then they lied some more.The Center for Public Integrity has assembled a database of false public statements about the case for war in Iraq made by top officials of the Bush administration. Still infuriating reading.

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-48868974306539957962008-01-22T13:23:00.000-08:002008-01-22T13:47:38.568-08:00

An excellent op-ed piece by Craig Barrett (the Chairman of Intel) in the San Francisco Chronicle discusses the shortsightedness of recent Congressional (in)action on science matters, particularly the recent "budget deal" and the immigration brouhaha. ... All parties agreed that our competitiveness in the 21st century was at stake and we needed to act.So much for political will.The recent budget

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-294365981296478702008-01-16T17:07:00.000-08:002008-01-16T17:17:57.369-08:00

Paul McJones drew my attention to the Science Debate 2008 page, which is a call for a Presidential debate on science and technology: Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-1863830995525173842008-01-16T13:41:00.001-08:002008-01-16T17:18:31.876-08:00

Three years ago, I was preparing for the announced sale of McAfee Research to SPARTA, Inc. Today, Cobham plc announced an agreement to buy SPARTA, Inc., for $416 million in cash. SPARTA's board has recommended acceptance of the agreement by SPARTA's employee-shareholders. Subject to regulatory approvals and a shareholder vote, the transaction should close in April or May, and SPARTA will become a

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-86271238037489113712008-01-14T11:46:00.000-08:002008-01-14T11:59:21.936-08:00

ComputerWorld has an article by Todd R. Weiss about recounts of both major-party primary ballots requested (and being paid for) by two minor candidates (Kucinich and Howard). Fortunately, there are paper ballots to be recounted.On Wednesday, a volunteer with e-voting watchdog group Black Box Voting posted a note on the group's blog alleging that election results in the town of Sutton initially

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-30876150758547780552008-01-14T11:18:00.000-08:002008-01-14T11:40:37.699-08:00

According to an article in ComputerWorld, by Robert L. Mitchell, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Project Hostile Intent is "deadly serious" about making this a reality.Sharla Rausch, director of the DHS's human factors division, says the agency is already seeing positive results. In a controlled lab setting, she says, accuracy rates are in the range of 78 to 81%. The tests are still

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-89734065830199987262008-01-11T18:54:00.000-08:002008-01-11T19:19:32.355-08:00

Further confirmation for those who doubt that the US "Transportation Security Administration" really cares about your security: Information Week has an article by Thomas Claburn about a Congressional report on TSA's screw-up of its "Redress Management System."Hundreds of Americans inappropriately placed on airline security watch lists and either banned from commercial air travel or subject to

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9433257.post-44837890001155227622008-01-08T21:50:00.000-08:002008-01-08T21:58:45.427-08:00

Stanford's School of Engineering website has an "Ask the Expert" page posing to Prof. David Dill the question: "Will we be ready for electronic voting in 2008?"Excerpts:The role of computers in voting should be limited, because computers are fundamentally limited machines. Computers are so complex that we can’t tell whether they are working properly. Because of system errors and the possibility

Jim Horninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01813631663553781471noreply@blogger.com0