Category: Security (Page 3 of 4)

      The fight for the social web

      May 31, 2011 /

      The battle for privacy on social networking sites is heating up.

      Privacy. It’s a word we hear a lot in the digital age, especially now that Facebook and Twitter are signing on users practically straight from the womb. It’s also a concept very few people understand. Just type your name into the search engine pipl.com. If you’re like me, you’re fortunate enough to have a fairly common name, but even then an alarming amount of information can show up. The funny thing about that search engine is everything on it is either in the public record or was shared by the person to whom it pertains. That’s right, we’re to blame for the vast majority of private information that is publicly available.

      Legislators in California are trying to reduce the amount of information we accidentally share by imposing new privacy laws on social media.

      The arguments against these regulations are ridiculous, so you have to read the entire articles, which also includes a story of a 14-year-old girl who created all sorts of issues for her family with her online social media accounts.

      Internet, Policies, Privacy, Security, Social Media

      The cyber security issue

      May 9, 2011 /

      The recent Sony case highlights the depth of the problem:

      Sony is run by a bunch of greedy morons who stupidly left their systems vulnerable to an attack by hackers: This is the conventional explanation of how the company finds itself bent into a familiar pose of contrition, following news that cyber-pirates breached its defenses, potentially gaining access to troves of valuable information — credit card numbers, email addresses — for more than 100 million customers.

      If only life were so soothingly simple. The Sony data hack and the predictable pursuit of villains carries a dose of false comfort, implicitly affirming the assumption that someone must have fouled up to create such a menace to privacy and commerce; someone must have failed in a readily identifiable way, because this surely can’t be the ordinary state of events. But the blame narrative masks an unsettling question: What if Sony did the best it could to protect itself, and the pirates still won? What if the company employed the best defenses available, yet they proved inadequate in the face of a decentralized and proliferating threat?

      Sony has captured headlines because it is one of the world’s most conspicuous consumer brands, and the recent attacks on its network have been both brazen and successful. But the list of companies that have been targeted by similar plots is lengthy and growing.

      The problem is that we don’t focus enough resources on this issue, and we don’t go after simple targets.

      Take simple spam. It’s all over the place. But if we pursued these idiots aggressively, we would start to build an apparatus that would start to root out cyber criminals at all levels.

      We need to get serious about these issues, and stop wasting time on things like online poker.

      It’s also one of the few areas where the interests of security and privacy converge.

      Identity Theft, Internet, News, Policies, Privacy, Security

      The body scanner hysteria

      November 23, 2010 /

      Over the past several weeks, the issue of new body scanners and pat-down procedures at our airports has become a very hot topic. Naturally, the cable new channels are feeding the hysteria.

      It’s a very legitimate issue, as we need to decide how far we are willing to go to invade the privacy of travelers in order to improve the security of flying. It goes to the heart of issues that will be discussed on this blog. TSA certainly has not done a good job of dealing with this issue.

      Unfortunately, the news media is sensationalizing the story.

      Privacy, Security

      Digital Due Process coalition

      August 5, 2010 /

      Many are now concerned about web privacy, so a group of companies have formed the Digital Due Process coalition to advocate for clearer laws to protect privacy online. The opening paragraphs from the web site for this group explains their position.

      ECPA Reform: Why Now?

      The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was a forward-looking statute when enacted in 1986. It specified standards for law enforcement access to electronic communications and associated data, affording important privacy protections to subscribers of emerging wireless and Internet technologies. Technology has advanced dramatically since 1986, and ECPA has been outpaced. The statute has not undergone a significant revision since it was enacted in 1986 – light years ago in Internet time.

      As a result, ECPA is a patchwork of confusing standards that have been interpreted inconsistently by the courts, creating uncertainty for both service providers and law enforcement agencies. ECPA can no longer be applied in a clear and consistent way, and, consequently, the vast amount of personal information generated by today’s digital communication services may no longer be adequately protected. At the same time, ECPA must be flexible enough to allow law enforcement agencies and services providers to work effectively together to combat increasingly sophisticated cyber-criminals or sexual predators.

      The time for an update to the ECPA is now. For more than a year, privacy advocates, legal scholars, and major Internet and communications service providers have been engaged in a dialogue to explore how the ECPA applies to new services and technologies. We have developed consensus around the notion of a core set of principles intended to simplify, clarify, and unify the ECPA standards; provide clearer privacy protections for subscribers taking into account changes in technology and usage patterns; and preserve the legal tools necessary for government agencies to enforce the laws and protect the public.

      Internet, News, Policies, Privacy, Security, Social Media

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