Copacetic

This looks bad for Eircom. If its true they have inadvertently created Ireland’s largest free WIFI network. Good man Eircom!

(via Damien) 

This non-story from Silicon Republic is a classic re-release press release number. UK workers are apparently walking out with valuable data on USB Keys, and before that floppy disks and before that printouts.

Stealing your employer’s data has always been trivially easy, USB Keys don’t make it harder or easier, they are just another one of many leaky channels in every employer workplace.

If you want to be secure you could give everyone a Compartmented Mode Workstation. A steal at 100k+…

I have (again) in my wallet a nice lumpy card key (and of course separate picture ID) for entry to the Digital Hub. This is the latest in a long line of lumpy, (expensive, I’m sure) highly loosable ID cards I have carried in my life. Well surely its time to slap this kind of system on peoples mobile phones with a little Bluetooth magic to trigger the card.

I know mobile devices as a development platform are a  nightmare, but so are bespoke card key solutions.  The mobile vendors are starting to standardise (slowly), so maybe now is the right time…

The UK Home office posted an alert today on its website, that includes these draconian measures,

All cabin baggage must be processed as hold baggage and carried in the hold of passenger aircraft departing UK airports.

The only items that may be taken through airport security search points and in to the cabin, in a single (ideally transparent) plastic carrier bag, are the following:

• pocket-size wallets and pocket-size purses plus contents (for example money, credit cards, identity cards, etc - handbags are not allowed.
• travel documents essential for the journey (eg, passports and travel tickets)
• prescription medicines and medical items sufficient and essential for the flight (eg, diabetic kit), except in liquid form unless verified as authentic
• spectacles and sunglasses, without cases
• contact lens holders, without bottles of solution
• for those travelling with an infant: baby food, milk (the contents of each bottle must be tasted by the accompanying passenger) and sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight (nappies, wipes, creams and nappy disposal bags)
• female sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight, if unboxed (eg, tampons, pads, towels and wipes)
• tissues (unboxed) and/or handkerchiefs
• keys (but not with electrical key fobs)

Nothing may be carried in pockets.

So no PCs, backpacks or munchies.

I see a lot of very disgruntled users trying to boot mashed up PCs in the next few days.

The measures are expected to stay in place throughout the weekend.

This is due to events this morning when the UK police disrupted a major plot to blow up ten or more aeroplanes leaving Heathrow. More news on the bbc website.

Take this London School of Economics survey and help them decide.

Hears a clue, its a bad idea. How bad? I like Spengler’s description from GhostBusters.

Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr. Raymond Stantz: Total protonic reversal.

Yep, that bad.

SkypeBlock

Originally uploaded by Joe Drumgoole.

I see Microsoft has started blocking skype after the latest security update. Ladies and gentlemen, you may start your conspiracy engines…

Richard Rogers writes a great article on the use of stolen credit cards on the net and the problems of fraudulent purchases for software suppliers on the InterWebNet (sic).

Alan Cox talks about the next 50 years of computer security. Early in the article he makes the comment (which is a commonly held view),

Alan Cox: It is beginning to improve, but at the moment computer security is rather basic and mostly reactive. Systems fail absolutely rather than degrade. We are still in a world where an attack like the slammer worm combined with a PC BIOS eraser or disk locking tool could wipe out half the PCs exposed to the internet in a few hours. In a sense we are fortunate that most attackers want to control and use systems they attack rather than destroy them.

This is not strictly true. In nature, the most virulent pathogens in nature keep their hosts alive for long enough to pass on the disease to as many other hosts as possible. Reproduction, not death is the goal here. Any (computer) virus that killed its host immediately would fail to propagate effectively and time delay self destructs tend to be disarmed by the anti-virus crew.