Archive for November 4, 2012

Repeating past mistakes leads to security flaws

Posted: November 4, 2012 by IntentionalPrivacy in Security or Privacy Initiatives
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Peter G. Neumann, an 80-year-old computer scientist working at SRI International, and Robert N. Watson, a computer security researcher based at Cambridge University’s Computer Laboratory, are heading a team who are working on a five-year project for the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) CRASH program to redesign computers and networks to make them secure. CRASH stands for Clean-slate design of Resilient, Adaptive, Survivable Hosts. The project is called CTSRD (CRASH-worthy Trustworthy Systems R&D).

Dr. Neumann quotes Albert Einstein when talking about computer security, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

The NY Times has a great article on Dr. Neumann and his project at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/science/rethinking-the-computer-at-80.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 You can read the first paper that Dr. Neumann and Dr. Watson published about CTRSD at http://www.csl.sri.com/users/neumann/law10.pdf

Traveling with electronics

Posted: November 4, 2012 by IntentionalPrivacy in Issues, Traveling
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This article in the NY Times talks about why TSA treats laptops differently than smartphones, tablets, and netbooks when you’re going through airport security lines. http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/travel/the-mystery-of-the-flying-laptop.html?pagewanted=1&ref=travel

Seattle “Creepy Cameraman”

Posted: November 4, 2012 by IntentionalPrivacy in Issues, Privacy, Uncategorized
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Several online blogs have written about Seattle’s “Creepy Cameraman.” He takes videos of people in public places without asking their permission first. You can read about him and watch some of his videos here: http://www.geekwire.com/2012/seattles-creepy-cameraman-pushes-limits-public-surveillance/

The guy taking the videos reminds people who object that surveillance cameras are everywhere, as if that makes his videotaping without asking permission perfectly all right.

Would you allow someone to videotape you in public? What would you do to stop him or her? The people in the video who objected didn’t seem to make any difference to the cameraman. Should someone using a camera have to ask permission before filming a person going about their ordinary life in public–eating in restaurants, walking in malls, sitting in their cars?

What if the person is doing something–not illegal–but that they don’t want publicized? Possibilities include having an affair, getting medical treatment, going into a building of an employer’s competitor, gambling, drinking …

You might also want to check out these articles on Google’s Project Glass, also known as Google Goggles http://www.technologyreview.com/review/428212/you-will-want-google-goggles/ and http://venturebeat.com/2012/04/04/google-glass-augmented-reality/. The NY Times describes the project here http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/google-begins-testing-its-augmented-reality-glasses/. These glasses–as well as many other current electronic devices–would allow someone using them to photograph or videotape someone or something unobtrusively.

As technology changes so rapidly around us, the lines blur more around our personal privacy and security.