Written October 20, 2008 and published in Degree Stuff | 0 Comments
I have just come up with some questrions to try and help me find out the online usage and help me with my dissertation.
If you would like to help me out and fill it out, it’s just 10 questions and the link is below.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=z9I4F5ll_2b_2bZgd_2fY1SSx8EA_3d_3d
Written August 20, 2008 and published in News and Rumours | 0 Comments
Many of you may be aware that this week the government in their ‘infinite wisdom’ have decided to trial a facial recognition system at Manchester & Stansted airports. Lets have a little look and see why this is a pointless endevour to “add another layer of security and not repace existing systems”.
A test on this scale is normally to work out any final bugs out and produce a final system that will then be rolled out across the rest of a network. There will be a few problems with this for our beloved UK gov.
To start with, facial recognition technology has NEVER been accurate, throwing up false-negatives and false-positives so this appears to be as much a test of the technology as it is of the security system and as far as I can tell it is based on existing technology. Concerns by the Biometrics Assurance Group (pdf) [show] that there is still work to do on both the facial recognition standards and the format in which facial images are stored.
This means the government is committing to a system upon which there are NO standards to adhere to, basically making this a very risky operation. Considering the biometric chip in passports may be incompatible with other systems, or at the very least when a standard is agreed UK residents with the chipped passports may end up having to get yet another passport. Normally standards are agreed before any large-scale testing goes ahead so this seems rather fool-hardy.
Now lets consider people who have gone before. There have been many tested applications of facial recognition and nearly all have been scrapped after only a few years in service as they proved impractical and inaccurate.
“Boston’s Logan Airport also ran two separate tests of facial recognition systems at its security checkpoints using volunteers. Over a three month period, the results were disappointing. According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the system only had a 61.4 percent accuracy rate, leading airport officials to pursue other security options.”
If this is supposed to be another layer of security, to augment the already ludacris systems that are in place, then passengers will see no benefit at all. Did I mention that the whole process will be overlooked by securities staff who can step in at any time and take you to a real person to match your picture.
If all goes well and the system works then it will be truely remarkable and may indeed speed up entry through immigration. However, I feel that given the problems many people have with technology the so-called speed may be just an illusion, a target, similar to the fiasco at Heathrow Terminal 5. Not to mention the fact the system may fall flat on it’s face irrispective of whether people can use it. I predict an amalgation of both which will troublingly create some of the longest queues, the opposite of the desired effect.
Written August 13, 2008 and published in Personal | 0 Comments
I have just returned from a very nice two week holiday in the Bahamas with my parents and sister but if you think I am going to write about how the holiday was as my first post then you are sorely mistaken. That will come later.
The first post is about how thoroughly targeted I felt on the journey, how my privacy was invaded at every opportunity and how nobody seemed to want to listen to reason – nobody with any authority anyway.
To get to the Bahamas you have a few choices to make as there is not yet a direct flight to the island of Exuma where we stayed. Do you go to Nassau then on to Exuma or do you go through Miami then on to Exuma? The only difference is that going though Miami is much cheaper but I advise caution if you are a white, British family of four. Read more…
Written May 29, 2008 and published in Degree Stuff | 0 Comments
Is internet privacy giving way to internet security?
There is an inherent paradox with security and privacy issues surrounding the internet. They seem to be unable to work in harmony even though their definitions are exclusive of each other. Could this be due to pressures from the music and film industries with regard to file? A look into other areas where privacy and security issues have been addressed, possibly in the area of terrorism, something to which file sharers have been accused of.
A large part of this and in fact what has brought this to light is file sharing and the problems & controversy that it is causing. ISPs are being forced to take responsibility for what their customers are downloading which means they are forced to void their subscribers’ privacy through ‘deep packet inspection’ which has issues within itself. To try and combat this, the ‘three strike rule’ was proposed which was narrowly defeated. Neither the government nor the music / film industries know how to combat illegal file sharers or ‘unauthorised distribution of copyrighted material’ so they are trying to see what EVERYONE is downloading in order to catch those few who with nefarious purposes.
Historically there has been a problem with security and privacy, none more so than during times of war. The privacy of other nations was being invaded but it was needed to ensure the security of the home nation. Is this the reason people when we examine privacy vs security within the borders of a nation? Is the problem now an international one and should it be dealt with on an international scale with all countries signing a document? There is a possible reference to the enigma machine, message encryption and code breaking. Has anything really changed since then and is it just the technology that has advanced on both sides of the current ‘cyber war’?
Why is illegal or copyright file-sharing so prolific? Is the government to blame or is it the greed of the industries which are being infringed?
Sony BMG has released their entire music collection for free, with a 10 second advert at the start of each song. It is free to download and listen to but costs to transfer to an mp3 player, for which one would hope they would have removed the advert. This is a sign that things are changing and industries are realising they cannot simply BAN everyone who they suspect is illegally getting their content. Instead they are seeing that there are other financial models that gives users’ and themselves what they want, without pressuring governments and regulatory bodies into taking foolhardy ’seen to be taking action’ actions.
The aim is to find out why we need security and why we want privacy. The key difference is in the need vs want. Security is paramount as without it we are vulnerable yet we want privacy which seems to be infringed upon by security. Can we ever find a way that we are being protected and anonymous?
People to Contact
Torrent Users – as part of the Bit Torrent community I am able to easily contact people about how they use the service. Some of the largest copyright infringement lawsuits are aimed at the users directly or at the people who provide ‘trackers’.
Torrent Trackers – such as Torrent Leech and The Pirate Bay the latter of which is a more prominent name and is currently undergoing a legal battle in Sweden which started by the Swedish police confiscated 180 servers. The site remains operational.
Phorm - internet advertising agency that have been in the media recently about violating internet privacy laws even though they tried to make their targeted ad system anonymous. Their video indicated that it was anonymous so I would be interested as to what they have violated.
ISPs – internet service providers such as BT, Virgin, Tiscali, Pipex etc. would be a great source of information with regard to the pressures they faced recently with the government’s proposed ‘three strike ban’. Luckily this was voted out, but only narrowly.
Government – contacting any area of the government that deals with this area would be very beneficial as the argument needs to have an official line in order to get both sides and ensure a balance and having a direct quote from a government official would be a fantastic example.
Sony BMG – it would be interesting to find out how long they have been thinking about their move to freely distribute their content. They are in partnership with one site which would also be worth contacting to find out how they managed to get a huge distributor to do what no one said could be done.
Written May 13, 2008 and published in How-to | 0 Comments
Today I discovered a previously unknown password facility within Firefox 2 that is simply brilliant.
While discussing password security and allowing Firefox to save username and password combinations so you dont have to with a colleague the other day I became aware that if my laptop got stolen… there was a hell of a lot of stuff people could access as Firefox held the login details.
I was about to delete all passwords from the system to ensure security I chanced upon the ‘Master Password’ button in the ‘Security’ tab in the options menu. Once set I assumed it would just protect the passwords stored which, while a step in the right direction, would still allow people to click my bookmarks and bypass the login screens as Firefox retained the login details.
I was wrong, it is in fact very clever. When a master password is set Firefox does indeed protect the saved passwords from being shown in the options menu but it also provides a pop-up box requiring the master password when you click on a site that has saved login details. So for example if I click on Facebook with the master password enabled, Firefox asks me for the master password before loading the page. Once entered Firefox then pre-fills the login details for me to click ‘login’. If I get the master password wrong or click cancel, the page still loads but the login form is empty!
The form only needs to be filled in once per session then all form fields are filled from then on.
Written May 13, 2008 and published in Random | 0 Comments
Apparently this site has a password generator that is the strongest that you can use.
64 random hexadecimal characters (0-9 and A-F)
63 random printable ASCII characters
63 random alpha-numeric characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9)
Check it out, it says its good for WiFi Security and “potentially unbreakable”
” ..our server generates a unique set of custom, high quality, cryptographic-strength password strings..”
Written April 2, 2008 and published in News and Rumours | 0 Comments
According to an article on The Register, someone has developed a proof-of-concept for a ‘bio-logger’.
You’ve heard of key-loggers for keyboards right? That log keystrokes made on a target keyboard and send the retrieved data to a USB key or via the internet to anyone. Well this new ‘gadget’ does the same thing but captures images of fingerprints from keyboard users which could then be used to create a replica fingerprint and used to access biometric-protected areas.
This just goes to show that not even your fingerprints are safe. Imagine if you will, that the government gets it’s way and introduces its identity card scheme, you use a computer that has a ‘bio-logger’ attached… hackers’, thieves and general undesirables then have your fingerprints. Which they can then use to potentially steal all of your data from anywhere that (in the future) uses biometrics as a security system. Off the top of my head I would imagine using it instead of chip-n-pin, passports, starting your car and even general identification if stopped by the police.
This reminds me of a 5 part drama that was on recently called ‘The Last Enemy’ set in the not to distant future and featuring things. But that’s another post entirely.
Just another reason why the government’s identity card system would fail miserably.
Written March 5, 2008 and published in Degree Stuff | 0 Comments
I have just completed my contextual studies essay! I wrote about the peer-to-peer network and how the government has no idea what they are doing with regard to trying to shut down illegal file sharing. I left out the illegal part mostly and focused on comparing the monitoring of data to the tapping of phones and how similar legalities have to be applied to a ‘web tap(?)’ and therefore rendering it totally useless… even if it were possible in the first instance.
Feel free to view my essay here.
Written March 4, 2008 and published in Degree Stuff | 0 Comments
888888;">The following is an essay I wrote as a polemic as part of a Contextual Studies elective.
888888;">Peer To Peer is an internet distribution network allowing users to share content without using dedicated servers or utilizing bandwidth. The users share information directly with each other using a centralised ‘tracker’ which directs the relevant information to the correct recipient.
888888;">‘Such networks [contain] audio, video, data or anything in digital format, real-time data such as telephony traffic is also passed using P2P technology.’
888888;">(Wikipedia – 2008)
888888;">Many small businesses use peer-to-peer to keep distribution costs low as constant downloading from web servers results in high server costs for the client and slow download speeds for the customer.
888888;">‘10Mbps connection on a 3GHz Xeon server is priced at $324 per month.’
888888;">(www.thewhir.com/)
888888;">The VoIP telephone services such as Skype also use peer-to-peer networks to enable phone calls over the internet for free for this very reason.
888888;">So why then is there so much controversy over the use of such technologies? If there are so clearly so many benefits why is the government so adamant about stricter regulations, more stringent monitoring and new legislation meaning ISPs have to track the content? Read more…
Written February 23, 2008 and published in News and Rumours | 0 Comments
I know how tempting it is to set up a fake Facebook page and then message your friends with all kinds of abuse or stalker-like behaviour, but have you ever stopped to think what the ramifications could be?
Well a Moroccan computer engineer certainly didn’t, although he did sign up to Facebook as Prince Moulay Rachid, younger brother of King Mohammed VI. I don’t think the guy was ever expecting to get caught and if he did I suppose he thought he would just get a slap on the wrist from Facebook and not be allowed to play with the other kids.
Far from it, this guy has been sentenced to 3 years in prison and ordered to pay $1,300. I think that’s a little extreme myself but hey, now I’m not going to sign up to Facebook pretending to be the queen as originally planned!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7258950.stm
