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Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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Does Your Doctor's Computer Have Spyware?
Are You A Denied Person?
Senators to Hear Testimony on Data Theft
How Widespread is Data Theft?
Sunday, October 2, 2005
Acoustical Spying Recovers Passwords With 90-percent Accuracy
Computer scientists at UC Berkeley have been experimenting with recordings of keystrokes. Using 10-minute sound recordings of users typing at a keyboards, researchers were able to feed the data into a computer and recover up to 96 percent of the typed characters. By running the audio repeatedly through a feedback loop that trains the computer, they were able to recover passwords, passphrases, and complete paragraphs. [via FutureEdition from Arlington Institute]Once the system is trained, recovering the text became more straightforward, even if the text was a password and not an English word. After just 20 attempts, the researchers were able to retrieve 90 percent of five-character passwords, 77 percent of eight-character passwords and 69 percent of 10-character passwords.
[...]
What was particularly striking about this study, the researchers said, was the ease with which the text could be recovered using off-the-shelf equipment. "We didn't need high-quality audio to accomplish this," said Feng Zhou, a UC Berkeley Ph.D. student in computer science and co-author of the study. "We just used a $10 microphone that can be easily purchased in almost any computer supply store."
Terry Frazier at 9:51 PM
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Does Your Doctor's Computer Have Spyware?
What is your doctor's computer security policy? Every time I have a blood test or visit a doctor I sign a new HIPAA form, but it's clear there's no understanding of digital privacy within the office. For a high-tech industry, doctors and their staff are woefully ill-equipped to deal with computers. What do you do when all the providers of a necessary service have little or no idea how to protect your information? [via Spyware Warrior] [More...]Friday, May 13, 2005
Are You A Denied Person?
I received an interesting, informative, and anonymous comment today regarding the Official Denied Persons List athttp://www.bxa.doc.gov/dpl/Default.shtm
Back in October I bought a new copy of PGP and grew annoyed when I paid my money, got my confirmation, and all it included was a "purchase review". Today someone posted an explanation and clarification that made me feel a little better about the situation:
Terry this isn't a re-instatement of the law, it is the current law. The "review" is a machine review. Your name is run against the "denied persons" list - which you can find here (btw i don't see your name on it)http://www.bxa.doc.gov/dpl/Default.shtm
Its not a list of terrorists or naughty boys and girls but a list of those who've violated export control laws and are 'denied' as part of their punishment under law.
When you click to download the software a GEO IP check is performed (determines geographically where you are by your IP) to make sure you aren't in the IP space of one of the embargoed countries - Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Libya, N. Korea. Sudan & Syria. If your IP is anonymous or from a satellite ISP - you'll also be denied I think. Those IPS fall into "A1" and "A2" IP space.
This IP check of course doesn't and couldn't account for someone in say a Syrian embassy in a european country.
I checked the site. It's part of the Dept. of Commerce. And the post seems written by someone who knows the subject. This past Tuesday I received the following e-mail:
Dear Terry Frazier,
PGP Corporation has just released completely new versions of its award-winning desktop products -- PGP Desktop Professional 9.0 (formerly PGP Workgroup Desktop 8.x) and PGP Desktop Home 9.0 (formerly PGP Personal Desktop 8.x). These new versions are the most significant PGP product upgrades ever offered. [...]
I suppose there is some connection between the new product release and someone showing up on my site. Maybe a little "blog trolling" to try and address any negative feelings? In any case, I appreciate the comment and the explanation.
Terry Frazier at 10:00 PM
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Thursday, March 10, 2005
Senators to Hear Testimony on Data Theft
At least we’re getting a little traction on the data theft issues. I’m not optimistic anything substantive will happen. We’ll see… Found via Privacy Digest.
Senate Banking Committee to hold hearings on security of sensitive consumer information
Tomorrow, 10 March 2005, the Banking Committee of the United States Senate is holding hearings on "recent developments" related to the security of consumer information. By recent developments, they are referring to the ChoicePoint, Bank of America and LexisNexis incidents. Here is the notice of hearing, with the list of who is testifying (including the VP of ChoicePoint):
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs:- David T.S. Fraser [PIPEDA and Canadian Privacy Law]"US Senator Richard Shelby
ChairmanUS Senator Paul Sarbanes
Ranking MemberCommittee: US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Title: Identity Theft: Recent Developments Involving the Security of Sensitive Consumer Information
Date: 3/10/05
Time: 2:30 PM
Place: 538 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Agenda: The Committee will meet in OPEN SESSION to conduct a hearing on "Identity Theft: Recent Developments Involving the Security of Sensitive Consumer Information."Publication: Printable Hearing not available at this time
- Witnesses
- Panel 1
- Honorable Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) , Unites States Senator
- Panel 2
- Honorable Deborah Platt Majoras , Chairman, Federal Trade Commission
- Panel 3
- Mr. Larry Johnson , Special Agent in Charge - Criminal Investigative Division, United States Secret Service
- Ms. Amy S. Friend , Assistant Chief Counsel, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
- Mr. Don McGuffey , Vice President, ChoicePoint Services, Inc.
- Mr. Evan Hendricks , Editor, Privacy Times
- Ms. Barbara J. Desoer , Executive Vice President, Global Technology, Service and Fulfillment Executive, Bank of America Corporate Center
Terry Frazier at 8:07 PM
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How Widespread is Data Theft?
This is a big deal, but until someone in Congress, the Judiciary, or the Executive branches of government are directly affected we're not going to get any protection. Our video rental records are protected by the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (VPPA) because one guy, Judge Robert Bork, got smeared by his video habits. One guy. We already have hundreds of thousands of regular Americans at risk, and with no recourse, because we have no rights to our own personal information – it belongs to mega-corporations with no obligation to protect us. Found via John Robb.
More data theft, this time at Lexis/Nexis. Where is this data flowing? Offshore? Nobody seems to want to tackle that question. Also, what's the recourse if your data is stolen? Not much, particularly given the recent legal reforms enacted. Oh, those pesky class action law suits...
Terry Frazier at 11:40 AM
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