Category: Privacy & Security
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Diebold Shows How to Make Your Own Voting Machine Key
By now it should be clear that Diebold’s AccuVote-TS electronic voting machines have lousy security. Our study last fall showed that malicious software running on the machines can invisibly alter votes, and that this software can be installed in under a minute by inserting a new memory card into the side of the machine. The…
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Voting, Secrecy, and Phonecams
Yesterday I wrote about the recent erosion of the secret ballot. One cause is the change in voting technology, especially voting by mail. But even if we don’t change our voting technology at all, changes in other technologies are still eroding the secret ballot. Phonecams are a good example. You probably carry into the voting…
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Net Neutrality: Strike While the Iron Is Hot?
Bill Herman at the Public Knowledge blog has an interesting response to my net neutrality paper. As he notes, my paper was mostly about the technical details surrounding neutrality, with a short policy recommendation at the end. Here’s the last paragraph of my paper: There is a good policy argument in favor of doing nothing…
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New Net Neutrality Paper
I just released a new paper on net neutrality, called Nuts and Bolts of Network Neutrality. It’s based on several of my earlier blog posts, with some new material.
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"Censorship" Bill Lifts Ban on Speech
The House has now joined the Senate in passing the Family Movie Act; the Act is almost sure to be signed into law soon by the President. (The Act is bundled with some unrelated provisions into a multi-part bill called the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act. Here I’ll focus only on Section 201, called the…
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One More on Biometrics
Simson Garfinkel offers a practical perspective on biometrics, at CSO Magazine.
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Washington Post on Biometrics
Today’s Washington Post has an article about the use of biometric technology, and civil-liberties resistance against it. Interestingly, the article conflates two separate ideas: biometrics (the use of physical bodily characteristics to identify someone), and covert identification (identifying someone in a public place without their knowledge or consent). There are good civil-liberties arguments against covert…
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Wireless Tracking of Everything
Arnold Kling at The Bottom Line points to upcoming technologies that allow the attachment of tiny tags, which can be tracked wirelessly, to almost anything. He writes: In my view, which owes much to David Brin, we should be encouraging the use of [these tags], while making sure that no single agency or elite has…
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What Color Is My Hat?
An article by Rob Lemos at news.com discusses the differences between “white hat,” “gray hat,” and “black hat” hackers. The article lists me as a gray hat. In my book, there is no such thing as a gray hat. If you break into a computer system without the owner’s permission, or if you infringe a…
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Comments on White House Cybersecurity Plan
As a computer security researcher and teacher, I was interested to see the White House’s draft cybersecurity plan. It looks to be mostly harmless, but there are a few things in it that surprised me. First, I was surprised at the strong focus on issues late in the product lifecycle. Security is an issue throughout…