As border enforcement as using increasingly invasive tactics, a traveler that has any privacy concerns for the data that they are carrying (especially if visiting the United States) will very likely take steps to protect themselves.
Examples:
FindLaw:
The Ninth Circuit, in a decision announced this summer, has approved forensic searches of laptop computers at the border, even [...]
I have a new pgp key.
Feel free to sign it at your pgp.net keyserver of choice.
$ gpg –fingerprint FE264BAA
pub 16384R/FE264BAA 2008-01-17 Key fingerprint = 9A05 99DB 838D 9049 0509 AD5D 26A4 2F8A FE26 4BAAsub 16384R/3CA219BB 2008-01-17
Why so big a keysize? A friend of mine cited the following:
NIST key management guidelines further suggest that 15360-bit RSA [...]
I’ve decided that I, as a relatively new resident of Washington State, will start filing formal complaints with the state Attorney General’s office (using this form here) for those companies who have harvested or purchased my contact information.
I’ve been doing some of my own work in email marketing on behalf of one of my clients. [...]
It is a new Web 2.0 economy! All the rules have changed!
Yeah. Sure they have. Right.
It’s the same shell game of no revenue that everyone has played before. Actually, I think it’s a little worse this time.
It is worse because companies like Google, and everyone else because of them, are over-valued in the extreme.
These companies [...]
Like I have talked about before with Google and as Laurance Lessig discussed in his talk at the University of Washington, public companies are established with one goal. … Some of his talk entitled “Is Google (2008) Microsoft (1998)” is available here:
TorrentFreak seems to have the most involved and comprehensive tale of what they contain.This is a great example of people who do some things well getting caught doing things that are not their strengths.If you are going to establish an organization that will become a target for, arguably, some of the worlds most skilled and experienced technophiles, you should plan accordingly.That they were ever outed at all is a failure, but things like this (quoted from digg article) show how if you are untrained, ignorant, or sloppy, it can bring down an entire enterprise:The genius employee of MD subscribed to a torrent site using the gmail account he had setup as an email archive as the username and used the same password for the torrent site as he did for the gmail account…. Price and availability must be correct or it will be circumvented by someone with time on their hands that will make money created by those that can not, or will not, purchase what you are selling in the way you choose to sell it.This is the gist of all of the DRM, piracy, and putting-the-gene-back-in-the-bottle problem.
Once the software is run it will extract data from the Apple Keychain and system settings in order to provide the examiner fast access to the suspect’s critical information with as little interaction or trace as possible.[...]MacLockPick takes advantage of the fact that the default state of the Apple Keychain is open, even if the system has been put to sleep.It also makes use of the openly readable settings files used to keep track of your suspect’s contacts, activities and history. These data sources even include items that your suspect may have previously deleted or has migrated from previous Mac OS X computers.I contacted Apple’s security team to see if they were aware of this, if it works as described and, if so, why would such mechanisms exist in any responsible operating system.
If you dont like it, you can opt out on your accounts privacy page.multiple vague links due to association is a stretch for any logical person.that being said, I’m sure that intelligence agencies look at all social networking sites. That’s been published as fact in many trade mags for years.Mostly the funniest thing about this is the notion that your data isn’t being collected when you do things like:- use an instant messenger.- send email.- view websites. any website.- use a telephone- etcI have a facebook page because, due to my highly familiar status with privacy, I have acknowledged that I have none anymore unless it is encrypted with military-grade encryption like OTRPGP/GNUPGTORand other such things.So why not make use of the social aspects of it instead of being a paranoid hidden in my basement. Not using facebook will do very little to safeguard your privacy.
Concerned about trusting Google with all of your personal data?Perhaps you should think more about it.The success of Google as a search engine, mail service, advertiser, social networking site, and now a rss aggregator makes it a question worthy of consideration.ld you want to know? What can you do about it? Read on.It has been brought up in the past in reference to Google Desktop, amounts of user-specific data available for prosecution and government, past changes in Google’s privacy policy, and in general by the limited number of players in the search engine market..The Wikipedia article on Google and privacy issues goes on to mention:Some critics have pointed out the dangers and privacy implications of having a centrally-located, widely popular data warehouse of millions of Internet users’ searches, and how under controversial existing U.S. law, Google can be forced to hand over all such information to the U.S. government, or any other government of a country which Google serves.This should be worthy of pause for anyone.So Google has all these services you enjoy. Can you still use the internet without surrendering too much information to Google?I believe you can to a degree.For instance, you like to use that seach bar in your browser?
Jeremy Schoemaker asked me to write up a little something regarding the recent string of SEO web defacements for a non-technical audience which he posted in his blog.The SEO industry is very focused on being SEOs.Like many professionals, many attempt to avoid time consuming activities that are not core to their business…. This is a perennial theme of information security writings and I myself have touched on itWeb defacements are nothing new, but the media attention to SEO superstars is notable and makes their online presence an attractive high-value target. The recent mass defacement of SEO wordpress blogs that was launched from a technical adversary using tor is an example of what has become a not uncommon occurrence.What can SEOs, and bloggers in general, do to lessen the risk of public embarrassment from defacements, hacktivism, and information leakage?… (For example, the bugfix for Wordpress v2.0.6 addressed a correction for those webservers that had left register_globals set to “on.” Not recommended in the first place.)Hardening the web services themselves with security modules.Use of a NIDS or HIDS that will actively block or alert upon detection of questionable behaviors.All of these methods involves time and resources that could best be applied to doing what they do best, in this case, being a SEO.
