Shostack + Friends Blog Archive

 

Because Money Is Liberty Coined

I really love these redesigns of the US Dollar: There’s a contest, and I like these designs by Michael Tyznik the most. On a graphical level, they look like money. He’s integrated micro-printing, aligned printing (that $5 in the upper left corner, it’s really hard to print so it works when you look at light) […]

 

A personal announcement

I will be entering the PhD program in Computational Social Science (with certificates in InfoSec and Economic Systems Design) at George Mason University, Fairfax VA, starting in the Fall of 2010.

 

It's Hard to Nudge

There’s a notion that government can ‘nudge’ people to do the right thing. Big examples include letting people opt-out of organ donorship, rather than opting in (rates of organ donorship go from 10-20% to 80-90%, which is pretty clearly a better thing than putting those organs in the ground or crematoria). Another classic example was […]

 

Earth, from the surface of Mars

This is the first image ever taken of Earth from the surface of a planet beyond the Moon. It was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit one hour before sunrise on the 63rd Martian day, or sol, of its mission. (March 8, 2004) Credit: NASA Goadard’s flickr stream.

 

How to Get Started In Information Security, the New School Way

There have been a spate of articles lately with titles like “The First Steps to a Career in Information Security” and “How young upstarts can get their big security break in 6 steps.” Now, neither Bill Brenner nor Marisa Fagan are dumb, but both of their articles miss the very first step. And it’s important […]

 

Lies, Damned Lies and Inappropriate Baselines

Thomas Ricks wrote a blog on Foreign Policy titled “Another reason to support Obamacare.” In it, he cited a Stars & Stripes report that one of out five veterans under the age of 24 is out of work. However, Stars and Stripes compares total unemployment to 18-24 male vet unemployment. It took me less than […]

 

The Liquids ban is a worse idea than you thought

According to new research at Duke University, identifying an easy-to-spot prohibited item such as a water bottle may hinder the discovery of other, harder-to-spot items in the same scan. Missing items in a complex visual search is not a new idea: in the medical field, it has been known since the 1960s that radiologists tend […]

 

Failure to Notify Leads to Liability in Germany

…a Bad Homburg business man won millions in damages in a suit against the [Liechtenstein] bank for failing to reveal that his information was stolen along with hundreds of other account holders and sold to German authorities for a criminal investigation. He argued that if the bank had informed those on the list that their […]

 

Evil Clown Stalking for your Birthday?

Dominic Deville stalks young victims for a week, sending chilling texts, making prank phone calls and setting traps in letterboxes. He posts notes warning children they are being watched, telling them they will be attacked. But Deville is not an escaped lunatic or some demonic monster. He is a birthday treat, hired by mum and […]

 

Parkour Generations Video

I could pretend to tie this to information security, talking about risk and information sharing, but really, it’s just beautiful to watch these folks learn to play:

 

Source, Data or Methodology: Pick at least one

In the “things you don’t want said of your work” department, Ars Technica finds these gems in a GAO report: This estimate was contained in a 2002 FBI press release, but FBI officials told us that it has no record of source data or methodology for generating the estimate and that it cannot be corroborated…when […]

 

Credit Checks are a Best Practice in Hiring

The New York Times reports that “As a Hiring Filter, Credit Checks Draw Questions:” In defending employers’ use of credit checks as part of the hiring process, Eric Rosenberg of the TransUnion credit bureau paints a sobering picture. […] Screening the backgrounds of employees “is critical to protect the safety of Connecticut residents in their […]

 

J.C. Penny knew best

JC Penney, Wet Seal: Gonzalez Mystery Merchants JCPenney and Wet Seal were both officially added to the list of retail victims of Albert Gonzalez on Friday (March 26) when U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock refused to continue their cloak of secrecy and removed the seal from their names. StorefrontBacktalk had reported last August […]

 
 

Friday Visualization: Wal-mart edition

I’ve seen some cool Walmart visualizations before, and this one at FlowingData is no exception. The one thing I wondered about as I watched was if it captured store closings–despite the seemingly inevitable march in the visualization, there have been more than a few.

 

Elsewhere…

Things are busy and chaotic, but while I’m unable to blog, here’s some audio and video I’ve done recently that you might enjoy: “Meeting of the Minds” with Andy Jaquith and myself in either text or audio. Face-Off with Hugh Thompson “Has social networking changed data privacy forever?” Video

 

On Uncertain Security

One of the reasons I like climate studies is because the world of the climate scientist is not dissimilar to ours.  Their data is frought with uncertainty, it has gaps, and it might be kind of important (regardless of your stance of anthropomorphic global warming, I think we can all agree that when the climate […]

 

Makeup Patterns to hide from face detection

Adam Harvey is investigating responses to the growing ubiquity of surveillance cameras with facial recognition capabilities. He writes: My thesis at ITP, is to research and develop privacy enhancing counter technology. The aim of my thesis is not to aid criminals, but since artists sometimes look like criminals and vice versa, it is important to […]