Lock up your passwords

I had this idea too. No problem with the evil ideas however.

Source: XKCD

The right to film in public

I've been following Boing Boing threads about filming in public and found this video to be particularly interesting



See also

• UK cop: 'War on terror means no pictures of police vans in ...
• London cops declare war on photography
• Current TV on photo bans in UK
• UK mall bans grandparents for trying to photo their grandkids ...
• UK to introduce "photograph a cop, 10 years in jail" law
• Photographers win British war on photography?

New ATM skimmers in the US

From Krebs on Security at http://www.krebsonsecurity.com/2010/01/would-you-have-spotted-the-fraud/

Pictured below is what’s known as a skimmer, or a device made to be affixed to the mouth of an ATM machine and secretly swipe credit and debit card information when bank customers slip their cards into the machines to pull out money. Skimmers have been around for years, of course, but thieves are constantly improving them, and the device picture below is a perfect example of that evolution.

This particular skimmer was found Dec. 6, 2009, attached to the front of a Citibank ATM in Woodland Hills, Calif. Would you have been able to spot this?

The US focus on terrorism is fundamentally flawed.

The Reuters article has this quote

"I worry that the president's preoccupation with healthcare and other domestic issues has distracted him from what should be the fundamental role of our chief executive: keeping our nation and its citizenry safe from harm," Republican Senator John Cornyn said.

By increasing security theatre and overreacting every time someone tried a terrorist act, the US fails to address the fact that these 'healthcare and domestic issues'are actually far bigger threats to the US nation and citizenenry. For instance:

• More people die from lax US gun laws - heck just today 3 more Americans were killed today by one of their fellow citizens who was "armed with an assault rifle, a shotgun and a handgun"- see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/us/08gunman.html
• Thousands suffer and die needlessly from poor health care - National Geographic states "lack of health insurance is a factor in life span and contributes to an estimated 45,000 deaths a year. See http://blogs.ngm.com/blog_central/2009/12/the-cost-of-care.html
  

When will we start to keep in mind the following?

• The fact that you are far FAR more likely to be killed lighting than by terrorism - people need to get real and stop being afraid?
  
• Decades of self-centered US foreign policy have created these problems in the first place - but no-one seems to be looking at changing this.
  

Reading blogs like Boing Boing, I'm starting to get really concerned, even paranoid, about the US and its approach to security and terrorism.

When the solution is worse than the problem, its not a good outcome.

Read this for more: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/12/29/schneier.air.travel.security.theater/index.html