Schneier on Security

Well, one thing I've learned from CNN is that Bruce has mispelled his blog.

It should be:

Schn3i3r 0n S3curity

In Europe, the Four Horsemen are terrorists, organized crime, pedophiles and neo-nazis. Works very well, too. In fact, works good enough to scare the European Parliament into accepting a bill that mandates a gigantic surveillance infrastructure. I suppose the public is either scared as well or, as usually, not interested in anything except the latest celebrity "news". Maybe it's just me, but I didn't see more than a sidenote in any national news outlet (if it's mentioned at all), and much less any kind of public outrage. Pretty disturbing.

Not drug dealers; music and movie pirates.

Speaking of which, Congresscritters are moving once again to hand the keys to our culture and public IP rights to a few media supercorporations:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004261.php

I thought the biggest scare was kids (=terrorists and organized crime) downloading music and movies.

Ugh.

The assault against privacy is never ending.

Hmm, Bruce's "Internet Horsemen" have better irony, in that each of the four represents a crime that requires physical contact with a victim and/or a customer.

@David Harmon

Yeah, that's always been my gripe about new laws on surrendering encryption keys to the police. The way I summed it up was: "You can't encrypt a bloodstain."
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/12/27/32059/804

"Bruce's 'Internet Horsemen' have better irony, in that each of the four represents a crime that requires physical contact with a victim and/or a customer."

The biggest threats have always been in places where the real world and the Internet intersect.

"I thought the biggest scare was kids (=terrorists and organized crime) downloading music and movies."

Depends on who you are, doesn't it?

i would regard a thief of my identity as an evil doppelganger sucking my life force, and only one of us would survive.

Sure, fear sells! What is the best way to turn off any critical thinking than scaring people? You just need a few seemingly plausible threats.

Companies seem to be catching on ... How about this thinggy called "OnStar"? If you listen to their commercials, it sounds like you are invariably going to DIE in your car unless you get "OnStar".

Which coincidently can spy on you, by listening to the conversations by the means of the installed microphone. But, surely, "The Big Brother" always has YOUR best interests in his mind!

I especially enjoyed the CNN poll on what I think is the biggest online threat:

- Spam
- Hackers
- Viruses
- Porn

Oh, yeah! That porn's always trying to get my personal information and hack my PC...

@Kostya

OnStar has always scared me. I have always figured that whoever figures out how to hack OnStar will have a great time tracking people, stealing cars, etc.

I don't mind having a GPS receiver in my car, or a physical switch-on transceiver, but having something that automagically goes on worries me a lot, especially when it's tied into the locks on the car.

"This is the Internet."
(free access to lots of information)

"This is the Internet after smoking ice."
(spamm, phishing, pharming, pr0n, Nigeria-419)

Any questions?

onstar is a way creepy thing, i've seen the commercials, you get in some kind of trouble or lock yourself out of your car and this omniscient benevolent babysitter comes to your rescue.
if you need a babysitter while you're driving, you shouldn't be driving at all.
onstar is just the tip of the iceberg. there are also onboard diagnostic devices hooked up to the airbags in most new cars which record speed, braking, etc. and are available for later inspection by anybody who can get a court order.
the state of oregon formed a special commission to study a new tax on miles driven in oregon by oregonians. it would require a gps in every oregon-registered vehicle and the commission explained that this would inform the state when we'd left its borders so that we would no longer be taxed for those miles. yes, hacking this would be child's play. yes, i like to be all alone sometimes with nobody knowing where i am and i'm willing to execute drastic measures to achieve this, but worst of all.....
the tourists from california, they would be able to drive on the same roads i do and not be taxed! the oregon public services infrastructure is on life support in many areas, no sales tax, laughable property tax, only a vicious 9% income tax. my answer is to soak the tourists, not exempt them.

Why is this "sensationalist hype"?

My friend wants to roll his mileage back on his lease, I knopw that this is wrong but many dealers still do this. He is worried about his On-Star GPS, does this keep track of this. He did get a insurance break because of it but if he is ever in a accedent he is worried that they may pull other driving info from his past like how fast he drives on a certian road ect. Does anyone have any answers to this. It seems like it is a voilation of your rights?

wHO WILL STOP THE us GOVT. attemps at jailing all its citizens ?

Minutemen ? The corrupt CIA ?the US Army ?
Allah? Jesus?
Will we be liberated by moslems ?

Well I for one, like our new privacy invading overlords! (Until I can get a decent connection then I am getting me some sweet Vidalia Onion Routers and I will be on my anonymous way! I'd do it now but dial-up + TOR = Even lower speeds...)