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Last weekend I was in New York, and saw posters on the subways warning people about real guns painted to look like toys. And today I find these pictures from the Baltimore police department. Searching, I find this article from 2006 New York.
I had no idea this was a thing.
An NYU student has been reverse-engineering facial recognition algorithms to devise makeup patterns to confuse face recognition software.
Nice:
In this paper we revisit the assumption that shellcode need be fundamentally different in structure than non-executable data. Specifically, we elucidate how one can use natural language generation techniques to produce shellcode that is superficially similar to English prose. We argue that this new development poses significant challenges for inline payloadbased inspection (and emulation) as a defensive measure, and also highlights the need for designing more efficient techniques for preventing shellcode injection attacks altogether.
Anti-theft lunch bags, for those who have a problem with their lunches being stolen.
Only works until the thief figures it out, though.
I’m sure you need some skill to actually use this, and I’m also sure it’ll get through airport security checkpoints just fine.
Use it to catch the lovers of cheating spouses. (The site has a wide variety of hidden cameras in common household objects.)
This is a 2 Gig USB drive disguised as a piece of frayed cable. You’ll still want to encrypt it, of course, but it is likely to be missed if your bags are searched at customs, the police raid your house, or you lose it.
How squids and other cephalopods camouflage themselves:
A clue to how cephalopods disguise themselves so quickly came to Dr. Hanlon when he and his colleagues reviewed thousands of images of cuttlefish, trying to sort their patterns into categories. “It finally dawned on me there aren’t dozens of camouflage patterns,” he said. “I can squeeze them into three categories.”
One category is a uniform color. Cephalopods take on this camouflage to match a smooth-textured background. The second category consists of mottled patterns that help them hide in busier environments. Dr. Hanlon calls the third category disruptive patterning. A cuttlefish creates large blocks of light and dark on its skin. This camouflage disrupts the body outlines.
It’s not often you can find research on the intersection of security and squid.
I want to be able to disguise myself as a Japanese vending machine.
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.