Friedman Comments on Yardley
This is William Friedman’s highly annotated copy of Herbert Yardley’s book, The American Black Chamber.
Entries Tagged "history of security"
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Hacking in the Movies
New Atlas has a great three-part feature on the history of hacking as portrayed in films, including video clips. The 1980s. The 1990s. The 2000s.
1944 OSS Sabotage Manual
It makes for interesting reading.
Someone noticed that parts of it read like standard modern office procedures.
EDITED TO ADD: I originally called this a CIA manual, but the CIA had not been formed yet. And, yes, I seem to have blogged this before—in 2010.
Primitive Food Crops and Security
Economists argue that the security needs of various crops are the cause of civilization size:
The argument depends on the differences between how grains and tubers are grown. Crops like wheat are harvested once or twice a year, yielding piles of small, dry grains. These can be stored for long periods of time and are easily transported or stolen.
Root crops, on the other hand, don’t store well at all. They’re heavy, full of water, and rot quickly once taken out of the ground. Yuca, for instance, grows year-round and in ancient times, people only dug it up right before it was eaten. This provided some protection against theft in ancient times. It’s hard for bandits to make off with your harvest when most of it is in the ground, instead of stockpiled in a granary somewhere.
But the fact that grains posed a security risk may have been a blessing in disguise. The economists believe that societies cultivating crops like wheat and barley may have experienced extra pressure to protect their harvests, galvanizing the creation of warrior classes and the development of complex hierarchies and taxation schemes.
Scams from the 1800s
They feel quaint today:
But in the spring of 1859, folks were concerned about another kind of hustle: A man who went by the name of A.V. Lamartine drifted from town to town in the Midwest pretending to attempt suicide.
He would walk into a hotel according to newspaper accounts from Salem, Ore., to Richmond, Va., and other places and appear depressed as he requested a room. Once settled in, he would ring a bell for assistance, and when someone arrived, Lamartine would point to an empty bottle on the table labeled “2 ounces of laudanum” and call for a clergyman.
People rushing to his bedside to help him would find a suicide note. The Good Samaritans would summon a doctor, administer emetics and nurse him as he recovered.
Somehow Lamartine knew his situation would engender medical and financial assistance from kind strangers in the 19th century. The scenarios ended this way, as one Brooklyn reporter explained: “He is restored with difficulty and sympathetic people raise a purse for him and he departs.
A 1976 Congressional Report on Surveillance
Here’s a 1,300-page Congressional report on “surveillance technology” from 1976.
10,000-Year-Old Warfare
Evidence of primitive warfare from Kenya’s Rift Valley.
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.