Maginot Lines - Do we need a new approach in securing our secrets
In a recent post on Wired magazine , John Arquilla, professor of defense analysis at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School gives his view on how Obama, Mr. President-Elect might make a difference in securing information. The idea is that the traditional ways of safeguarding information from unauthorized access no longer work. These protective measures typically consist of firewalls, anti-virus solutions, intrusion detection, etc. A bit like how the French Minister of Defense tried to fend of the Germans during WW I with artillery, machine gun posts, tank obstacles, etc.. While that did not quite work for the French back then, today a similar approach in Cyber security is quite ineffective too, since a determined individual always seems to find a way around those security measures. So what other option do we have? Well, according to Mr. Arquilla, we could consider dropping our defense lines and instead start using strong encryption all the time. This way we also open up the door to storing more and more of our information in the ‘cloud’ of cyberspace. Mr. Arquilla is not the first one to highlight this option and he won’t be the last. Fact is that a lot of hurdles need to be taken, before we can actually get rid of our current Maginot lines. Hurdles such as technology and regulation in general and privacy in specific. Our new president will have a lot on his plate.
Helpful Security Tips for Your E-mail
There are many things you can do to protect your email outside of having a strong password and good anti-spam service. The people at techrepublic.com have come up with a list of 5 measures you can take to make your e-email experience a bit more comfortable.
Many times it is not the bad guy that breaks his way in. Sometimes we just forget to do the simple things like replying to the whole mailing list instead of the one desired recipient that trumps even the strongest security measures. We have to remember that no matter how enhanced our software is and no matter how complex our encryptions are, in the end it is us, the end-users, that control the information we send out to the world.
Google tells the CDC if you’ve got a cold
We’ve known for quite some time that Google retains your search data and IP address for up to 18 months. Here is the latest example of how that data can be manipulated.
“Google’s new public health initiative, Google Flu Trends, looks at the relative popularity of a slew of flu-related search terms to determine where in the U.S. flu outbreaks may be occurring.
“What’s exciting about Flu Trends is that it lets anybody — epidemiologists, health officials, moms with sick children — learn about the current flu activity level in their own state based on data that’s coming in this week,” said Jeremy Ginsberg, the lead engineer who developed the site.
The tool, which launched Tuesday, operates on the idea that there’s likely to be a flu outbreak in states where flu-related search terms are currently popular.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collaborated with Google on the project, helping validate and refine the model, and has provided flu tracking data over a five-year period, said Dr. Joseph Bresee, chief of the epidemiology and prevention branch in the CDC’s influenza division.”
What seems quite the novel idea, to me means yet another example of Google taking advantage of your search data they collect in their databases to improve their moneymakers adsense and adwords. This collaboration is mutually beneficial in a sense that with the CDC’s help Google can now fine tune their ad model to truly understand if the search for a Flu term is by someone whos in a Flu zone therefor more likely to be in need of Flu related products which of course will be prominently displayed alongside your search results. And of course, with this CDC collaboration, the search results will be more accurate therefore those keywords will come at a higher premium.
Dont be fooled by the .org domain, Google is in this for the money and they are using your private data to make their business more efficient.
How Google compromises your privacy
Consumer Watchdog Exposes Google Privacy Problems & Calls for Attorneys General Investigation
A Soft Spot in JotSpot
