security

Bruce Schneier braindump: "Internet and Power"

Posted by Christian

The always excellent Bruce Schneier (who coined the term “security theater”) in a talk at Harvard’s Berkman Center (video and transcript). About the Internet and Power,  and technological advances that set into motion events no could can possibly predict. In his own words:

What I’ve Been Thinking About

I have been thinking about the Internet and power: how the Internet affects power, and how power affects the Internet. Increasingly, those in power are using information technology to increase their power. This has many facets, including the following:

1. Ubiquitous surveillance for both government and corporate purposes — aided by cloud computing, social networking, and Internet-enabled everything — resulting in a world without any real privacy.

2. The rise of nationalism on the Internet and a cyberwar arms race, both of which play on our fears and which are resulting in increased military involvement in our information infrastructure.

3. Ill-conceived laws and regulations on behalf of either government or corporate power, either to prop up their business models (copyright protections), enable more surveillance (increased police access to data), or control our actions in cyberspace.

4. A feudal model of security that leaves users with little control over their data or computing platforms, forcing them to trust the companies that sell the hardware, software, and systems.

On the one hand, we need new regimes of trust in the information age. (I wrote about the extensively in my most recent book,Liars and Outliers.) On the other hand, the risks associated with increasing technology might mean that the fear of catastrophic attack will make us unable to create those new regimes.

It is clear to me that we as a society are headed down a dangerous path, and that we need to make some hard choices about what sort of world we want to live in. It’s not clear if we have the social or political will to address those choices, or even have the conversations necessary to make them. But I believe we need to try.

Stop ‘Killer Robots’ Before It's Too Late

Posted by Julia Scher

Olympics 2012 security: welcome to lockdown London

Posted by Christian

The Guardian has published an analysis of the planned unprecedented security measures for the 2012 London Olympics, and the wider implications of a booming security industry.

Highlights:

“…  the London Olympics will host the biggest mobilisation of military and security forces seen in the UK since the second world war. More troops – around 13,500 – will be deployed than are currently at war in Afghanistan. “

Mind you, that’s just the military troops deployed on home turf; the number of police is kept secret!

“… Ramping up surveillance is thus now as much a part of economic policy as a response to purported threats.
The security boom is unaffected, or perhaps even fuelled, by the global crash, as wealthy and powerful elites across the world seek ever-more fortified lifestyles.”

That’s called ‘new enclosures’ for you….
The author also contextualises the often-heard theory that the security structures of airports function as a testing ground for a more widespread application:

“…the familiar security architecture of airports and international borders – checkpoints, scanners, ID cars, cordons, security zones – start to materialise in the hearts of cities. What this amounts to, in practice, is an effort to roll out the well-established architecture and surveillance of the airport to parts of the wider, open city. The “rings of steel” around the City and Docklands in London were early examples of this.”

By the way, the drawing above is a schoolboy’s rendition of Wenlock the London Olympic mascot, dressed as a police officer.

This article on gamesmonitor.org.uk, an Olympics-critical site goes on to describe how emergency measures acquired for the severest of emergencies are now routinely exercised on routine small-scale events such as union demonstrations. Using Giorgio Agamben’s definition of the ‘Ausnahmezustand’ (State of Exception) the article describes the ‘performative’ ‘unveiling’ of a new type of police cordon, and the “new enclosures” appearing in our cities which work like medieval defence structures.

“One aspect of the performativity of the ‘unveiling’ of the #Nov30 wall stands out: its timing. It marks the end of a year of unrest, in which the Met have been accused by the right in slacking in their response to the student and 26 March protests, and accused by the liberal left of slacking in their response to the riots. More importantly, it marks an authoritarian escalation ahead of a 2012 which promises more poverty, more inequality, more unemployment and more unrest: and with it, a state of exception of truly Olympian proportions.”

There’s a nice ending to that article, check it out. A good ending is so important (in an article as in artworks).

new generation Terahertz-Scanner image

Posted by Christian

 

http://www.bmbf.de/pubRD/CBRNE_Bekanntm._600x800_D_TERAcam.pdf

Official announcement of the development of portable Terhertz scanners, also known in Germany as ‘Nacktscanner’ (great word). I would love to see that image live and moving. Do we have the funds to get one of those for the KHM? Their development after all is sponsored by the German Ministry of Education. :)

P.S. I can’t for the life of me see a gun under that clothing. Can you? Is that dark rectangle supposed to look like a gun? They’re kidding.
Funny how one tends to believe something just because it’s an official announcement. You trust some words more than your eyes. There’s an old fairy tale about this: The Emperor’s New Clothes

Wikileaks targeting surveillance companies

Posted by Christian

There’s a new round of Wikileaks disclosures. Hurray! This time they are revealing internal documents from surveillance companies from around the world. If you want to know what’s possible, and where to get it from (if you have some spare change), check out http://wikileaks.org/the-spyfiles.html

As a starting point, you might want to have a look at what a local company, DigiTask, the makers of the much maligned and ridiculed Staatstrojaner (see our post from October 11) have on offer. I like the look of the WiFi interceptor! http://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/list/company-name/digitask.html

P.S. wow, this is a lot of information. Haven’t heard that term before: “Offensive Security”. Used as a euphemism for actively intruding into a system in order to insert a trojan/spyware.