Computer in Kabul holds chilling memos (Here’s the WSJ article on the contents of the al-Qaeda computers that they purchased, syndicated via MSNBC. Thanks for the link, Dan.)
There’s an AP story on the increasing trend toward crackers (really script kiddies) turning to home computers as targets. The article sort of misses the main reason why home computers have become targets – script kiddies often simply scan banks of IP addresses and hack whatever returns the result they’re looking for. Whether the computer is a home or business computer is irrelevant in those cases, any old victim will do. Ultimately, what’s going to have to change is the software industry. We need operating systems and applications that are secure out of the box, most people can’t or won’t take responsibility for securing their own computers. I think that what’s going to happen is that businesses are going to pressure Microsoft (and others) into better securing their products (even home products) out of weariness with banks of home computers being used as launch pads for attacks on business computers.
Warlords in Afghanistan continue to steal food aid as it enters the country. I have a serious question: why don’t we just ship so much food aid into Afghanistan that there’s no incentive to steal it? Rice and wheat are cheap. There are some logistical issues involved with getting bunches of it into Afghanistan, but somehow we managed to move a large amount of military assets into the area in a month or two. I would think that getting a bunch of food in there would be even easier.
A judge has ruled that the keyboard sniffer used by the federal government to snatch the password for a PGP private key was not used unconstitutionally. I’m pretty sure I’m OK with this. The FBI obtained a court order to install the device. The defense argued that they didn’t obtain a wiretap order, and use of the device constituted wiretapping. It seems to me that the fact that the judge’s order was not a wiretap order is a technicality, unless there’s some higher standard required to obtain a wiretap order than the order that was granted by the judge.
Well, they finally let Vanessa Leggett out of jail. Hopefully she’ll get a million dollar advance for her book.