We recently learned that Russian state actors may have been responsible for the DNC emails recently leaked to Wikileaks. Earlier this spring, once they became aware of the hack, the DNC hired Crowdstrike, an incident response firm. The New York Times reports: Preliminary conclusions were discussed last week at a weekly cyberintelligence meeting for senior officials. […]
On distracted driving and required phone searches
April 15, 2016 by
A recent Arstechnica article discussed several U.S. states that are considering adding a “roadside textalyzer” that operates analogously to roadside Breathalyzer tests. In the same way that alcohol and drugs can impair a driver’s ability to navigate the road, so can paying attention to your phone rather than the world beyond. Many states “require” drivers to consent […]
An analogy to understand the FBI's request of Apple
February 22, 2016 by
After my previous blog post about the FBI, Apple, and the San Bernadino iPhone, I’ve been reading many other bloggers and news articles on the topic. What seems to be missing is a decent analogy to explain the unusual nature of the FBI’s demand and the importance of Apple’s stance in opposition to it. Before I dive […]
Apple, the FBI, and the San Bernadino iPhone
February 17, 2016 by
Apple just posted a remarkable “customer letter” on its web site. To understand it, let’s take a few steps back. In a nutshell, one of the San Bernadino shooters had an iPhone. The FBI wants to root through it as part of their investigation, but they can’t do this effectively because of Apple’s security features. […]
On compromising app developers to go after their users
March 12, 2015 by
In a recent article by Scahill and Begley, we learned that the CIA is interested in targeting Apple products. I largely agree with the quote from Steve Bellovin, that “spies gonna spy”, so of course they’re interested in targeting the platform that rides in the pockets of many of their intelligence collection targets. What could […]
