The prankster decides to unwittingly enlist his cat in the fun. The cat has a subdermal pet ID tag, which the attacker rewrites with a virus using commercially available equipment. He then goes to a veterinarian (or the ASPCA), claims it is stray cat and asks for a cat scan. Bingo! The database is infected. Since the vet (or ASPCA) uses this database when creating tags for newly-tagged animals, these new tags can also be infected. When they are later scanned for whatever reason, that database is infected, and so on. Unlike a biological virus, which jumps from animal to animal, an RFID virus spread this way jumps from animal to database to animal.

I ignored this article this morning but its actually pretty cool. SQL injection, CSS, and buffer overflows from data stored in RFIDs is a vector that few people have really looked at. I wonder if the new U.S. Passports are vulnerable?

RFID Viruses: Is your cat infected with a computer virus?

This early version of the Matrix accommodated two people, both of whom suspected there was something wrong.

Making fun of old computer ads.

LILEKS (James) :: Institute :: Compu-Promo

Though much has been written about the Civil War itself, little has been written about the spy war that went on within.

Each side still used age-old intelligence techniques, such as code-breaking, deception, and covert surveillance. However, into this modern war came two innovations that would endure as tools of espionage: wiretapping and overhead reconnaissance.

What follows is a look at some of the highlights of how the North and the South gathered and used their information, the important missions, and the personalities. From this special view, the focus is not on the battlefield, but on a battle of wits.

Intelligence in the Civil War

Amazon Web Service is launching a new web service tonight called S3 - which stands for “Simple Storage Service”. It is a storage service backend for developers that offers “a highly scalable, reliable, and low-latency data storage infrastructure at very low costs”.

They’ve built the back end for the number one requested company that I wrote about late last year - reliable and cheap online storage. I’ve been watching this space very closely, even profiling a number of new entrants, and I have to say that S3 changes the game entirely. Move over Google Drive, Amazon just stole your thunder (for now).

TechCrunch » Amazon: Grid Storage Web Service Launches

I'm glad that Vint Cerf took the time to answer these questions and I'm glad that he chose to answer some of mine, but I find myself pretty unsatisfied with some of the answers he offered. This is all defensive of the status quo. The answers don't acknowledge problems and don't provide information about the future. I think an ICANN public relations person would have provided similar answers.

Q15: Does ICANN view the bulk domain monetization business as a legitimate activity that contributes constructively to the Internet as a communications tool?—by Tom Cross

Vint Cerf: As an engineer, I must admit that this particular “business” has been a surprise for me. However, it seems to fit within the present framework allowed by domain name operation. Advertising seems to be the primary driver here and it is argued by interested parties that advertising is an important form of commercial communication and therefore qualifies as a constructive Internet application.

I think this is insane. The exact same thing could be said about spam. This next one is similarly frustrating.

Q10: Why can’t Domain Name Holders automatically request anonymity without having to pay their Registrar, which really does NOT cost those Registrars anything extra?—by Search Engines Web

Vint Cerf: While I cannot speak for any Registrar (not being conversant with all their costs), there is always some cost associated with doing anything special. There is a tension between the desire for open WHOIS information and the desire of some registrants to be anonymous. That tension has yet to be satisfactorily resolved in policy discussions especially in the GNSO. One of the proposals has been to implement tiered access to WHOIS information, possibly by adopting a new technical substructure for implementing the system. Until that happens, registrars that are offering some form of anonymity apparently do so by adding procedures to the normal registration and apparently adding to cost.

No one had to do anything special until ICANN made accurate DNS WHOIS the law. All of the additional procedures that registrars have to follow to allow for identity protection are a direct and obvious product of ICANN policy. If ICANN hadn't stuck its nose in, people wouldn't have to pay more money to protect their identities, and people could still subpoena registrant contact information just like they do now.

Answers from Vint Cerf: The Road Ahead for Top-Level Domains

Leet.

Google Mars

"Whitedust is running a very interesting article with the DEF CON speaker and cryptographer Elonka Dunin. The article covers her career and specifically her involvement with the CIA and other US Military agencies."

Slashdot | Interview With Cryptographer Elonka Dunin

March 14: 1st Amendment Program Information Control: How Government Wants to Keep Secrets but Force Reporters to Disclose Sources.

Speakers are Peter Canfield and Tom Clyde. Peter C. Canfield is a senior partner at Dow, Lohnes & Albertson and has long been at the center of efforts to advance openness in government and press freedoms. Thomas M. Clyde, also a partner at Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, is the author of Tapping Officials' Secrets: The Door to Open Government in Georgia.

I don't have time for this but if you go please post a report to MemeStreams.

Talk on Secrets and Sources tonight at GaTech

Michiko Kakutani calls Fukuyama's new book "tough-minded and edifying."

In "America at the Crossroads," Mr. Fukuyama questions the assertion made by the prominent neoconservatives Mr. Kristol and Robert Kagan in their 2000 book "Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy" that other nations "find they have less to fear" from the daunting power of the United States because "American foreign policy is infused with an unusually high degree of morality." The problem with this doctrine of "benevolent hegemony," Mr. Fukuyama points out, is that "it is not sufficient that Americans believe in their own good intentions; non-Americans must be convinced of them as well."

That's where the General Memetics Corporation comes into the picture.

Fukuyama writes:

"Bureaucratic tribalism exists in all administrations, but it rose to poisonous levels in Bush's first term. Team loyalty trumped open-minded discussion, and was directly responsible for the administration's failure to plan adequately for the period after the end of active combat."

NYT Review of 'America at the Crossroads,' by Francis Fukuyama

CTRL ALT DELETE your TV and watch the IT Crowd online!

I saw some of this at Interz0ne and it is absolutely hillarious. If you have ever wondered what would happen if the guys from Monty Python started hanging out at 2600 meetings this is probably it...

Channel4.com - IT Crowd