The FBI maintains a list of people who are basically not allowed to fly. There have been complaints that this list is politically motivated. Thus far, most of the people that I've seen complaining about being on this list actually ARE commiting serious crimes for political purposes. Whether or not its reasonable to be afraid of flying with someone who is burning university research farms because they oppose genetic engineering is certainly questionable, but the people in question are far from innocent. Either way, I agree with the ACLU that such a list should be a matter of public scrutiny, and there should be clear public guidelines on what it takes to get on the list. The potential for abuse is extremely high. I don't execpt that anyone on this site has been barred from flight, but its a reasonable idea to keep a note of this link in the back of your mind in case you run into someone who is.

ACLU of Washington Take Action [No Fly List Complaint Form]

A short snip about Schneier's new book. This is how hackers can help prevent a police state. Thinking critically about security mechanisms that control but don't secure. For example, at Defcon, John Q. Newman, an expert on identity fraud, made a very interesting case that "national ID cards" were really LESS SECURE then the existing system. They merely serve the purpose of database centralization. If there is only one card to forge, then all of the resources in the forgery community get aimed at that card, and it falls no matter how strong it is. If there are many cards to forge, resources are spread out and forgeries aren't as good. Canada is learning this the hard way with their new national birth certificate. Lets not make the same mistake.

Counterpane: Crypto-Gram: November 15, 2002

1984 is here. The new Cyberspace Security Enhancement Act (CSEA) rider on the Homeland Security Act (HSA) brings a $200 million dollar budget to create an automated J. Edgar Hoover sans the sexual peccadillos.

If I were you I would contact my Senators and Representatives today.

You Are a Suspect

w1ld wrote:
] ] "
] ] WASHINGTON--A last-minute addition to a proposal for a
] ] Department of Homeland Security bill would punish
] ] malicious computer hackers with life in prison.
] ]
] ] The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday evening
] ] voted 299 to 121 to approve the bill, which would reshape
] ] large portions of the federal bureaucracy into new a
] ] department combining parts of 22 existing federal
] ] agencies, including the Secret Service, the Coast Guard,
] ] and the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center."
]
]
] This better not even make it to a vote.

The U.S. Congress is clearly made up of ignorant luddites.

RE: Proposed bill could jail hackers for life - Tech News - CNET.com

] 'COINTELPRO is an acronym for the FBI's domestic
] "counterintelligence programs" to neutralize political
] dissidents. Although covert operations have been employed
] throughout FBI history, the formal COINTELPRO's of
] 1956-1971 were broadly targeted against radical political
] organizations.
]
] The origins of COINTELPRO were rooted in the Bureau's
] operations against hostile foreign intelligence services.
] Counterintelligence, of course, goes beyond
] investigation; it refers to actions taken to neutralize
] enemy agents.
]
] "Counterintelligence" was a misnomer for the FBI
] programs, since the targets were American political
] dissidents, not foreign spies. In the atmosphere of the
] Cold War, the American Communist Party was viewed as a
] serious threat to our national security. Over the years,
] anti- Communist paranoia extended to civil rights,
] anti-war, and many other groups. As John Edgar Hoover,
] longtime Director of the FBI, put it
]
] The forces which are most anxious to weaken our internal
] security are not always easy to identify. Communists
] have been trained in deceit and secretly work toward the
] day when they hope to replace our American way of life
] with a Communist dictatorship. They utilize cleverly
] camouflaged movements, such as peace groups and civil
] rights groups to achieve their sinister purposes. While
] they as individuals are difficult to identify, the
] Communist party line is clear. Its first concern is the
] advancement of Soviet Russia and the godless Communist
] cause. It is important to learn to know the enemies of
] the American way of life.
]
] Although today this may sound ridiculous, the
] implications were deadly serious for the thousands of
] people who became COINTELPRO targets. After many years of
] investigating and disrupting these groups, the Bureau
] could not find evidence that any of them were
] foreign-controlled.
]
] These programs were exposed to the public following an
] unsolved break-in into the FBI's Media, PA resident
] agency, separate lawsuits by NBC correspondent Carl Stern
] and the Socialist Workers' Party, and then a US Senate
] investigation led by Senator Frank Church. Although the
] FBI's COINTELPRO's officially ended in 1971, there have
] been many examples of counterintelligence-type operations
] against political dissidents since.'

If you are not familiar with the counter intelligence programs that were put in place to monitor dissidents, then you should be. Especially considering the current atmosphere. There is history here that tells an ominous story about what people in power tend to do when left unchecked by the populace. The PATRIOT Act is potentially only the beginning of some very bad juju.

COINTELPRO

C&W is going to put the hammer down on a lot of their datacenters and whack at least 3500 people.

Oh, BTW, the economy is recovering. No. Really!

C&W to shutter IDCs and fire staff

Rad. A plugin to ntop that is a NetFlow collector and analyzer. That rocks.

nProbe (ntop plug-in)

Want to get me something for Xmas? There are 25+ items in my Amazon wish list.

Yes, and there is something for everyone. Even if you don't agree with my politics you'll still find something here that you like and want me to read! Health, Politics, Sci-Fi, it's all there.

Amazon.com: Randy's Wish List

Decius wrote:
] Yesterday, five major studios — Universal, Paramount, Sony,
] Warner Bros., and MGM — unveiled Movielink, a joint venture
] that, for the first time, allows customers to download a large
] assortment of studio films. Movielink’s initial library
] contains about 175 movies — new and old, from Jimmy Neutron to
] Last Tango in Paris. They range in price from $1.99 to $4.99
] for a 24-hour rental. It’s a cool service, attractively
] priced. It’s also going to be a flop on the order of The
] Adventures of Pluto Nash.

What I think is missing here is the understanding that content has minimal value once in the public domain and that digital technologies provide a way to make perfect copies.

All of these outlets need to be offering services with the content being attraction into the other services.

I'm talking about content as Loss Leader!

RE: The next big Internet flop

Moon Pie wrote:
] Gee, the CIA sold drugs in black neigborhoods to fund the war
] in Nicaragua? Who'da thunk it?
] --AND--the origin of crack in the Bay Area in 1974. Home
] grown, baby!

An absolute must read!

RE: Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the Crack Explosion