Cell Phones Not Safe From Police North of the Border
If you are on the south side of the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, New York and are arrested by the Buffalo Police Department, the cops can’t search the contents of…
Expert Insights
Back to Vendor ListingsSony, Interrupted
It hasn’t been a good few weeks for Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). Their networks were taken down, employees threatened, e-mails exposed, salary and personal information disseminated. Its stars and executives have…
Posner’s Privacy Prognostications – Perpetually Peeved
At a recent computer security and privacy conference here in Washington, Judge Richard Posner made headlines when he announced that privacy was “overrated” and existed mainly for the purposes of…
From Here to Xfinity – Comcast Takes Over Your Home Router and Sells Your Internet Service
Imagine if someone hacked your home wireless router. Imagine if they then changed the settings to open up a separate channel on your router – a channel that allowed them…
Computer Crime and Punishment
Two recent cases, one in the United States and the other in Germany, point out the problem of how we determine the appropriate punishment for computer hackers. To a great extent, we both…
Worst Breach Ever; Why the Sony Breach May be the Most Significant Security Breach in US History
It all sounds like the plot of a major Hollywood blockbuster. Dave Skylark of the TV show “Skylark Tonight” and his producer Aaron Rapoport are recruited by the CIA to…
I’m From the Government, I’m Here to Help- DOJ Announces New Cyber-Security Section
The Department of Justice is establishing a new unit within the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Criminal Division designed to actually help entities prevent cybercrime, instead of…
Sen. Wyden’s Plan to Close Backdoors May Backfire
It has long been suspected that the U.S. government has consistently installed back door programs, remote access programs or other vulnerabilities in U.S. hardware, software, supply chain, telecommunications devices, and…
State Secrets
I previously wrote about the government’s use of things like Dirt Box and Stingray – technologies that allow the government to surreptitiously intercept either the contents of communications, or the…
Top 10 Tips for Credit Card Customers For Black Friday
It’s almost Black Friday, followed by Cyber Monday. The day’s consumers whip out their credit and debit cards (or just their credit and debit card numbers) and buy buy buy. But in…