Clearly I’m not updating this often enough for it to qualify as an active blog.
Please check back in a year to see if the situation has changed.
Archive for the ‘Tech’ Category
Time Out
Monday, June 29th, 2009Who should set the global privacy framework?
Sunday, February 1st, 2009Microsoft, HP, eBay to weigh in on US privacy laws
This article leads with, “A group of U.S. companies, led by technology giants Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and eBay, is set to outline recommendations for new federal data-privacy legislation that could make life easier for consumers and lead to a standard federal breach-notification law.”
The key phrase here is, “…make life easier…”. I applaud the efforts of these organizations to work together to establish a common baseline. That being said the ‘amicable split’ with public interest groups like the CDT is worrisome. If privacy is a right to informational self control, then balancing it against convenience, as articulated in the market and established by a commercial consortium, may lead in the wrong direction.
Budget misses the boat.
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009This is a snapshot of the results of a Globe and Mail poll on their web site earlier today. If confidence is a factor in economic recovery, then clearly Harper needs to go back to school.
Harper budget harpoons confidence.
PMO vs whitehouse.gov
Friday, January 23rd, 2009This is just plain embarrassing. First, compare what the Prime Minister’s web site looks like to the U.S. President’s web site (screen prints below). Quite frankly, the PMO looks like a 1998 design, based on the usual “I love me” wall that you find in the offices of insecure or ego maniacal executives. OK, that last part is to be expected. What really hurts is Dave Winer’s critique of whitehouse.gov and his suggestion that it is seriously behind the times. Sigh.
Is anyone from the PMO paying attention? The person who should be listening is Kory Teneycke, Harper’s Director of Communication. His big contributions to date seem to have been a blue sweater and a rabid dog attack on Quebec and culture. Good luck with the whole web/transparency/dialogue thing!
Hundreds of Stolen Data Dumps Found – Security Fix
Friday, December 19th, 2008Hundreds of Stolen Data Dumps Found – Security Fix
According this this article, “…criminals can make hundreds, even thousands, of dollars a day selling data stolen with the help of widely available software toolkits.” Not a surprise. The blog post from the researchers, including a link to the technical report, can be found here: http://honeyblog.org/archives/9-Banking-Trojans.html
On Harper’s Economic Advisory Group
Friday, December 19th, 2008It’s Harper’s council, not Flaherty’s since Harper would not allow independent thinking or pronouncements from any of his Ministers.
This is a very ‘business oriented’ team. It seems like there is two fold thinking behind the selections. One is that this isn’t a group formed to deal with a national economic crises, but a group to address business recovery. In a situation where we may need out of the box thinking, this group defines the box. The second string to Harper’s bow is that this is a ‘bi-partisan’ group, in the sense that it looks there is involvement from Liberal and Conservative supporters. This serves the partisan purpose of deflating support for the coalition and keeping Harper in power.
In other words this is small minded thinking from a narrow thinking man.
If one were to try and predict the kind of advice that this group will come up with, a focus on big business support and tax breaks for the rich seem likely. Union busting legislation probably won’t be far behind. It could easily be a case of disaster capitalism. We have a disaster and Harper is reaching for the ideas that are on his shelf.
Oh, my poor Canada.
Major Web browsers fail password protection tests
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008Major Web browsers fail password protection tests | Zero Day | ZDNet.com
That nifty password management feature in your favorite Web browser could be helping identity thieves pilfer your personal data.
Border Biometrics: “Zero Benefit”?
Friday, December 12th, 2008Border Biometrics: “Zero Benefit”? – The Technology Liberation Front
Good summary: “We’re doing ourselves more harm than we’re preventing with border biometrics…”
Also worth noting is the comment that “terrorists are fungible”.
Criminals infiltrating Canada’s airports
Thursday, December 11th, 2008Criminals infiltrating Canada’s airports: RCMP
A national RCMP inquiry has concluded that all of Canada’s major airports have been infiltrated by organized crime.
This has to be right up there with a headline like, “Member of Overeaters Anonymous found working in food services” Geez Louise, OF COURSE organized crime is seeking to be embedded in airports – that’s the sensible place to be to bring contraband in and out. It might be easier to deal with this if we hadn’t put so much money into the essentially useless passenger screening and no-fly lists. Those exercises are political security theatre, instead of real measures.
Schneier on Security: Audit
Thursday, December 11th, 2008The following is alway worth repeating. According to Schneier on Security: Audit,
“For computerized database systems like that — systems entrusted with other people’s information — audit is a very important security mechanism. Hospitals need to keep databases of very personal health information, and doctors and nurses need to be able to access that information quickly and easily. A good audit record of who accessed what when is the best way to ensure that those trusted with our medical information don’t abuse that trust. It’s the same with IRS records, credit reports, police databases, telephone records – anything personal that someone might want to peek at during the course of his job.”