air force one and the state of communication

If a planned, communicated flyover takes everyone by surprise and causes this much of a problem, I have to imagine that the issues that exacerbated the 9/11 attacks haven't been adequately addressed. The Washington Post reports that the White House military director Luis Caldera authorized the flight, and that he claims he communicated the decision and plans to New York and New Jersey officials. Sounds like our interagency communication processes are still underdeveloped.

why privacy matters

http://www.newsweek.com/id/195073/page/1

a story about a california family that is being harassed after their daughters death, a clear case of why we need some control over privacy and electronic information distribution.

ipod touch and the military

This isn't surprising, the uses of the new touch interface, always on capability, extensibility and form factor are just beginning. Also, check out these crazy MIT kids:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html


"Newsweek has an article about the latest weapons in the US military's arsenal. The iPod Touch and the iPhone are being adapted as general purpose handhelds for soldiers in the field. 'Apple gadgets are proving to be surprisingly versatile. Software developers and the US Department of Defense are developing military software for iPods that enables soldiers to display aerial video from drones and have teleconferences with intelligence agents halfway across the globe. Snipers in Iraq and Afghanistan now use a "ballistics calculator" called BulletFlight, made by the Florida firm Knight's Armament for the iPod Touch and iPhone. Army researchers are developing applications to turn an iPod into a remote control for a bomb-disposal robot (tilting the iPod steers the robot). In Sudan, American military observers are using iPods to learn the appropriate etiquette for interacting with tribal leaders.'"

fighter jet project break-in

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124027491029837401.html

the network is the computer, and with hundreds of contractors spread all over the world working on a project, the chances of crossing an exploit with a vulnerability increases exponentially. Each contractor may not have access to all of the critical data, but enough pieces of peripheral information would allow an attacker to create a decent signature, or to create an outline of what isn't available and infer the details based on the data they have obtained.

Satellite Hijacking

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2009/04/fleetcom

Brazilian's hijack a US navy satellite, and continue to do so, to use as a "cb radio" network. IN ACM there is an article about the bottom billion, East India and Sub-Saharan Africa and the community use of technology, including cell phones. The technology use rate is doubling each year, and access to easily hacked infrastructure may help fuel this growth. Satellites are programmed to do very little - receive commands to change location. Power for a satellite is limited, so the security mechanisms in place to protect the command and control functions have historically been less than robust, making this kind of story more common until we figure out a way to improve satellite authentication mechanisms

Cell Site Location Information (CSLI) Protected by the Fourth Amendment?

In a case pending before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the government maintains it can require federal judges to order mobile phone companies to release historical cell-tower information of a phone number without probable cause — the standard required for a search warrant.

Cell companies keep this data for up to 18 months, and your phone typically checks in every 7 minutes.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/04/scholars-reject.html

This goes against precedent:
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/09/11

9/11/2008 the Federal Court in the western district of Pennsylvania upheld a magistrate's decision to require a warrant for these records. We'll see how this one plays out