Category: fear

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Airline Passenger Mistakes Vintage Camera for a Bomb

Posted on By infossl
fear, Security technology, security theater, terrorism, Uncategorized, war on the unexpected

I feel sorry for the accused: The “security incident” that forced a New-York bound flight to make an emergency landing at LaGuardia Airport on Saturday turned out to be a misunderstanding — after an airline passenger mistook another traveler’s camera for a bomb, sources said Sunday. American Airlines Flight 4817 from Indianapolis — operated by … Read More “Airline Passenger Mistakes Vintage Camera for a Bomb” »

Security and Human Behavior (SHB) 2021

Posted on By infossl
conferences, fear, privacy, risks, security conferences, Security technology, Uncategorized

Today is the second day of the fourteenth Workshop on Security and Human Behavior. The University of Cambridge is the host, but we’re all on Zoom. SHB is a small, annual, invitational workshop of people studying various aspects of the human side of security, organized each year by Alessandro Acquisti, Ross Anderson, and myself. The … Read More “Security and Human Behavior (SHB) 2021” »

Scaring People into Supporting Backdoors

Posted on By infossl
childpornography, crime, cryptowars, eavesdropping, encryption, fear, lawenforcement, nationalsecuritypolicy, Security technology

Back in 1998, Tim May warned us of the “Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse”: “terrorists, pedophiles, drug dealers, and money launderers.” I tended to cast it slightly differently. This is me from 2005: Beware the Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse: terrorists, drug dealers, kidnappers, and child pornographers. Seems like you can scare any public … Read More “Scaring People into Supporting Backdoors” »

Can Everybody Read the US Terrorist Watch List?

Posted on By infossl
airtravel, fear, Security technology, terrorism, watchlists

After years of claiming that the Terrorist Screening Database is kept secret within the government, we have now learned that the DHS shares it “with more than 1,400 private entities, including hospitals and universities….” Critics say that the watchlist is wildly overbroad and mismanaged, and that large numbers of people wrongly included on the list … Read More “Can Everybody Read the US Terrorist Watch List?” »

What Happened to Cyber 9/11?

Posted on By infossl
bombs, cyberattack, cyberterrorism, fear, riskassessment, Security technology, terrorism

A recent article in the Atlantic asks why we haven’t seen a”cyber 9/11″ in the past fifteen or so years. (I, too, remember the increasingly frantic and fearful warnings of a “cyber Peal Harbor,” “cyber Katrina” — when that was a thing — or “cyber 9/11.” I made fun of those warnings back then.) The … Read More “What Happened to Cyber 9/11?” »

Subway Elevators and Movie-Plot Threats

Posted on By infossl
fear, movieplotthreats, Security technology, terrorism, transportation

Local residents are opposing adding an elevator to a subway station because terrorists might use it to detonate a bomb. No, really. There’s no actual threat analysis, only fear: “The idea that people can then ride in on the subway with a bomb or whatever and come straight up in an elevator is awful to … Read More “Subway Elevators and Movie-Plot Threats” »

Daniel Miessler on My Writings about IoT Security

Posted on By infossl
books, fear, internetofthings, Security technology, securityengineering

Daniel Miessler criticizes my writings about IoT security: I know it’s super cool to scream about how IoT is insecure, how it’s dumb to hook up everyday objects like houses and cars and locks to the internet, how bad things can get, and I know it’s fun to be invited to talk about how everything … Read More “Daniel Miessler on My Writings about IoT Security” »

My Priorities for the Next Four Years

Posted on By infossl
backdoors, encryption, fear, nationalsecuritypolicy, privacy, Security technology, voting

Like many, I was surprised and shocked by the election of Donald Trump as president. I believe his ideas, temperament, and inexperience represent a grave threat to our country and world. Suddenly, all the things I had planned to work on seemed trivial in comparison. Although Internet security and privacy are not the most important … Read More “My Priorities for the Next Four Years” »

The Risk of Unfounded Ebola Fears

Posted on By infossl
fear, medicine, Security technology

Good essay. Worry about Ebola (or anything) manifests physically as what’s known as a fight, flight, or freeze response. Biological systems ramp up or down to focus the body’s resources on the threat at hand. Heart rate and blood pressure increase, immune function is suppressed (after an initial burst), brain chemistry changes, and the normal … Read More “The Risk of Unfounded Ebola Fears” »