National ID and RFID Passports

There has been lots of concern about the whole National ID (RealID) and RFID Passports (and even making Driver's Licenses RFID...)
Part of the concern is over privacy. Do we really know what data is contained in the micro-chip that is being scanned.
The other part is security. Who can read these RFID chips and where/when can they be read.

The bad news is, once you have one of these chips with all your data on them, you are toast. Anyone willing to spend $250 at radio-shack can build a reader that can scan your passport/national id/driver's license/credit card from over 30 feet away. With stolen IDs going for $60 to $3000 a piece (depending on who much info they get), it wouldn't take long to pay off that investment.

We usually look to other countries to get ideas and to try technologies...lets look at Britain: They cannot even read their own RFID...

Exclusive: ID cards are here - but police can't read them

And their system cost approx $7 BILLION to implement...
Should we follow that example? Especially in light of a $250 criminal making million off stolen identities, who can read your data when the Government cannot?
Sounds like a failing strategy to me...(so the Government will prolly try to do it "at all costs"...seems to be the way of things.)

Passport RFIDs cloned wholesale by $250 eBay auction spree

Hackers clone passports in drive-by RFID heist

Cloning passport card RFIDs in bulk for under $250

Then, when someone does "blow the wistle" on the stupid problems, security holes, or other issues, they get GAGGED...or they get stranded in a foreign country and on a black list...

RFID maker gags security researcher

"Privacy Baseline" For European EID Cards

MasterCard says millions no-touch cards to be issued

Mon Sep 19, 2005 1:07 PM ET
By James B. Kelleher

MEMPHIS, Sept 19 (Reuters) - A top executive with Mastercard Inc. (MA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday the company, the world's No. 2 credit-card association, expected to have 4 million so-called "pay pass" cards in circulation by year's end.

Speaking at an industry conference here, Ruth Ann Marshall, Americas president for MasterCard, said that Citibank, HSBC and Key Bank had all begun offering the cards, which are equipped with a radio-frequency chip that allows customers to pay for purchases by simply waving their cards at readers posted near cash registers or gas pumps.

Marshall said the pay-pass cards were "easier to use than cash" and were one of the products MasterCard was counting on to increase revenue and profits as it faces a variety of challenges in the marketplace, including new rivals and regulatory scrutiny.

...

(This Excerpt is provided for informational, educational, and discussion purposes only. It is Copyright "Reuters", for the full article search Reuters' web site or Google with the title of this article)

SO, a question here...
What would prevent a person from setting up a "shop" in a mall or something, modifying the antenna on the reader, and racking up "charges" from his "legitimate" terminal, and then disappearing with all that money?

Criminals to 'adapt to ID cards'

By Jonathan Amos
BBC News science reporter, Dublin

ID cards promise a more secure form of technology

The UK government's proposed ID scheme will do little to stop identity theft and may actually exacerbate fraudulent behaviour in its early years.

That is the view of researcher Dr Emily Finch who interviews career criminals about their activities.

She has detailed how they adapt their strategies to get around new anti-crime technologies such as chip and pin.

Dr Finch will tell a Dublin conference that these criminals will be undaunted by the prospect of identity cards.

...

(This Excerpt is provided for informational, educational, and discussion purposes only. It is Copyright "BBC News", for the full article search CBBC News' web site or Google with the title of this article)

The Dangers of Windows

I wrote earlier about how Linux is better than Windows, and how the USA is loosing the Cyber War. Today, I will be telling another story about Windows and how you SHOULD be running Linux.
Most people run Windows and they run Windows in Admin mode, i.e. all the users have Admin Privileges because there is no way to easily access Admin Privileges for installing programs. In other words, the security model in Windows is flawed.
According to these articles, more than 90% of all security issues in Windows are caused by the user having Administrative Privileges...

UAC Vulnerability Found in Windows Vista

This one claims that you can prevent most of these security issues by downgrading your access level...but then, you cannot install many simple and daily programs, without considerable trouble.

Removing admin rights stymies 92% of Microsoft's bugs

However, with people getting more creative with their mall/spy/ad-ware, you should worry about security on your computer systems. 99.99% of all mall/spy/ad-ware was written to a Windows system, knowing that the users normally run in Administrator mode.

Malware infection that began with windshield fliers

It is also interesting to note that Microsoft makes it easy for mall/spy/ad-ware to get into your machine. Access points in the Browser (Browser Helper Objects) and Browser Markup Languages like DHTML allow easy access to your computer for Pop-Ups and unwanted programs.

Geek tech: Why your pop-up blocker doesn't work as well as it used to

Many of these new viruses aren't even in your Anti-Virus detectors yet, so they can do their damage long before a cure is available.

Why do I go through all this? To let you know that there is a solution. Move over to Linux. Use something like Ubuntu or Kubuntu, even Fedora...all these problems go away.
First off, it is nearly impossible to write a virus that will affect ALL Linux systems. Secondly, in order for a virus to work in Linux, it would have to have Admin (root) privileges and this is unlikely because YOU don't have Admin privileges, neither does your browser.
Thirdly, you have easy access to Admin privileges, so you can work with your machine without all the hassle.

Your machine is secure, your data secure, your problems with mall/spy/ad-ware solved.

Now we just have to get rid of DHTML and those annoying pop-ups...

Who is Really in Charge Here?

I think I have said it about a million times...The People are the ones in Charge of the Government...or so it should be.
Now Obama is telling Congress to "get behind him" and to "support his plan"...THAT IS NOT THE JOB OF CONGRESS...
Congress' job is to SUPPORT WHAT IS BEST FOR THE PEOPLE - PERIOD!
I really don't know what is next, but it sounded like a threat to me...so is Obama going to threaten Congress till he gets his way, regardless on if it is really the best thing for The People and our economy and our country?

I urge Congress to DO THE RIGHT THING...Don't be bullied by the President. If the stimulus (in its current form, or at all) is NOT the Right Thing for this People, this Country, then VOTE AGAINST IT. Fix it, Get something better, or ... But don't let the President force something through that is simply BAD or WON'T WORK...

Obama warns of catastrophe if stimulus delayed

Was there ever a question that the Bail-Out money would be abused?

The whole idea of "bail-out" for banks and other businesses is just ludicrous in the first place, but when the Government is Giving Out FREE MONEY, well, it is like the line at Denny's today, where people are getting their Free Grand Slam breakfasts...
They didn't even put restrictions or requirements on that Bail-Out money, for the most part - at least not until the second round of hand-outs...so they (the Banks) keep spending and doing "business as usual", which is what got us all into this trouble in the first place.
CEOs are still getting incredible salaries and bonuses...bonuses for driving their companies into the ground (and taking the economy with them)...
So I read the following article where Wells Fargo is spending part of that Bail-Out money, NOT on bailing out their financial troubles (because I guess they don't have any financial troubles...so why did they need the bail-out money???) but instead they are going out and partying on our tax money...
12 nights at the Wynn and Encore hotels in Las Vegas.
They claim it is "tradition" and that it is important. Well, hell, it is tradition that I take my family on a vacation every summer...but with the economy the way it is, I need a bail-out so I can still take my family out...
Why are we OK with this?
Why does the average joe have to tighten his belt and forgo many of the things he wants or needs just to make ends meet...but when it comes to business (the businesses that helped create this credit crisis and financial turmoil) can still spend like its not their money (oh wait...it isn't their money...its OUR money...)???
Wells Fargo has also spend large amounts of money on:
Horseback riding in Puerto Rico
A private Jimmy Buffet performance in the Bahamas
and at the end of the month, they will be at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas.

I want my FREE RIDE, I want my 25 billion in bail out money...I want my 12 FREE - TAX PAYER PAID nights in Las Vegas...

Bailed-out banking giant plans Vegas casino junkets

"Did Everything Right"

I hate this phrase...
I saw on the news the other week that a guy defended his home and family with a firearm during an attempted home invasion.
The officer they interviewed said that "we certainly don't recommend standing up to an armed robber, but the home-owner didn't do anything wrong"...
I wanted to scream.
This is the same kind of phrase they use any time a "good guy" stands up to a "bad guy". "We don't recommend it"...
What they do recommend is that you comply with the bad guy's wishes. As if somehow acquiescing to the demands of a bad guy is going to make it all right.
Recently, a story in the news told about a home invader who flashes a gun and steals a purse. The officer says "They did everything right and complied"...
What if the bad guy wanted to rape her or her teen daughter, should she have complied? Would that have made the home invasion better? Better for whom?
Then the officer shows just how out of touch he is with reality when he says, "(It) certainly scared the kids and the victim." Um, if it scared the kids, THEY ARE ALSO VICTIMS...

In my world, if a home invader comes into my home and flashes a gun, he gets two rounds in center mass and I call an ambulance...
I would then like to hear the police say, "He did everything right"...but you just know that won't happen. All legal indicators are that the Police are NOT responsible for YOUR PERSONAL safety...but for the safety of society as a whole, so why do they continue to tell people that it is ok to be victimized and just call 911?
It is, after all, MY responsibility to provide for my own self protection. When seconds count, the police are only minutes away!

Man arrested following home invasion robbery

Unemployment Grows, so does the Government

As unemployment rises, Uncle Sam has jobs

Now this is really a scary thing. Totalitarianism is the interference of the Government in our day to day lives. Socialism is just RIGHT of Totalitarianism. This means that as we get poorer and as the jobs become more scarce, we become more dependent on the Government's social programs and jobs. Which means that we move further into Totalitarianism.
TO follow in this reconstruction of our way of life will be items like:
Curfew, mandatory work hours (minimums), regulated and flattened pay scales, special privileges for government workers, government buy-outs of "in trouble" businesses, further regulation of every industry...etc

Welcome to the slippery slope...