Author: Christopher Parsons

Policy wonk. Torontonian. Photographer. Not necessarily in that order.

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Quotations

2012.4.24

It is important to note that the SDC approach did not attempt to solve its programmer personnel problem by reducing the number of programmers it required. On the contrary, the SDC software factory strategy (or as detractors dismissively referred to it, the “Mongolian Horde” approach to software development) probably demanded more programmers than was otherwise necessary. But the programmers that SDC was interested in were not the idiosyncratic “black artists” that most employers were desperately in search of. SDC still expected to hire and train large numbers of programmers, yet it hoped that these programmers would be much easier to identify and recruit. Most of its trainees had little or no experience with computers; in fact, many managers at SDC preferred it that way.

Nathan Ensmenger, The Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise
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Quotations

2012.4.23

In one inquiry it was found that a successful team of computer specialists included an ex-farmer, a former tabulating machine operator, an ex-key punch operator, a girl who had done secretarial work, a musician and a graduate in mathematics. That last was considered the least competent.

Hans Albert Rhee, Office Automation in a Social Perspective, 1968
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Links Writing

The Problems of Domestic Labelling

While not related strictly to technology, Forbes has a good breakdown of why Kobe beef that is sold outside of Japan is (effectively) never the famed Kobe beef that myths are written about. It’s a good, direct, blunt piece. The kind of journalism I think we can, and want to, all support.

It (re)raises important questions that implicate technology. Wireless technologies are sometimes called “4G” but this is only true under revised ITU regulations. Originally 4G technologies were meant to be transformative – they referred predominantly to LTE and beyond – but this was revised in 2010 to refer to “3G technologies substantially better in performance and capability than earlier 3G technologies.”

Similar legal issues arise around the definition of public domain: with different international bodies possessing different copyright terms, the variance could lead to jurisdictional disputes around what is(n’t) public domain. Such disputes may lead to the removal of content if it happens to be stored or accessible in nations with the more onerous copyright terms.

These are just two areas where ‘labelling’ is important. In all three cases – beef, wireless speeds, and copyright – it’s legal terms that enable variable terminology associated with common goods. For consumers in a globalized world, who are often unable to spend the time to track down the ‘truth’ behind the labels, such labels can be incredibly confusing. We can do better, and we should do better, and find a means of rectifying confusions that arise from domestic labelling.

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Links

Social and Economic Threats to the Internet’s Infrastructure

Bruce Schneier, talking about the social and economic threats to the Internet’s infrastructure

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Links

Cybersecurity and the Ex-Technical Director of NSA’s IAD

Brian Snow, the (now) ex Technical Director of the NSA’s Information Assurance Directorate, speaking on Cybersecurity. Actual talk begins at 2:10.

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Aside

Grope & Pillage

Visualizing TSA costs and ‘benefits’ since 9/11

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Links Writing

An Interesting USB-Drive Encryption System

A group of my colleagues and I are always on the hunt for affordable, easy-to-use,  secure drive encryption tools that can be deployed to non-technically savvy individuals. The most recent piece of software we’ve come across is LaCie’s Public-Private encryption which, as far as I can tell, is a pretty front-end for TrueCrypt.

I’ve reached out to the company in the hopes of learning what, if anything, they’ve done in making TrueCrypt a tiny bit easier for people to use. TrueCrypt is one of the more secure means of protecting data. LaCie’s software itself is free – available here – and runs on any USB drive, so you can use the software without having to purchase anything from the company. The only deficit that I’ve come across thus far is that you can only create 4GB partitions; this means that if you want to encrypt everything on an 8GB drive then you’ll need to establish two separate partitions.

I’ll be updating this site once/if I hear back from the company.

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Links

US Government’s Harassment Made Visible

When your government behaves in such a way that innocent citizens are forced to act as a spies to keep safe, then it’s evident that something has gone terribly awry. Laura Poitras, an American citizen and journalist, now lives like a spy: under the constant pressure of potential government harassment and surveillance of herself, her sources, and anyone that is particularly close to her.

Her crime? Being an award winning filmmaker who has produced films addressing the negative impacts of American imperialism abroad.

Glenn Greenwald has a terrific piece that unpacks what it means to be a prominent journalist, activist, or simple government contrarian who is willing to take entirely legal actions against the American state. Actions like speaking up or otherwise exercising basic civil rights. I won’t lie: it’s a long piece, probably not something you can skim in 2-3 minutes. But if you only read one thing that holds your attention for 10-15 minutes today, go read Glenn’s piece. It’s eye opening.

As a teaser:

In many instances, DHS agents also detain and interrogate her in the foreign airport before her return, on one trip telling her that she would be barred from boarding her flight back home, only to let her board at the last minute. When she arrived at JFK Airport on Thanksgiving weekend of 2010, she was told by one DHS agent — after she asserted her privileges as a journalist to refuse to answer questions about the individuals with whom she met on her trip — that he “finds it very suspicious that you’re not willing to help your country by answering our questions.” They sometimes keep her detained for three to four hours (all while telling her that she will be released more quickly if she answers all their questions and consents to full searches).

Poitras is now forced to take extreme steps — ones that hamper her ability to do her work — to ensure that she can engage in her journalism and produce her films without the U.S. Government intruding into everything she is doing. She now avoids traveling with any electronic devices. She uses alternative methods to deliver the most sensitive parts of her work — raw film and interview notes — to secure locations. She spends substantial time and resources protecting her computers with encryption and password defenses. Especially when she is in the U.S., she avoids talking on the phone about her work, particularly to sources. And she simply will not edit her films at her home out of fear — obviously well-grounded — that government agents will attempt to search and seize the raw footage.

(Read More)

 

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Aside

Is Your Phone Being Wiretapped?

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Writing

Less Than Impressed With 1Password

First, the good news: 1Password has released a new version of their product on iOS. The company outlines a whole pile of reasons for supposedly delaying security upgrades – some of which include the updates will slow the speed at which users can access their encrypted data – but fail to identify what I suspect is a key motive behind the upgrade. If you recall, I wrote a while ago about key failures in mobile password managers. 1Password was amongst those who had flawed security implementations.

To be clear: security, especially good security, is damn hard to engineer. 1Password didn’t have the gaping flaw that others did – i.e. storing passwords in plaintext!! – but it was flawed. In the security community this (ideally) is resolved when someone critiques your secured infrastructure. In today’s world you should also credit the security researcher(s) who identified the flaw.

Unfortunately, this isn’t what 1Password has done. As far as I can tell, there is no formal recognition from the company that they have had flaws in their mobile security model pointed out by a third-party. This is a shame, given that a key factor that builds genuine trust in security is transparency. It seems like 1Password is willing to address problems – they’re not dwelling in a security by obscurity paradigm, to be sure! – but not credit others with finding those problems in the first place.

Update: My very, very bad. I missed an earlier piece from 1Password, where they note the research. That is available here. It would have been ideal to see a reference to this in their update but, admittedly, credit had previously been given.