Tag Archives: Security

75 Free Privacy Tools

Richard Patterson wrote to me about my article on privacy tools and suggested I take a look at his offering, 75+ free tools to protect your privacy online. As Patterson says, you won’t need all these tools but you should … Continue reading

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Do Biometric Sensors Decrease Security?

Hitoshi Kokumai over at ProgrammableWeb has a rather silly article arguing that smartphone fingerprint sensors actually worsen security. Strictly speaking, the article is correct in the sense that the government could force you to provide a fingerprint while they can’t … Continue reading

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The Reality of Key Escrow

Back in 2000 PGP, a mature and capable company with significant experience in encryption and security, decided that it would be a good idea to provide key escrow for its corporate users. August 2000: a bug in PGP Corp's corporate … Continue reading

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The FBI Begs Off

This is what you do when you think you’re going to lose and set the wrong precedent.

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Matt Blaze on Adtech

Countless pixels have died in the battle over adtech. I’ve long held the view that I’m happy to view the ads but I object strongly to being tracked and having arbitrary scripts run on my machine. Some time ago, I … Continue reading

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What Happens When You Give Law Enforcement a Backdoor Key?

This: The hackers who accessed celeb iCloud accounts in 2014 used a forensic tool designed for cops to download the data. https://t.co/grEzwuSaGJ — Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) March 13, 2016

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John Oliver on Encryption

The other day I saw a hilarious John Oliver video on encryption. He explains, as only Oliver can, why despite outward appearances the encryption question is not simple and one’s immediate reaction of “Of course Apple should help the government … Continue reading

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Steven Levy on the New Crypto Wars

I’ve written about Steven Levy before (1, 2, 3). I still consider his book, Hackers, the definitive history of the hacker culture. Now over at Backchannel Levy asks Why Are We Fighting the Crypto Wars Again? Levy recounts the history … Continue reading

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The Data on Farook’s Phone

Undoubtedly true but beside the point. The government wants a precedent not any purported data on the phone. Reminder: Farook destroyed his + wife's personal phones. There isn't jack on his work iPhone. He didn't even bother to hit it … Continue reading

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Securing Your WordPress Site

About three years ago, after Irreal was hacked, I published a short article on securing WordPress sites that pointed to a WordPress article on ways to harden a WordPress site. Recently, John Stevens wrote me to say that he and … Continue reading

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