Ticketmaster is ditching those hard-to-read letters and numbers, called captchas, that users must decipher to make a purchase. It’s switching to images, which are easier, faster and more secure.
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/captcha-22-when-online-security-hurts-sales
Who governs digital trust?
Doctorow framed the question this way: "Computers are everywhere. They are now something we put our whole bodies into—-airplanes, cars—-and something we put into our bodies—-pacemakers, cochlear implants. They HAVE to be trustworthy."
Sometimes humans are not so trustworthy, and programs may override you: "I can’t let you do that, Dave." (Reference to the self-protective insane computer Hal in Kubrick’s film "2001." That time the human was more trustworthy than the computer.) Who decides who can override whom?
The core issues for Doctorow come down to Human Rights versus Property Rights, Lockdown versus Certainty, and Owners versus mere Users.
Apple computers such as the iPhone are locked down—-it lets you run only what Apple trusts. Android phones let you run only what you trust. Doctorow has changed his mind in favor of a foundational computer device called the "Trusted Platform Module" (TPM) which provides secure crypto, remote attestation, and sealed storage. He sees it as a crucial "nub of secure certainty" in your machine.
If it’s your machine, you rule it. It‘s a Human Right: your computer should not be overridable. And a Property Right: "you own what you buy, even if it what you do with it pisses off the vendor." That’s clear when the Owner and the User are the same person. What about when they’re not?
There are systems where we really want the authorities to rule—-airplanes, nuclear reactors, probably self-driving cars ("as a species we are terrible drivers.") The firmware in those machines should be inviolable by users and outside attackers. But the power of Owners over Users can be deeply troubling, such as in matters of surveillance. There are powers that want full data on what Users are up to—-governments, companies, schools, parents. Behind your company computer is the IT department and the people they report to. They want to know all about your email and your web activities, and there is reason for that. But we need to contemplate the "total and terrifying power of Owners over Users."
Recognizing that we are necessarily transitory Users of many systems, such as everything involving Cloud computing or storage, Doctorow favors keeping your own box with its own processors and storage. He strongly favors the democratization and wide distribution of expertise. As a Fellow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (who co-sponsored the talk) he supports public defense of freedom in every sort of digital rights issue.
"The potential for abuse in the computer world is large," Doctorow concluded. "It will keep getting larger."
http://longnow.org/seminars/02012/jul/31/coming-century-war-against-your-computer/
In the final episode, Ed Butler investigates the many internet stakeholders. What can governments do to protect the net? And what can we do?
Tagged with bbc documentary internet security
Is the Internet’s original architecture and governance still fit for purpose? Or has it gone out of control and become hopelessly insecure?
Tagged with bbc documentary internet security
Ed Butler assesses the ever-increasing threats from hackers and cyber weapons, and the challenges that today’s most powerful countries face from threats in cyperspace.
Tagged with bbc documentary internet security
With the ready availability of social media, digital databases of ID photos, high-resolution cameras and free, powerful face recognition software that can run on smartphones, we are entering into an unprecedented shift in the visual privacy of everyday people. Technology that was once the domain of authoritarian states, is now being put to use by the hottest tech startups, who often lack the capacity or capability to consider the broader cultural impact.
What right do people have to control personal images in a socially-networked age or to be visually anonymous in a video-mediated world? Startups like Viewdle are building compelling user experiences that correlate people who appear in photos taken with your smartphone, with all of the profile photos stored in your address book and social graphic. The question is, how is it decided who can be recognized and indexed, how and when, and where does control of that record reside?
The ObscuraCam project (developed by WITNESS and the Guardian Project, funded by Google) will be shared as one countermeasure to these trends. It is a mobile app that allows users to automatically conceal faces or objects in photos and video, using pixelization, masks or redaction. It also removes extra metadata, such as GPS location, often stored in media.
Bryan Nunez will represent WITNESS, presenting human rights advocacy driven user stories and challenges. Harlo Holmes will counter with "privacy by design" technology solutions.
Speakers: Bryan Nunez, Harlo Holmes
Tagged with mobile facial recognition sxsw security privacy profiles obscuracam viewdle
Frank Abagnale’s rare expertise began more than 40 years ago when he was known as one of the world’s most famous confidence men. Between the ages of 16 and 21, he successfully posed as an airline pilot, an attorney, a college professor and a pediatrician, in addition to cashing $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in every state and 26 foreign countries. Apprehended by the French police when he was 21 years old, he served time in the French, Swedish and U. S. prison systems. After five years he was released on the condition that he would help the federal government, without remuneration, by teaching and assisting federal law enforcement agencies. Frank has now been associated with the FBI for over 35 years. More than 14,000 financial institutions, corporations and law enforcement agencies use his fraud prevention programs.
Frank’s exploits were depicted in the movie Catch Me If You Can, based on Frank’s best-selling book. In this session, he’ll describe his life, both during the time covered in his well known story, as well as covering what he’s up to these days.
Our long-term interaction with the web will be defined by six trends. These trends will will involve dramatic changes that will make computing more like what we are used to seeing in many of today’s movies. Kevin Kelly explains why he believes that soon the internet will beneficially surround us in ways that most users don’t imagine today.
Despite multibillion-dollar investments in cybersecurity, one of its root problems has been largely ignored: who are the people who write malicious code? Underworld investigator Misha Glenny profiles several convicted coders from around the world and reaches a startling conclusion.
Tagged with ted technology security hackers
Brian X. Chen explains how the iPhone is opening the door to what he calls the "always-on" future, where we are all constantly connected to a global Internet via flexible, incredibly capable gadgets that allow us to do anything, anytime, from anywhere. In Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future—and Locked Us In, he explains the far-reaching implications of this future—both positive and negative—throughout all areas of our lives.
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