Monthly Archives: October 2007

Bullet-Proofing the Front Door and Leaving the Back Door Open

Posted on October 26, 2007 by ben

Vote By Mail in California While we’re struggling to secure voting machines, a number of States are deploying “Vote By Mail Permanently!” Here’s a picture on a bus in the San Francisco Bay Area. What a nightmare. I suspect that, … Continue reading →

Posted in policy, security, voting | Leave a comment

The State of Badware

Posted on October 17, 2007 by ben

I’m an advisor to Harvard Law’s Berkman Center, where I work specifically with StopBadware, a group of talented folks who are helping to identify and report on software that does bad stuff to your computer. Malware, spyware, adware, badware, whatever … Continue reading →

Posted in policy, security, web | Leave a comment

Of Park Benches, Cardboard Boxes, Armored Cars and Voting

Posted on October 16, 2007 by ben

The Swiss have implemented quantum cryptography to transfer votes to a central tallying authority. This is pretty cool, and I applaud the Swiss for trying new technologies to improve election security. However, marketing this as “unbreakable encryption” is troubling. I … Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, security, voting | 7 Comments

Security Theater and Transparency

Posted on October 15, 2007 by ben

[With apologies to my grandmothers, some of the most insightful people I've known.] When you want to build a publicly accountable secure system, must you build to the lowest common denominator? The key example is, of course, voting. It’s clear … Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, policy, voting | 13 Comments

The Password Anti-Pattern and the Login Redirection Anti-Pattern

Posted on October 12, 2007 by ben

A few weeks ago, I wrote about about how web sites that manage your data should be more open in order to better protect you. Not so surprisingly, I’m not the only one thinking about this issue. Jeremy Keith has … Continue reading →

Posted in identity, security, web | 4 Comments

Support Creative Commons

Posted on October 10, 2007 by ben

Creative Commons is an organization that helps individuals share and remix their songs, videos, writings, etc. under appropriate licenses. Need a picture for a blog posting? Search Flickr, Google, Yahoo, all of which now have Creative Commons search options. With … Continue reading →

Posted in policy | 4 Comments