Category Archives: security

Facebook account hacked

Posted on November 11, 2009 by ben

So this evening my Facebook account was hacked and spam messages were posted to a few dozen friends on my behalf. Thankfully, since I’m friends with a number of security-savvy folks, I was notified almost instantly. Now I’ve never cared … Continue reading →

Posted in security, web | Leave a comment

Source Code and Voting: what’s really on that machine?

Posted on October 29, 2009 by ben

Let’s say someone’s trying to sell you a house. It’s a beautiful house. You visit it. You have it inspected and re-inspected, and it’s perfect. You get a loan approved, and you’re about to sign the papers when you’re told: … Continue reading →

Posted in security, voting | 1 Comment

Takoma Park 2009: the voter experience

Posted on September 21, 2009 by ben

For background on this post, check out the Auditing Takoma Park 2009 Election.

I’m gathering all documentation on a Google Site. This blog will continue to serve as the narrative, while the datasets and documentation will live on the Google Site, and I’ll refer to them as needed from this blog.

Let’s begin with an explanation of the voting process that Takoma Park citizens will experience on November 3rd, 2009.
(If you’re a Takoma Park resident: make sure to register by October 5th if you want to participate in this historic election!)

Say hello to Valerie, our token voter. At a high level, Valerie’s voting experience is identical to her past experience with a typical optical-scan election. She fills in the bubbles for the candidates of her choice, casts her ballot, and walks away. With one twist: if Valerie wants to, she can write down some confirmation codes that will let her audit her ballot later on.
Continue reading →

Posted in crypto, security, Takoma Park 2009, voting | 1 Comment

A Partial Report from Social Network Security 2009 @ Stanford

Posted on September 13, 2009 by ben

On Friday, I attended Social Network Security 2009 at Stanford. This was a fantastic get-together, with some very interesting info from Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Loopt, and the research front. I have some notes, mostly from the first half of the … Continue reading →

Posted in privacy, security, web | 2 Comments

The evolution of OpenID: you’re not a URL after all

Posted on September 9, 2009 by ben

The US government has just announced a pilot program to integrate OpenID (and Information Cards) into public government web sites. This is very interesting news, as it will likely catalyze even greater OpenID deployment and use. [I’ve poo-poo’ed OpenID here … Continue reading →

Posted in identity, privacy, security | 2 Comments

Quick Thoughts from EVT Day #2

Posted on August 12, 2009 by ben

I gave an invited talk on crypto voting. Ran out of time, as usual. I need to find a way to describe this stuff more efficiently. Later, I also presented MarkPledge2, joint work with Andy Neff. Olivier de Marneffe presented … Continue reading →

Posted in security, voting | Leave a comment

EVT/WOTE 2009, Day 1, Afternoon

Posted on August 10, 2009 by ben

I had to miss the first afternoon session of EVT/WOTE to attend WOOT (Workshop on Offensive Technologies) where Adam was presenting a paper Collin and I co-authored on hijacking bookmarklets (I wrote about this work a few months ago). Sadly, … Continue reading →

Posted in security, voting | Leave a comment

EVT/WOTE 2009, Day 1, Morning

Posted on August 10, 2009 by ben

I’m at the Electronic Voting Technology / Workshop on Trustworthy Elections get-together (in Montreal). A few thoughts about the day and talks. Keynote Larry Norden from the Brennan Center is proposing a few ideas about what the voting community should … Continue reading →

Posted in security, voting | Leave a comment

Multi-Factor, maybe, but is it really harder to phish?

Posted on July 17, 2009 by ben

MIT Tech Review asked me for a general comment on web authentication for their article covering new technology by Delfigo. There wasn’t enough time to look in depth at Delfigo’s technology, so my comments were about multi-factor authentication in general, … Continue reading →

Posted in press, security, web | 14 Comments

Engaging Data going, going….

Posted on July 6, 2009 by ben

The Engaging Data Conference at MIT, which brings together a number of interesting folks around the management of personal electronic data, is happening in October. The deadline for papers is this week, so submit a paper now if you’ve got … Continue reading →

Posted in privacy, security, web | Leave a comment