Friday, October 29, 2010

democracy just leveled up



found on boing boing

what you're looking at is a voting machine. no really, an actual voting machine. doesn't it make you feel all warm and fuzzy knowing how secure those electronic voting machines are? your democracy is in good hands. good strong hands, with nimble fingers and lightning fast thumbs. no button mashing here, no sir.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

i spy with my little eye


from the failblog

bad enough that there is no privacy between urinals, but clearly the designer of this public restroom failed to consider that when you aren't busy aiming you're even more likely to look around.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

protect your privacy

from learn from my fail
while we might reasonably expect people to respect our privacy, we cannot rely on them to do so. if you don't actively protect your privacy then you'll have no privacy.

Monday, October 25, 2010

compensating controls FTW


from the failblog

this is an excellent example of compensating controls. the crocodile compensates for the fall. you might be able to survive one or the other, but not both.

Friday, October 22, 2010

which is more important? part 2

from failblog

i'm sure having something to hold onto while going down stairs is important, but i sure hope nobody needs to get through that fire door. when it comes to conflicting safety features, i think the risk of people falling down the stairs is easier to accept than the risk of people dying in a fire.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

which is more important?


from the failblog

ridiculous protection can cripple safety/security measures. i sure hope nobody needs to get into that fire safety plan in an emergency.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

i will lock my computer


thanks to mikko hypponen for this one

it's good advice too, unless you don't mind the people nearby playing tricks on you or embarrassing you by sending out messages you would never send.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

deterrence fail


from failblog

prevention by deterrence doesn't work if it's obvious that others weren't deterred.

Monday, October 18, 2010

more than one reason to respect privacy

from learn from my fail

sometimes respecting other people's privacy is as much for your own good as it is for theirs. some things cannot be unseen.

Friday, October 15, 2010

safe from midgets, maybe?

from the failblog
this is why it's so important to understand security, at least at a basic level, otherwise you do things like lock up bikes in such a way that a thief merely needs to lift it in order to steal it.

and on a side note, i've seen so many examples of poor bike security, it's no wonder they get stolen so much.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

more than meets the eye

from ebay but found on schneier's blog

coffee cups (some insulation expected) disguised as SLR camera lenses. these definitely hold more than 3 ounces. oh well, so much for that silly TSA rule.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

know your tools


from learn from my fail

this underscores why it's important to understand what various tools are for, because otherwise you could wind up mis-using them (sometimes to hilarious results)

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

backups are important, m'kay?


from learn from my fail (if that isn't a hat tip to the memetic nature of knowledge transfer, i don't know what is)

backups - don't delete pictures without them.

Monday, October 11, 2010

protect what's really important


from the failblog

i suppose the bike owner should get some points for at least trying to protect his/her property. unfortunately you really need to be intelligent about how you use your security tools and protect what's really important to you. locking up the front wheel of the bike, when wheels can be easily removed from bikes, means that only the front wheel gets protected.

Friday, October 8, 2010

easy-open locks?


found on failblog

the very notion of an easy-open lock seems strange enough - i mean, how secure could that really keep things - but the idea of using them in a prison, of all places, really underscores how bad an idea easy-open locks are. if there's one place where you don't want the locks to be easily opened, it's in jail!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

password selection fail


found on failbook.

i know the traditional advice is that you should select a password that's easy for you to remember, but it also has to be difficult for other people to guess. your name does not qualify, even if you include your last name.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

ftc on phishing

some interesting videos depicting what phishing might look like in the real world. originally found at the sunbelt blog







believe it or not, these videos were produced by the federal trade commission. yes, the FTC has a youtube page. who'd have guessed?

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

it's the little things that get you

i don't know where i got this but it's very true and shows how important attention to details can be.

Monday, October 4, 2010

god is watching

courtesy of failblog

hoping people will do the right thing? hope is not a very good security strategy.