What foreign leaders are afraid of

from here (source image)

My hat is off to whoever did the original photoshop of  Barack Obama peeping on Angela Merkel. It's a bit subtle since many people wouldn't recognize the players, but for those that do it really captures the concerns raised by the revelations of the US spying on the head of the Germany.

Electronics on Flights

found on truthdig

would i be totally paranoid if i suggested that aiding the surveillance state was the real reason the FAA decided to allow the use of electronics during take-off and landing? after all, they've been denying requests to change that policy for years, so it makes you wonder why allow it now?

Santa's Secret Surveillance

from here (based on this tweet)

Thanks to Daniel Sandler for the inspiration. The NSA/GCHQ seem to have given us some brand new tools to explain Santa to our kids. It might make him seem a little creepy, though.

Internal Patriot Discovery

mark fiore's videos always seem to capture the absurd essence of what's going on in the world. with the blanket surveillance of everyone, the government is actually already in a position to start using the process of elimination to find the bad guys. it's a wonder they haven't already started to try that.

You may not be paying for it, but...

from here (source image)

The popular saying that "If you're not paying for it, you are the product" implies that you can be bought and sold and owned. For most of us it's probably fair to say that no one actually buys, sells, or owns us. We are not property. And those sites that we are supposedly not paying for? We are giving them something of value - information.

Just in case you thought QR codes were safe

found on fail blog

Shortened URLs, QR codes, NFC tags - they're all ripe for sending you to eye-bleach inducing content (or worse). Be careful what you scan.

Who wants to represent the GCHQ (newsletter)?

from here

Poor Graham Cluley. I guess calling his security newsletter "GCHQ" didn't work out that great. Come to think of it, the previous publication he wrote for (Naked Security) kind of had an unfortunate sounding (NSFW?) name as well. I guess that's what happens when you use hot buttons to try to grab people's attention.

Security: you're doing it right (for a change)

found on the art of trolling

There's more than one way to skin a cat. The obvious approaches to security aren't always the best ones. Sometimes it pays to think outside the box.

The Wizard of DoS

They're 3 bad souls. Oh me, oh my.
They'll steal you stuff, they're none too shy.
But never mind those three,
We're protected as you can see,
Just as long as you click safely,
In this scary land called the World Wide Web.

Oh the World Wide Web is a very scary place,
Where everyone wears a very scary face,
And the sites get pwned with ads,
And no one catches the cads.
In that scary land lives the Wizard of DoS

 this was inspired by a tweet by josh corman quoting anthony bourdain. and if you haven't figured it out, it's a lyrical parody of the theme song from the wizard of oz cartoon

the hollow privacy policy

found on fail blog - originally from doghouse diaries

this is the way privacy ends
this is the way privacy ends
this is the way privacy ends
not with a bang but a toggle