Category Archives: Security

Security

Will there be real justice for virtual crimes?

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The Guardian tells yet another story of gamers duped online:

Inside Eve, one player set up what was called the Eve Intergalactic Bank, offering to let players store their virtual cash in the game currency known as the Inter Stellar Kredit, or ISK. The banker, known as Cally, gave others the chance to deposit their money with the bank and earn a few percent interest – a handy option when the ISK was rapidly depreciating.

Many took Cally up on the offer and deposited their virtual money with the bank, before discovering that it was all an elaborate ruse. Instead of safeguarding the billions invested, Cally made off with the cash – believed to be in excess of 100bn ISK – and is now thought to be living the Eve high life, while hundreds of disgruntled players shake their virtual fists in fury.

Is trust going to become weaker as virtual threats cross into real life? Certainly easy to see how the “billions disappearing” would translate into real people getting really mad. So is it a lesson learned, as part of the virtual risks, or a cause for alarm and for justice to be served? If nothing else it shows how some people have the worst intentions when dealing in an open market, and it makes me wonder how Cally was able to convincingly represent him/herself as a Bank.

Energy, Security

Ethanol kills boat engines

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On a test ride in a Toyota Camry hybrid a few weeks ago I asked the salesman when the diesel-hybrid is coming. “Haven’t heard about that one yet” he said, “but I can tell you for sure that Toyota says that they are not a fan of ethanol — bad for the engines.” Alas it seems the etha-hype has continued and now engines are literally being destroyed by people who do not have the right equipment and are not made sufficiently aware of the risks:

Complaints are coming in from disgruntled captains from East Coast harbours to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean – that boats are mysteriously puttering to a standstill and the suspected cause in each case is ethanol.

“The engine damage appears to be a tar-like substance – possibly from the chemical reaction between the resin and ethanol – causing hard black deposits that damage intake valves and pushrods, destroying the engine,” Boat US wrote. For some owners this may mean their engines are wrecked. Others are looking for ways to cut out their fibreglass tanks and replace them with aluminium ones.

One man who knows all about the ethanol blight is Ale Tolentino, who captains a Dolphin tour boat in Hawaii. “It just melted things that was in the tank that’s been in the boat since it’s been built, sent it right through the fuel lines and the fuel lines were melting – and sending stuff in liquid form right through the engine and into the injectors,” he said. “It came down to the ethanol doing the damage, it just killed us.”

Another problem is that ethanol attracts water. In a car, where the tank and fuel lines are sealed, water is not an issue, but that is hardly the case when you are water-born, particularly if your boat sits for weeks at a time not being used.

Ooops. Dont’ get me wrong, ethanol is great stuff provided it is used to make biodiesel or used in engines specifically made to overcome its lack of power and efficiency (e.g. don’t be surprised when a Chevy Tahoe running on ethanol gets less than 10 mpg). But you will never hear these sorts of complaints from boat owners with diesel engines who run biodiesel or even convert to pure vegetable oil. The very worst that can happen with diesel is the hoses or seals might go bad, or a change in viscosity of the fuel might make it harder to turn the engine over. Small potatoes compared to killing the engine, especially when you are miles from shore.

Security

High tech recycling

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As waste becomes a bigger concern for those who have to account for environmental impact, the market for recylables will bloom. Here are some novel ideas:

The board is a genuine piece of pasta with some electronic components on it. When you are finished with it all you have to do is boil it in water and all the bits fall off.

There exhibition also showcased a printer case made of corn-based BioPlastic that degrades gracefully, and a phone case made of Kenaf, a plant grown all over the world, which effectively melts when you bury it.

One mobile phone case had been made from biodegradable plastic, with a sunflower seed inserted into it. By planting the case in the soil a flower grows.

Soon chips might really be…chips. Just bring salsa and and you can take a byte out of your computer. In terms of security this could be huge. For example it would be far easier to secure-erase a disk if it were water-soluable. Concentrated hydriodic acid, used today for secure-wipe procedures, leaves such a mess.