Italy Races to Protect “Super-Encrypted” Drives in Bayesian Shipwreck Safe

It’s like a Harry Houdini story. A drive is “super-encrypted” and put into a safe, hidden in a large ship sunk hundreds of feet under water. Can Harry get the data? The Italians say yes, and they’re apparently very concerned.

Italian prosecutors fear that would-be thieves might try to reach the wreckage in order to loot expensive jewelry and other valuable objects onboard, including intelligence data, CNN reported, citing unnamed sources. The authorities are reportedly concerned that two super-encrypted hard drives in the sunken yacht’s watertight safes could fall into the wrong hands.

Let’s set aside the fact that “super-encrypted” doesn’t mean anything. It’s interesting that the drives being harder to get to now, as opposed to when they were above water, makes them more vulnerable than before. To be fair, divers can come from anywhere and slip around unobserved (let alone submarines). I suppose this worries the Italians the most that there is no clear boundary underwater.

If the most important control was simply observing access (ostensibly the main difference being in an obfuscated remote shipwreck), then it seems the obvious answer here is to put a hidden camera on that safe. But then the simpler question is maybe why not float that safe out to where it can be more easily observed?

Still can’t believe someone called anything “super-encrypted”. And on that note, when I read criptato in Italian I always think of a crispy potato. Can encryption be crispy?

Germany Provides Ukraine 2,667 Crypto Phones

Hot off the press is a Federal Government news release itemizing “arms and military equipment Germany is sending to Ukraine“.

This list provides an overview of military assistance provided by the Federal Republic of Germany to Ukraine. This military assistance is delivered in two different ways: on the one hand there are the Federal Government funds for security capacity building, which are used to finance deliveries of military equipment and other material from industry. On the other hand, there are deliveries from Federal Armed Forces stocks. In total, the Federal Republic of Germany has so far provided or committed for future years military assistance with a value of approximately 28 billion euro.

Of course 84 outboard motors are something I’d love to discuss, but the more notable items for this blog are the nearly 3,000 Crypto phones and… all those drones.

  • 318 reconnaissance drones VECTOR with spare parts* (before: 288)
  • 269 reconnaissance drones RQ-35 HEIDRUN* (before: 249)
  • 70 unmanned surface vessels* (before: 50)
  • 19 reconnaissance drones SONGBIRD* (before: 7)
1948 Selva Outboard Manufacturing

MI Tesla Kills Three in Head-on Crash

There have been several fatal crashes like this lately, where a vehicle exiting a freeway on the wrong side is struck head-on by a Tesla.

Three people were killed Wednesday morning in a crash on M-14 in Plymouth Township, Michigan State Police officials said.

Michigan Department of Transportation officials said the crash on westbound M-14 near Gotfredson Road was reported at about 7:30 a.m.

[…]

According to a preliminary investigation, a 2024 Nissan Rogue was traveling the wrong way on eastbound M-14 and exited the freeway onto the eastbound entrance ramp from Gotfredson. The Rogue crashed head-on into a 2020 Tesla that was attempting to enter M-14 from Gotfredson, police said.

Given the devastation to the Tesla and deaths in these cases, it appears as if rapid acceleration by FSD using the onramp like a missile launch may be a factor.

Source: WILX

National Security Implications of Unchecked AI and the Exploitation of Personal Data: Part I

A new episode by the American Bar Association’s National Security Law Today podcast has been posted.

As AI advances and data privacy laws fall behind, the U.S. faces a major national security threat: the unchecked exploitation of personal data.This week, Elisa is joined by Margaret Hu, Professor of Law at William & Mary, and Davi Ottenheimer, Vice President of Trust and Digital Ethics at Inrupt, to explore the vulnerabilities in our digital footprint and what can be done to protect it. Together, they dive into the intricacies of microtargeting, AI regulation, and potential legislative fixes, while shedding light on the urgent need for a federal data privacy infrastructure.