Security

Deutsche Telekom in Privacy Flap

Leave a comment

The Deutsche Welle reports that security staff are accused of breaching privacy laws:

Security staff at telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom are suspected of breaching German data privacy laws during a secret attempt to identify the sources of high-level leaks to the media, the company said Saturday, May 24.

Using the company’s own records of millions of numbers dialed, the dates and the durations, the internal-security unit had hunted for possible matches between news reporters and Telekom directors.

Bad news for security staff when they abuse the trust they need to perform their duties effectively. The fallout from this scandal will be interesting to watch. Security has apparently not only breached privacy laws meant to protect customers, but has done so in a direct conflict with senior management.

Security

SocGen report highlights management/monitoring errors

Leave a comment

The BBC story seems more interested in the fact that the SocGen trader was not acting alone, but I find this part the most revealing:

The bank’s management was accused of being “negligent” in not identifying the problem, the report said.

It also found that Mr Kerviel’s direct supervisor was inexperienced, with insufficient support to do his job properly.

“The fraud was facilitated, or its detection delayed, by supervisory weaknesses over the trader and the market activities checking,” it said.

“The trader’s hierarchy, which constituted the first control level, showed itself negligent in the supervision of his activities.”

Mr Kerviel’s supervisor “showed inappropriate tolerance to the positions taken”, it added.

Blaming this on his immediate supervisor is a lot like blaming it all on the perpetrator himself. Surely the controls for this kind of error should be visible at the highest levels. The consequences have been devastating, which suggests security information and event management at SocGen were not integrated into an executive’s view.

Poetry, Security

Waka waka, bang splat

Leave a comment

< > ! * ' '#
^ @ ` $ $ -
! * ' $ _
% * < > # 4
& ) . . /
| { ~ ~ SYSTEM HALTED

Transliterated: Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash, Caret at back-tick dollar dollar dash, Bang splat tick dollar under-score, Percent splat waka waka number four, Ampersand right-paren dot dot slash, Vertical-bar curly-bracket tilde tilde CRASH!

History, Poetry, Security

Surveillance as Art: The Oxford Project

Leave a comment

Some people are constantly playing up the down side to video surveillance. Bruce Schneier is one example, and I have commented on his blog many times about the fact that image capture is just like any other data capture — the use and abuse of surveillance depends on the operator and governance.

I guess you could call my point a “don’t blame the tool” position. However, I admit am not a fan of the “guns don’t kill people” argument. I think the saying that a tool can not be used to kill is absolutist and therefore an illogical statement. I would only agree to a statement that said guns can be used kill people. Thus, I would agree with a statement that surveillance can be used to violate people’s rights, but that does not mean all surveillance is a violation.

Right, all that being said, I really just wanted to give an example of surveillance as a form of art. There are other examples, including the time-lapse project in London (which I find boring and trite — like watching paint dry), but this one is particularly well done.

I suppose I should give a disclaimer, Peter is a former mentor of mine and I really enjoyed the work I did for him (information security for digital artists!) many years ago.

Oxford Project URLs: http://oxfordproject.com and http://welcomebooks.com/theoxfordproject/

In 1984, Peter Feldstein set out to photograph every resident of his town, Oxford, Iowa
(pop. 676). Twenty years later, he did it again. But this time those same residents did more
than pose. With extraordinary honesty, they shared their memories, fantasies, failures,
secrets and fears with writer Stephen G. Bloom. The result is a riveting collection of
personal stories and portraits that tell much more than the tale of one small Midwestern
town. Because beneath Oxford’s everyday surface, lives a complex and wondrous
community that embodies the American spirit.


History of the future will be a study of surveillance databases, and art (including poetry of course) is already derived from new forms of analysis of these repositories of data. Peter has done an amazing job as a pioneer in this field.