Winny seems to be peer-to-peer software in Japan that is behind some high-profile incidents. Computerworld reports that even a leading anti-virus company has been bitten by the program:

Trend Micro became the latest of a number of corporations or government agencies to report data losses as a result of viruses on the Winny network. Winny can be downloaded at no charge and is a popular way for Japanese Internet users to exchange music and video files.

Documents, including police investigation materials, training manuals for Japan’s Self-Defense Force, data related to nuclear power plants and information including the names of sex-crime victims, have all found their way into the public domain via Winny, according to local news reports.

The string of leaks led a senior Japanese government official, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, to call on people not to use Winny.

“We cannot prevent information leaks unless everyone takes antivirus measures,” Abe said at a news conference on March 15. “The surest way is not to use Winny.”

Coming next, the Japanese government officials will politely ask people to stop eating Fugu.

Some time ago I remember discussing special ink and paint that UK police said would help in the recovery of stolen items. Just paint your personal items with the invisible stuff and detectives could use special equipment to make it appear later. Thieves presumably would worry whether valuables suddenly become traceable, except for a simple problem. If the detectives can reveal the invisible markings, so can the theives.

Here’s a fine case example of this in practice. DataDot is a company that says you can use a paste with special identity dots to mark your valuables. How does someone later read the hidden dots? Just send $14.95 to Data Dot for a portable blacklight (UV), and another $14.95 for an illuminated 50X microscope. No criminal would ever do that, right?

And another problem is the nature of hidden identification. Whereas a common ID, such as a vehicle identification number, is supposed to be in a particular place and can be reviewed for tampering, etc. a hidden number has no “tamperproof-ness”. A simple chemical might dissolve the datadot without a trace, or even if there were a trace (like heavy scratching) the lack of a standard position for datadot means you might have a hard time proving the dots had been intentionally destroyed. A rub spot could be argued to be just an old rub spot…

But, all things considered, and if the stolen goods are recovered, it seems that the careless or unprepared thief will be more likely than not to be caught by the dot.

On the flip side, one has to wonder if there will be datadot attacks where thieves start painting other people’s stuff and registering it as their own, then claiming it as stolen.

While I was reading about the chip fraud in China, I noticed their news agency also reported some interesting news:

California plans to map the homes of nearly 2,000 sexual offenders by using Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite technology to certify they are staying far enough from schools, local media reported on Sunday. […] According to the department, parole agents will begin using GPS technology this week to measure the distance between schools and residences of 1,808 high-risk sex offenders. And as part of a pilot program, 417 high-risk offenders will wear GPS electronic ankle bracelets that will make it easier for parole agents to track and monitor their movement. The device sends an alert when an offender goes into forbidden zones.

This strategy seems unlikely to produce effective security. GPS devices have little chance of reporting position when they are indoors and it’s pretty trivial to block the signal. Another thing is that I just did a quick check of a mapping site and found many sex offenders live near schools; one even lives directly accross the street.

CBS in San Francisco has some more background on the decision to introduce GPS devices and who will get them:

The department said parole agents will begin using GPS technology this week to measure the distance between schools and residences of 1,808 high-risk sex offenders. The state classifies a person as a high-risk offender based upon previous offenses, the number of victims in a crime, the level of violence of a crime and the likelihood a person will re-offend, said department spokeswoman Elaine Jennings. The Schwarzenegger administration on Wednesday dismissed its director of the prison system’s parole division, Jim L’Etoile, after lawmakers complained that 23 offenders had been housed within 11 miles of Disneyland. The department has also been criticized for temporarily placing a dozen sex offenders at San Quentin State Prison when they could find no other housing. Officials said a hotel contract was canceled and there were few alternatives in the San Francisco Bay area. The corrections department is required by law to return parolees to their county of last legal residence. The state also tracks 417 high-risk offenders with a GPS ankle bracelet as part of a pilot program to monitor and track their movement. The device sends an alert when an offender goes into forbidden zones.

A researcher was found to have fabricated chips, and not in the good sense of the word. The BBC has the story:

China’s Xinhua state news agency said that the Hanxin digital signal processing chips were not based on research carried out by Mr Chen. Nor could the chips carry out the functions, such as reading fingerprints or playing MP3 files, that they were supposed to, it reported.

Ironic, I guess, that a chip for fingerprint en/decoding was faked. Did the researcher think he would never be caught? Often it is the high-profile nature of crime, backed by growing greed, that leads to its undoing. The story also has the potential effect of showing that the Chinese authorities are trying to crack down on copyright infringement, although it seems more likely that they were upset about a poor return on investment.