Letters Remain

Tag: security

  • The CCTV Trade-Off

    That CCTV doesn’t substantially help in reducing crime has been shown beyond reasonable doubt, proposes Bruce Schneier, so now the pressing question is whether or not the benefits security cameras do afford are worthwhile. There are exceptions, of course, and proponents of cameras can always cherry-pick examples to bolster their argument. These success stories are…

  • Terrorism and Our Responses

    Shortly after the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 incident, Bruce Schneier providedĀ links to a number of articles that published interviews, quotes or essays from him. As expected, Schneier calmly reiterates his old advice that is as valid now as it was pre-9/11. The one not to miss:Ā Is aviation security mostly for show? The best defenses against…

  • Seven Psychological Principles Con Artists Exploit

    Inherent human vulnerabilities need to be taken into account when designing security systems/processes, suggests a study that looks at a dozen confidence tricks from the UK TV show The Real Hustle to determine recurring behavioural patterns con artists use to exploit victims. The study was a collaboration between Frank Stajano of the University of Cambridge…

  • Resources on the Psychology of Security and Risk

    Professor of Security Engineering at the Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Ross Anderson, has compiled a comprehensive resource page on the psychology of risk and security. The resources themselves are divided into seven section, to wit: Introductory Papers Deception Security and Usability Social Attitudes to Risk Behavioural Economics of Security Miscellaneous Papers Other (Conferences, Websites/Blogs,…

  • Privacy Salience and Social Networking Sites

    Privacy could become a competitive feature of social networking sites, suggests Bruce Schneier in an article that looks at the interesting topic of privacy salience: the suggestion that privacy reassurances make people more, not less, concerned. Privacy salience does a lot to explain social networking sites and their attitudes towards privacy. From a business perspective,…

  • On Passwords (Usability and Security)

    Passwords have barely evolved since the early days of computing and are taken for granted in our daily online-lives. It’s time for change, says usability expert Jakob Nielsen, who believes password masking goes against basic usability principles and should be stopped (via Kottke). Providing feedback and visualizing the system’s status have always been among the…

  • Using Spammers to Solve AI Problems

    With spammers having already written software to match humans at solving some CAPTCHAs, many are predicting the end of the CAPTCHA. Not so, says Luis von AhnĀ (developer of the reCAPTCHA system) in a New Scientist article that asks why not set the spammers further AI tasks that they can solveĀ inadvertently. Software that can solve any…