There was a big hoo-hah last week about a paper published by folks at my old school, Carnegie-Mellon University. There was so much attention, in fact, that I found myself endlessly humming "Dear Old Tech" over and over. According to the press release, "Carnegie Mellon researchers find Social Security numbers can be predicted with public information." Is that startling information? More importantly, is it a security/identity fraud problem?

IBM has inked a seven-year deal to provide elements of the UK government’s plans to upgrade to biometric passports, according to a Tech Generation report. The deal is valued at more than $432 million.

IBM will provide a replacement for the UK Border Agency’s Immigration and Asylum Fingerprint System which holds biometrics collected from visa applicants. The contract will also cover running the database that will store the facial images and fingerprints needed to keep the passport in line with international standards.

IBM will manage the project as the prime contractor, Atos Origin will provide systems integration and operations support, while Sagem Securite will supply biometric services and software.

The UK’s electronic passports containing contactless smart card chips with facial images and fingerprints will start to be issued from 2011.

Read more here.

Finjan’s report of a huge 1.9 million node botnet that’s ensnared government computers has caused quite a stir. I have to admit I was hungry for details like everyone else. One of the biggest questions that came to mind immediately, I’m sure for many, was “Are we affected? How can I tell?”

As is often the case with these sorts of “press first, tech details someday” kind of things you’re at a loss. Especially with the fact that everyone’s monikers differ, you can’t just go and look at a family description. You need some sort of hook into the malcode swarm to figure it out.

In early February I had an opportunity to attend The Global DNS Security, Stability and Resiliency Symposium at Georgia Tech Information Security Center in Atlanta.  The symposium was composed of three primary ‘breakout’ tracks, interspersed with multiple plenary sessions aimed at compiling and discussing breakout track information and multi-track intersections.  The breakout sessions, all focused on the DNS,  were:

• Resource Constrained Environments
• Enterprise Use
• Combating Malicious Use of the DNS

I chaired the Combating Malicious Use of the DNS session, which was quite lively and well attended.  My job as session chair was very much akin to herding cats, and with such a wide spectrum of stakeholders in the room, it was interesting, to say the least.  The Final Report from the symposium was released today.  While I’m certainly not in a position to provide any authoritative report from the sessions — that’s what the report linked above is for, I will provide a couple of takeaways I had as a participant.

Data loss is an unforeseen situation which every computer user could face at any point of time. There are several factors which could lead to the nightmare of.12 Vote(s)