Sat, 29 Mar 2008 22:24:30 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/ MK Anderson RSS Feed en-us http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/images/logo.gif http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/ keith@mkanderson.com http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=391 The recent discovery that data thieves infiltrated Hannaford Bros' network and stole more than 4 million credit card numbers (see Data thieves steal credit card data from supermarket chain). According to articles related to this incident, Hannaford had some controls in place, like not associating names with account numbers. This incident is proof that basic controls are not enough. Black hat hackers will continue to do the bidding of organized crime, regardless of the security in place. The future of personal information is bleak. At odds are the convenience of modern life and the ability of criminals to take advantage of it. Think of all of the online services available. Many of the companies practice good security. Assuming that all involved parties are dedicated to security, as we know is not even realistic, the security is not future proof. Eventually, the best security practices will be deprecated. With the millions of servers, billions of transactions, and the march of time, your chances of being a victim of identity theft increase every day. There are no answers. I have resisted many online services until I realized that I have no real control over my information anyway. Between the government and businesses being cavalier with my information. Unless I move into a cabin in Montana and live the rest of my life in seclusion, I'm no more able to protect my personal information than I can anyone else's. In ten years, will somebody be posting email, documents, or other files they found on a server they bought at an auction? If a company like Yahoo goes out of business, what happens to all of that information, including passwords and associated usernames? Scary. Sat, 29 Mar 2008 22:24:30 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=390 Earlier this week, a most excellent opinion piece was published by the Christian Science Monitor on the constitutionality of nationalized health-care: Must You Buy Health Insurance. In making the case for her plan to mandate private health insurance, Clinton said in a recent Democratic debate that not doing so "would be as though Franklin Roosevelt said, 'Let's make Social Security voluntary,' or if President [Lyndon] Johnson said, 'Let's make Medicare voluntary.'"In fact, under the law, there's a big difference between participation in a government health program funded by taxes and privatizing such a program, with individuals forced to purchase private health insurance.Taxation involves representation, as when Congress appropriates money and controls a government program for the general welfare. This describes Social Security and Medicare. But government cannot simply delegate its taxing powers to private business.What representation do we have in the insurance firms whose products we would be required to buy, at prices and terms they set? Can we vote out an insurer's board of directors for denying claims or paying its CEO a multimillion-dollar salary? Here, too, the Supreme Court has drawn a distinction between taxes imposed by government and mandatory fees set by entities with private interests.A health insurance mandate is essentially a forced contract, in which one party (the insurer) gets to set the terms. You must buy their policies, even if you prefer to self-insure, rely on alternative medicine, or obtain treatment outside the system. In constitutional terms, such mandates may constitute a violation of due process or a "taking of property." Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:20:12 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=389 One of the most disturbing court rulings I've seen was handed down today in Oklahoma: Court Drops Case of 'Peeping Tom' in Target; Says Victim Was Not in Private Place. The state Court of Criminal Appeals voted 4-1 in favor of Riccardo Gino Ferrante, who was arrested in 2006 for situating a camera underneath the girl's skirt at a Target store and taking photographs.Ferrante, now 34, was charged under a "Peeping Tom" statute that requires the victim to be "in a place where there is a right to a reasonable expectation of privacy." Testimony indicated he followed the girl, knelt down behind her and placed the camera under her skirt.In January 2007, Tulsa County District Judge Tom Gillert ordered Ferrante's felony charge dismissed. That was based upon a determination that "the person photographed was not in a place where she had a reasonable expectation of privacy," according to the appellate ruling issued last week.The District Attorney's Office had appealed Gillert's ruling to the Court of Criminal Appeals."We agree with the district court's analysis," stated the opinion written by Appeals Judge Charles Johnson, with Judges Charles Chapel, David Lewis and Arlene Johnson concurring.In a dissent, Appeals Judge Gary Lumpkin wrote that "what this decision does is state to women who desire to wear dresses that there is no expectation of privacy as to what they have covered with their dress.""In other words, it is open season for peeping Toms in public places who want to look under a woman's dress," Lumpkin wrote.He said he found the majority's finding of no reasonable expectation of privacy "interesting and disturbing." Not only did the court say women who wear dresses are okay targets for perverts, they also said 16-year-old girls, minors, are fair game too. While the law may not have caught up with technology, as stated in the article, the spirit of existing law was shredded. Pay attention in public places for men carrying shopping bags getting too close, especially if you are wearing a dress. Also look out in dressing rooms and bathrooms. The courts continually refuse to come down hard on these predators, using a lack of existing laws as an excuse so it's up to individuals to protect themselves. I wonder if you beat the crap out of a peeping tom with his own camera if you could get off since the laws don't specify anything about his camera. Just a thought. Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:45:33 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=388 After a lot of soul-searching and trying to figure out what to do with certain stories, I decided that I would create a new blog specifically for Human Trafficking. Human Trafficking Watch is focused on human trafficking without all of the fat of this scatter-shot blog. The idea is that I want to do my part to raise awareness of human trafficking. In addition, I think there is a lot of liberal politics as well as liberal activists hurting any meaningful understanding of human trafficking (think Cynthia McKinny). It's unfortunate because this is a huge, worldwide problem. One of the largest populations excusing this behavior is made up of mostly Muslims. However, I have seen so many people trying very hard to justify Islamic misogyny, honor killings, child abuse, and general oppression that Islam has become that proverbial elephant in the room. Human value is based on culture, which drives the process of having modern laws and strong law enforcement. So I don't want to whitewash many of the contributing factors that assist human trafficking in remaining a problem. There are many sites regarding human trafficking already, but I will have opinion and I have also started seeking out co-writers for that blog. Please bookmark the site and visit there often for discussion related to human trafficking: www.humantraffickingwatch.com P.S. Technorati claim link: Technorati Profile Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:08:19 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=387 So I took more time off. It's one of those things I can't control. Actually two of those things. Okay, there are three. Three things I can't control. Seeing how my number one priority is to my day job and my family, I had to make some sacrifices. But as it all got too much for me and I wanted attention, I threw myself down a flight of stairs quite accidentally and broke my knee cap. Fortunately, I don't need surgery and I'm in physical therapy (read: sadism) with a guy who only knows how to increase weights on weak joints arbitrarily and then laughs at each attempt to perform his exercises. The one thing that is overwhelming to me is the saturation of cynicism I feel as the final three blowhards duke it out for the Presidential Race. None are quality people and I had no idea what I was expecting, really. Maybe I want somebody to show a little character or backbone. How about somebody who would say, "Yes, my staffer called Hillary a 'monster'. So f-ing what? She is a monster and my staffer doesn't like her. Get over it." I pull a lever over that kind of honesty. But alas, you can only count on the dishonesty and spin. Also there are the daily verbal snipes at each other. McCain can try to avoid it, but he can't stay at the kids table much longer. He will be eventually pulled into doing what he has to do to survive, like a high school wannabe trying to fit in with the mean girls. The point is that the talent in the United States, all the captains of industry, all of people who know how to get shit done, and all of the visionaries who can see us in a better place have seemed to disappear in a weird Atlas Shrugged sort of way. The only people left in politics are two-dimensional sleazebags who would rather grin on TV than do real work, requiring planning and thinking. The adults left politics a long time ago and left the bullies and losers. I didn't vote in the primaries and I think I will end up voting recklessly in the general election since it's important and there are times I like to spit into the wind just to see if really will hit me on the way back. Both Republicans and Democrats should be mourning their parties right now. The Republicans have effectively demonstrated their complete inability to do anything meaningful after 8 years of control. No tax reform. No tort reform. No serious national security reform. The Democrats have done nothing but bitch and complain for 8 years and have proven themselves to be nothing better than indulged children fighting over plastic trucks while the rest of the playground is on fire. I find it particularly amusing that Hillary and Obama are competing to see who can tell the biggest whopper. Obama seems to be really growing into his arrogance and it is beginning to fit like a tailored suite. He is what Bill Clinton was in 1992, but without all of trailer trash stuck in his pants. Why so cynical? Because our country has devolved into a place where words have a shelf life of a few hours after the spin and over-management of each soundbite. The Presidential candidates are nothing more than micromanaged props and they lead the news every day. Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:49:16 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=386 My day job has been keeping me from maintain this blog, dammit. My last posting was about the Electronic Jihad program and the amount of hits I received. Following up on that article, I started researching the report following November 11. The media consensus is that it all of the threats and warnings related to Electronic Jihad amounted to nothing. Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs called it the Weak Horse and pointed to an analysis of the actual Electronic Jihad software at McAfee's Avert Labs blog. All told, the little bits of analysis make the code look to be written by high school or early college kids. If their network gets large enough, maybe they could have caused harm. Right now the websever isn’t working and the app seems like a no-go. I’d suggest everyone block traffic to the server http://al-jinan.net and stop worrying. With respect to Charles and Avert Labs, the point of November 11 was not the success of an attack. I believe it was a PR test and a trial balloon to see how many willing participants could be used. As I said in my previous article, if nothing significant was reported on November 11, future cyber attacks would be taken less seriously. Compare cyber terrorism to real world terrorism. In spite of the fact that Bin Laden openly declared war on the West in 1996, he was dismissed by most Westerners as just a man with very little reporting on his philosophy's origins to the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928. Even considering September 11, 2001, terrorism is not treated by the Western media as a threat to every day life. While the World Trade Center attack was a spectacular success for Islamic terrorism in both scale and inspiration, the West has failed to unite and stop terrorism worldwide. If anything, the West is more divided. Most of the time, terror attacks are not spectacular for the terrorists. Bus bombs in Israel may kill dozens, but not thousands. The murder of filmmakers, authors, and cartoonists may affect but doesn't actually cease the production of movies, books, and editorial cartoons. Even the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings didn't lay waste to New York. For these reasons, I think looking at fighting terrorism as a war fails because of the media's tendency to compare to historical scale. In the media's narrative, September 11 was an isolated event. The Iraq War cannot escape continual comparisons to the Vietnam War, even though the facts of both are completely different. The result is that failures are also successes for Islamic terror because the media's narrative that there is no war is supported. Each individual act of terror, whether successful or not, is reported as a unique event. Overall, the more failures there are, the less coverage terrorism gets. In many cases, like the riots in Paris, related stories avoided all together because they fill in the links between terrorism and the culture that supports it. Back to the Electronic Jihad story, I think the growth of cyber terrorism is following the same pattern. The November 11 Electronic Jihad stories, both before and after, minimized the threat of cyber terrorism and the eventual goals. In the same way reports of individual acts of terrorism ignore the context of the broad global culture of radical Islam, individual mainstream stories on cyber terrorism have no context. Don't forget Younis Tsouli, who used his script kiddie skills to enable terrorism. So what if Electronic Jihad is a program a first grader could code? The point is the culture behind it and the continued attempts to coordinate terrorist wannabes online. There is so much more to Electronic Jihad than scattered denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It is part of the step-by-step culture of radical Islam as it spreads like a virus into every aspect of our lives. It's been a long time since 1928 and terrorists are patient. Recommended Reading: Electronic Jihad v3.0 - What Cyber Jihad Isn't A Cyber Jihadist DoS Tool “Electronic Jihad” - Not November, But Never? The Electronic Jihad (that wasn’t) (from 2006) Electronic jihad, not yet... (from 2004--notice the narrative hasn't changed) Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:41:25 -0500 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=385 Back in July, I wrote about Electronic Jihad. It's a user-friendly cyber-attack application written for and by Muslims (I know, boggles the mind) for the purpose of launching Internet attacks on specified targets. DEBKAfile, a sometimes unreliable intelligence news source, reported on October 30 that Al Queda is attempting to coordinate a November 11 cyber attack (see DEBKAfile Exclusive: Al Qaeda declares Cyber Jihad on the West. Today there is official skepticism reported (see Scepticism over cyber-jihad rumours). The skeptics are probably closer to being correct in this case. However, because of my previous story about Cyber Jihad, I'm getting increased traffic from Google searches originating from Europe and India. Here are some example referrers from the last hour: http:/ / www.google.de/ search?hl=de &q=%22Electronic+Jihad+2.0%22 &meta= http:/ / www.google.com/ search?client=opera &rls=en &q=Electronic+Jihad+2.0 &sourceid=opera &ie=utf-8 &oe=utf-8 http:/ / www.google.com/ search?hl=en &safe=off &client=firefox-a &rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial &hs=uTc &q=%22Electronic+Jihad+2.0%22 &btnG=Search http:/ / www.google.de/ search?q=Electronic+Jihad+2.0 &ie=utf-8 &oe=utf-8 &aq=t &rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official &client=firefox-a http:/ / search.yahoo.com/ search?p=electronic+jihad+software+2.0 &ei=UTF-8 &fr=yfp-t-501-s &pstart=1 &b=21 http:/ / www.google.de/ search?hl=de &q=+Electronic+Jihad+2.0 &btnG=Google-Suche &meta= http:/ / www.google.ie/ search?q=Electronic+Jihad+2.0 &meta= http:/ / www.google.com/ search?sourceid=navclient &ie=UTF-8 &rls=SUNA,SUNA:2006-23,SUNA:en &q=Electronic+Jihad+2%2e0 The associated IP addresses for these queries originate in Germany, Denmark, Israel, India, and France (naturally). I rarely have visits from these countries. I average around 1500 unique visits per day and most are U.S. and Canada based. I think I'm getting this increase in traffic because there are news reports as well as some truth to the Cyber Jihad coordination. However, script kiddies make up a large portion of Internet trouble-makers and there is no shortage of Internet savvy terrorist wannabes. Like all other forms of terrorism, this is grass roots and it's growing. November 11 will probably come and go with no significant cyber attacks. The tech media will probably even cover what happened. However, technology security news rarely makes prime time MSM unless it involves massive identity theft and stolen credit card numbers like T.J. Maxx (and even then it's a sideline story). Like the rocket attacks in Israel, a lot of small attacks is not news. I estimate that this will not be the first attack, but because it will not amount to much more than some DOS attacks against certain Web sites, the media will move on and ignore the next attack. Hell, the media hardly reports on the massive coordinated attacks originating in China. Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:40:22 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=384 I already have election apathy. I stopped watching broadcast news regularly about a year or so after I realized all it consisted of was videos of whiny senators and representatives complaining about each other. That's not news; it's torture. It's nearly impossible to watch any news without some in depth story on the Presidential campaign, but not real coverage of the issues. The news is all about the horse race and I couldn't care less. We've had around two dozen debates collectively between the two parties and we are just now a year away from the actual, real election. States are competing to be the first to hold primaries like children fighting for the "good" seats on a school bus--they will all still end up riding together. The mud-slinging has started and political operatives are digging up everything they can on the candidates. I doubt we'll have an October surprise in 2008 since everybody is already spilling what they have in near real time. I feel like I'm in a department store that has Christmas decorations out before Easter. The media has catered to all of the candidates and their gun-jumping press conferences, fund raisers, whistle stops, and idiotic YouTube debates. It's incredible the amount of glowing coverage these people get for trying to outdo each other. Then I think about who these candidates actually are. Only a handful of them are officially working as a candidate as a full time job. The rest are senators, representatives, and a governor. Shouldn't they be working? I guess it's good they may be too busy to work on stupid legislation, but at the same time I don't like idea of these guys getting congressional pay to campaign. This precedent of campaigning so early could mean the next President will have to spend more than half of the first term campaigning for re-election. At that time, what's the point? Who cares who you vote for? It's not like the President will do much since the job description involves never-ending campaigning. You can add that to the relatively new job of spending a large chunk of time fighting with Congress and the Senate over their soundbites of the day. My election apathy has taken hold. It's hard not to be cynical when the politics trump everything else. Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:05:06 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=383 In this barely covered story, Nigerian girls were scared into remaining sex slaves because of voodoo: Dutch smash 'voodoo' child trade. Dutch authorities had been investigating the disappearance of 140 Nigerian children from asylum-seeker holding centres since January 2006.Several of the children were later found working as prostitutes in France, Italy and Spain, according to Dutch police.Thirteen arrests were made in Dutch cities and towns while a further six people, all Nigerians, were detained in New York, Madrid, Dublin, Coventry and Antwerp.Police said Germany and France were also involved in the operation but did not give details of any arrests there, though they said that "dozens" of arrests and searches of premises had been made overall.Those arrested are suspected of people-trafficking and involvement in a criminal organisation, falsifying travel documents, fraud and money-laundering.The Hague has asked for the suspects arrested abroad to be extradited to the Netherlands."The human-traffickers supplied the victims with false travel documents, flight tickets and instructions to seek asylum upon arrival at Schiphol Airport [Amsterdam]," a police statement said."The minors were placed in open shelters in the Netherlands, which made it relatively easy for the criminal organisation to keep control over the victims."Voodoo sometimes also kept the minors in line. In Nigeria they were forced to take a vow before a voodoo priest to repay a so-called debt."This debt had to settled with the earnings made in the prostitution. At their final destination the minor victims are under the constant supervision of a so-called 'Madam'." This is one of those "where's the outrage?" stories. There is a very serious problem in the third world. Between terrorism (i.e. violent, radical Islam) and organized crime, children born in Africa and the Middle East don't stand a chance. When is the West going to finally admit something must be done other than the spouting of rhetoric? Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:45:30 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=382 Read this article (Police: 'Coyotes' tortured migrants): Seven suspected "coyotes," or human smugglers, were arrested after sheriff's deputies raided a suspected drophouse in west Phoenix, where several undocumented immigrants were the victims of beatings and torture, authorities said Saturday.A total of 54 people, including the suspects and four children, were rounded up at a house in the 9400 block of West Coolidge Lane, south of Camelback Road, said Capt. Paul Chagolla, spokesman for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.The raid was launched Friday, and the investigation at the home continued Saturday.At least seven people were tortured there, including a man who was assaulted, threatened with a gun and had a plastic bag placed over his head before it was submerged in an unflushed toilet, Chagolla said.The man's pregnant spouse was taken to a hospital for treatment of a severe assault that likely will result in the loss of the unborn child, he said.Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a former regional director for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said shoving a head into a toilet is a common method of torture in Mexico."It appears the illegal criminal element is entering this county and is bringing its methods of carnage," Arpaio said. When I hear people making excuses for illegal immigration, this is the kind of stuff that comes to mind for me. Sure there are illegal aliens who want to come here to make a better life and they somehow bypassed getting killed or tortured. Read the words from a sheriff who faces illegal immigration regularly: "It appears the illegal criminal element is entering this country and is bringing its methods of carnage." I will never understand the politics that drive people to selectively apply outrage and condemnation. While the media will jump on any story involving the military and torture, even making a military-run operation synonymous with heinous evil ala Abu Graib and Gitmo, a literal house of horrors is a weekend wire story with zero traction. Real torture, not some fabrication about a book in a toilet. A real human being was dunked into a toilet as a direct result of illegal immigration. You won't see outrage because it would start an honest debate about how that couple ended up in that situation. Both sides of the isle in Washington don't want the public to know how two-faced they are when it comes to illegal immigration. The media doesn't want anyone to know how selective it is when it comes to pushing stories. The lack of debate means illegal immigration continues unchecked while real people go through hell to cross the border, paying off sociopath traffickers. Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:23:03 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=381 It was announced today that Canadian school teacher and professional pedophile, Christopher Paul Neil, was arrested in Thailand (see Thailand Holds Pedophile Suspect After Photo Decoded (Update2)). In a eerily similar case to that of Anthony Mark Bianchi, Neil traveled the globe to have sex with children (I feel ill just typing that sentence). Unlike Bianchi, Neil somehow managed to get INTERPOL's full attention. This is the first case of an international man hunt of this scale for a pedophile. I think INTERPOL has linked him to some key international sex traffickers. Based on his background, he is obviously not a trafficker; he's a user. As a result, the media mainly focuses on him and not his network. One most excellent article from the Canadian Press tells how open some Asian countries are about selling out children (see Corrupt law enforcement, sex networks provide cover for pedophiles in Asia. Across Asia, hundreds of thousands of girls and boys are believed to work in the sex trade mostly in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines.Some of their customers - mostly older men - commit their crimes with relative impunity, walking hand-in-hand with underage girls in Bangkok or with boys in a resort hotel on the Indonesian island of Bali. The victims in many cases are the poorest children, including beggars, street children and the homeless.. . . .Other pedophiles operate more covertly, depending on secretive pedophile rings in cyberspace to find their victims. The networks offer tips on the best places to meet children or arrange sexual rendezvous in luxury condos or on private yachts.To get access to such networks and earn credibility among their fellow pedophiles, they often must provide evidence of sex acts they have committed with children - as Neil appears to have done by putting the sexually explicit photos of himself with young boys.Still others turn to jobs like teaching or tutoring that gives them ready access to youngsters. Teaching English is especially popular because jobs are easy to get and the position carries with it a level of authority that makes it difficult for the children and even their parents to question abuses. Sick. There are so many angles to this story: pedophile teachers, international sex trafficking of children, and how the Internet is used to connect networks of pedophiles. I would like to see many more stories like the Canadian Press story quoted above. This problem is not going away; it's getting worse. Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:58:07 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=380 The city of Philadelphia has decided that the Boy Scouts aren't trendy enough. Since every prime time TV show has a token gay character, the Boy Scouts must really be out of step (see: Boy Scouts' Rent Hiked Over Gay Ban). That's really the only motivation I can think of where a city with such a sordid history of corruption and racial preferences would take on this issue. Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:54:06 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=379 I've been busy making Web sites and doing my real job, so I held off blogging until I could catch up. Money first, blog second. During this time, there were numerous stories about China. It seems to me the Chinese government has acquired enough wealth and stability that it can finally begin to show the world what it really is. Any other President than Bush would have been whole-heartedly supported for hosting the Dalai Lama at the White House and then awarding him the Congressional Medal of Freedom. Ten years ago, the Chinese government would have said nothing. Bush's unpopularity and its position as a global economic player gives the Chinese government a soapbox (see China Says U.S. 'Gravely Undermined' Relations With Dalai Lama Award). "The move of the United States is a blatant interference with China's internal affairs which has severely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and gravely undermined the relations between China and the United States," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference.He said Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had summoned U.S. Ambassador Clark T. Randt to express "strong protest to the U.S. government."China has warned that giving the award to a person it believes is trying to split the country would have serious consequences for relations, but has not said what it would do. Well, already China has declared it has an economic nuclear option. I think the huff over the Dalai Lama was a trial balloon to see how the U.S. would react. Specifically, Democrats have been so contrary to Bush, I think the Chinese wanted to see if they could cause Bush further grief by kicking up political dust. Hey, Al Quaida has already proven how easy it is to fracture our politics, so imagine what a legitimate government can do. Then over the AP wire: China's First Astronaut to Start Communist Party Branch in Space. While you're busy thinking about how the cute little Communists want to participate in the International Space Station, think about implications of this declaration. The same government that makes people just disappear, harvests organs from its own healthy citizens, performs wild medical experiments on otherwise healthy people, tries to smash any non-state-approved religion, steals information to gain technology advantages, and even tampers in U.S. politics by proxy. The outrageously cruel oppression of millions within its own borders is not enough. There's more coming from an increasingly vocal China as we continue to financially enable their bad behavior. Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:43:40 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=378 As I reported when these guys were first arrested, there was a connection to previous terrorist shadiness at USF. I have been off of blogging for a couple of weeks because of a tremendous work load. In the meantime, much more information has come out. As Michelle Malkin has summed up, CAIR is still trying to defend from a bad position and now the Egyptian government is going to fund the defense (see The Goose Creek Two, Egypt, and National Security). Then I read this: Dubai's Plans in the US. A Dubai-based sister company of DP World, who tried to buy a controlling interest in America’s seaports, has now purchased 1,300 acres of land in South Carolina, to be developed into a logistics center and business park. I think our greatest security risk is our foreign policy. The U.S. ignores bad behavior, questionable business transactions, and blatant attempts to compromise and test security practices. As Bill Gertz wrote about in yesterday's Washington Times, China is trying to acquire a large interest in 3Com: "There is no doubt as to why the Chinese want a partnership with 3Com," Mr. Hoekstra said in an interview. "They look at this as a key connection to stealing additional secrets from U.S. corporations and from our national security apparatus."Additionally, Mr. Hoekstra said the merger could help China obtain high-technology hardware to assist the Chinese military in its aggressive efforts to penetrate U.S. government computers and networks.If the proposed merger goes through, the Chinese will be able to learn details of "things we put in place to block hackers, so they will be in a better position to defeat those defenses," Mr. Hoekstra said.A defense official said senior policy-makers were caught by surprise by the Huawei deal, in a manner similar to the Pentagon's failure to respond quickly to the proposal last year by United Arab Emirates company Dubai Ports World to manage six major U.S. seaports. That deal was canceled over national security concerns.Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, said the 3Com-Huawei deal raises more red flags than the Dubai Ports World deal and called on the Bush administration to provide information about the 3Com deal to congressional leaders and request action from Congress if needed."If there is a loophole that is allowing valuable defense technology to be obtained by the Chinese military that will enable them to accelerate their military expansion, then we ought to close it," said Mr. Sessions, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Look how the U.S. has changed since the Cold War. Picture a Russian company buying interest in Boeing in 1985. The media would be all over that. Instead, we hear more about the Obama and Clinton Show than we do about actual current events. The "connect-the-dots" crowd has apparently moved on to other things. Somebody remind me why we have a State Department? Is that so terrorist-sponsoring countries can buy interest in American companies and finance legal defense funds (probably from the same foreign aid funds sent to them)? Here's a little reminder of some not-too-distant history. IBM and the Holocaust details how IBM technology helped Nazis organize and dispose of the Jews and other undesirables efficiently. Nazis In Pre-War London, 1930-1939: The Fate And Role Of German Party Members And British Sympathizers details German infiltration into British culture. Anybody who ever said "Never Again!" regarding the rise of the Nazis and the Holocaust should speak up now. Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:35:15 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=377 This is rich: Chinese Official Accuses Nations of Hacking. Of course we all know how honest the Chinese government is. For example, the Tiananmen Square massacre is something they try to hide on their side of the Great Firewall. This is an obvious attempt to turn the tables on the recent reports of Chinese hacking American government networks. When the reports about Chinese hacking surfaced early this month, the Chinese Foreign Ministry roundly denied them, saying China would never resort to such tactics. Foreign specialists recalled at the time, however, that the People's Liberation Army is believed to have an active information warfare program -- as do most advanced militaries -- as part of its effort to gain the ability to protect its own computer systems and disable those of adversaries.The hacking recently alleged in Washington, London and Berlin -- and now Beijing -- was described as something different, an attempt to burrow into government computers to gain secrets. As such, it appeared to fall more clearly into the domain of espionage.German Chancellor Angela Merkel, asked late last month whether she had brought up the issue during talks here with Chinese leaders, said, "We must together respect a set of game rules." Premier Wen Jiabao, with whom Merkel had just met, said hacking is a problem faced by all countries and should be combated jointly.Striking a different tone, Lou said China should also consider the Internet in a larger sense as a threat to its security. He said the United States and other Western countries use advanced technology "to create an information hegemony" and relay unfavorable news from China, raising the risk of social instability.These countries "have made the Internet a very important channel to infiltrate our politics, strengthening the delivery of Western democracy and values," he added. "More and more frequently, they organize writers to create bad information, exaggerating things that are inharmonious with our development and raise the specter of the China threat on the international scene." The emphasis is mine. One noticeable thing missing from this is the skepticism applied to our own government. When the Chinese government speaks officially, they are admittedly manipulating information to prevent "social instability". Yet this story seems like a press release from the Chinese government. Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:41:29 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=376 This is an interesting article from a couple of days ago. Dark Reading editor, Tim Wilson, walked around D.C. with the CSO of AirDefense looking for exposed wireless networks. The story's hook was their attempts to penetrate the White House's network. However, their exploits around D.C. really demonstrates how vulnerable wireless networks are. See Hacking the White House. To prove his point, Rushing later pulls up WIGLE, a war drivers' database that contains information on some 2.8 million wireless networks and access points that have been mapped by hackers and hobbyists around the world. WIGLE provides much of the same antenna-generated data that we've just collected at the White House -- only it's also got a map function, so you can see exactly where the APs are in your area -- and which ones are unprotected."Kids are adding to WIGLE all the time -- it's one of the ways you can look cool," Rushing says. "The more APs you've mapped, the cooler you are."Rushing superimposes the WIGLE map on Google's real-world satellite photo maps, so that we get an aerial view of the White House and surrounding area, with wireless APs represented as small rectangular boxes. About 4,000 wireless networks and APs have been mapped in less than one square mile around the White House -- at least eight of them are shown within the building itself. None of them shows up as accessible, but we can see exactly where they've been detected previously. If it's wireless, it's not secure. The very fact that Rushing could superimpose a map over reported wireless access points should also make network administrators shiver. Any of these networks could be breached for organized crime or even terrorism. It may be expense to pull cable, but it's better than exposing a network to data theft, ala TJ Maxx. Thu, 13 Sep 2007 08:51:48 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=375 I missed this story two weeks ago, but it's worth a read for the latest statistics on human trafficking. Save the Children UK published a report in March of 2007 entitled The Small Hands of Slavery. This report received emphasis again at the inauguration of Liverpool's International Slavery Museum. See 5,000 child prostitutes 'live as slaves' in the UK - report. The report states that 1.2 million children and babies are trafficked every year, including into Western Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean, and the number is increasing.Gangs involved in child and people trafficking make an estimated profit of 32 billion dollars per year (£16 billion), the charity said.Approximately 1.8 million children are being abused through prostitution, child pornography and sex tourism - and 75% of the UK's child prostitutes are girls.The report states that youngsters often lose their childhood by being sold into adult relationships."Child marriage, which often includes mail order and internet brides, is one of the most widespread, yet hidden, forms of slavery," says the report."Girls as young as four are forced to live and have sex with their husband, and are often kept trapped indoors."Girls under 15 are five times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than women over 20. In Afghanistan more than half of all girls are married before they are 16."The report concludes that one million children risk their lives working in quarries across Africa, Asia and south America.And that 300,000 under 15s are involved in fighting forces with an estimated 11,000 children being held by warring factions in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children's chief executive, said: "Child slavery is not a historical phenomenon - it is a stark reality for millions of children in both poor and rich countries."Governments everywhere, including the UK, are not doing enough to respond to the plight of children in this inhumane situation."World leaders and international donors must act as a matter of urgency to address child slavery and put in place the laws and resources needed to eradicate these terrible practices." These are stark statistics. Read the whole article and then get the report from The Small Hands of Slavery press release page or here on my site. Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:58:03 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=374 Pretty much all main stream news lacks substance. However, when a story could have been published by Fox News or The Onion, it's time to make fun. Fox News: Couple's Verdict on iPhone: It's a Split Decision FOXNews.com reporter Courtney Friel and her husband, WWOR-TV reporter Carter Evans, picked up a pair of Apple iPhones the day they came out.He loved his, but she hated hers — so much so that she took it back for a refund and is now happily pecking away again on her BlackBerry.What's right and wrong with the iPhone? Ask no further The Onion (classic from 2000): Web-Browser History A Chronicle Of Couple's Unspoken Desires The web-browser history on Allen and Christine Pollard's home iMac computer provides a comprehensive chronicle of the couple's deepest frustrations and desires, sources reported Monday."By simply opening Allen and Christine's Internet Explorer history folder, we find their innermost longings laid bare," said Dr. Terrence Kimble, dean of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. "From emotionally stunted, sexually frustrated Allen's frequent visits to porn and Camaro sites to childless Christine's frequent visits to baby-clothes sites, it's all right there."According to Kimble, the Pollards' browser history, which logs the 200 most recent hits by users of the computer, "offers a glimpse into an entire universe of unvoiced pain and disappointment." Similar but Different™ Fri, 07 Sep 2007 09:46:31 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=373 For a while now, the British government's tentacles seem to creep into every facet of its citizens lives. I've been following reports of everything from a family expelled from their neighborhood to government intervention to remove an obese boy from his mother. While noble on the surface, the continuing loss of UK citizen rights is disturbing to watch. Yesterday, I found an article on proposed changes by the Tories to NHS policies that would deny medical benefits to people with "unhealthy" lifestyles (see 'NHS should not treat those with unhealthy lifestyles' say Tories): Patients would be handed "NHS Health Miles Cards" allowing them to earn reward points for losing weight, giving up smoking, receiving immunisations or attending regular health screenings.Like a supermarket loyalty card, the points could be redeemed as discounts on gym membership and fresh fruit and vegetables, or even give priority for other public services - such as jumping the queue for council housing. . . . . .The report calls for a greater emphasis on the "citizen's responsibility" to be healthy and says no one should expect taxpayers to fund their unhealthy lifestyles.Yet while the Health Miles Card would award points for giving up smoking and losing weight, it could penalise those who are already fit and well because they would receive no benefits under the scheme. It's funny the article compares the proposed card to grocery store discount cards, used to track individual purchasing habits in exchange for discounts and rewards. These cards are enticement for individuals to be profiled and scrutinized. I have often wondered how far in the future health insurance companies will go to find out what individuals are buying. If you buy red meat or candy bars, could that cause you to pay higher premiums? In the case of this proposed "NHS Health Miles Card", I wonder if the governing policies will be as broad and, at the same time, nebulous as the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003. How subjective will "unhealthy" be? Does somebody with a broken leg become unhealthy because they stop going to gym while healing? As studies come out (almost published daily these days), does the standard for "unhealthy" change depending on the study? If a person chooses not to take medicines in lieu of alternative treatment, is that individual cut off? If such a plan comes to pass, the NHS would face a whole new set of problems aside from trying to define unhealthy. Those cut off from the program are still tax payers, paying for the NHS. Also it's worth noting that the philosophy of socialized medicine is everybody gets equal access to the same resources. The proposal may not happen, but it is a clear indication of the control mentality of Tory officials. Yesterday, I read about how Lord Justice Sedley is advocating a national DNA database to track everybody in the UK, not just convicted criminals. Naturally this is under the guise of law enforcement. He referred to unsolved crimes. As we have learned from many past events, good intentions can lead to the most dire of situations. I can't imagine what a government that wants to cut off health care for unhealthy people would do with a library of DNA. The potential for abuse and misuse is limitless. See Judge wants everyone in UK on DNA database. Today, Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the human rights organisation Liberty, warned against potential changes to how and when British authorities collected DNA data."The DNA debate reveals just how casual some people have become about the value of personal privacy," she said."A database of those convicted of sexual and violent crime is a perfectly sensible crimefighting measure."A database of every man, woman and child in the country is a chilling proposal, ripe for indignity, error and abuse." The emphasis is mine. Chakrabarti is exactly right. Personal liberties and privacy erode as the culture accepts the constant, piece-by-piece dismantling of rights. There is no conspiracy. Instead there is a general cultural acceptance that the government knows best and people shouldn't take care of themselves. I can't speak with much knowledge of European culture, but this micro-management of UK citizens reminds me of the detail in the European Union's constitution. Instead of securing basic liberties and relying on law, the nearly 500 pages of the constitution tries to address nearly everything the authors could think up (see A Constitution for Europe). Why is so much regulation and control acceptable? The U.S. government is bad enough and I feel smothered as it is. It's disturbing to see civil liberties destroyed by overzealous legislators, using law enforcement or public interest as an excuse. Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:08:44 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=372 Brian De Palma's film Redacted received some press over the weekend because of its reception at the Venice film festival. The interesting thing about this to me is De Palma's "realities of war" are presented as "fictionalized" because he claims his lawyers kept him from presenting the truth. So in his own way, De Palma has become a Scott Beauchamp, using fiction to execute both career and personal political agendas. Many of the sites I've seen have criticized De Palma's previous films as unnecessarily violent and sick. I can't entirely agree to that as a long-time fan of film noir and De Palma's tendency to tribute the genre with modern techniques. I especially like Femme Fatale with its over-the-top story, acting, and dialog. However, Redacted is fiction, based on a single, horrific event. I partially liked the recent The Black Dahlia with the exception of the subplot that implied Elizabeth Short was some kind of lesbian prostitute, which ultimately makes the movie distasteful. This fictional element of the real case was created by James Ellroy, the author of The Black Dahlia on which the movie was based. However, Elizabeth Short's memory was tainted by this fiction. Nobody really knows for sure how she ended up grotesquely murdered. Those who don't read or research historical events see movies like The Black Dahlia as nearly factual. De Palma knows this, I'm sure, and he is probably counting on audience acceptance that his vision of the Iraq War is fact as presented in Redacted. While Redacted is based on the real-life rape and murder of 14-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza and the execution of her family by four American soldiers, De Palma's agenda is to make the exception the rule. De Palma has openly stated that he wants American audiences to see the Iraq War in the way it is presented in his movie. His movie, however, is admittedly a mix of things downloaded from the Internet and fiction (see Redacted stuns Venice). "It's all out there on the Internet, you can find it if you look for it, but it's not in the major media. The media is now really part of the corporate establishment," he said.The film's title refers to how, according to De Palma, mainstream American newspapers and television channels are failing to tell the true story of the war by keeping the most graphic images of the conflict away from public opinion."When I went out to find the pictures, I said (to the media) give me the pictures you can't publish," he said, adding that because of legal dangers he too had to "edit" the material."Everything that is in the movie is based on something I found that actually happened. But once I had put it in the script I would get a note from a lawyer saying you can't use that because it's real and we may get sued," De Palma said."So I was forced to fictionalize things that were actually real."The film, shot in Jordan with a little known cast, ends with a series of photographs of Iraqi civilians killed and their faces blacked out for legal reasons."I think that's terrible because now we have not even given the dignity of faces to this suffering people," De Palma said. What can I say about Redacted that De Palma hasn't admitted to? He admits he researched the film on the Internet and we all know how reliable that can be. He claims things were fictionalized, yet he he has not specified what. I think his need to fictionalize was actually fictionalized so that the film fit his agenda. In addition, he mentions "suffering people" and I have yet to see evidence that anyone in the Middle East is suffering worse because of American presence there. Yes, we are at war in their country, but we have our military desperately building schools and public services that terrorists seem hell-bent on destroying. It's a shame that De Palma can't tell the difference between criminal activities perpetrated by a very small number of American soldiers and the day-to-day raping, honor killing, murder, and mutilation perpetrated by Muslims on other Muslims. At least our military investigates, arrests, and prosecutes those who commit such crimes. Throughout the Middle East, rapists and murderers roam free. I think underlying this story is something you won't see reported and analyzed by the MSM. That is the ways that documentaries and fiction are fusing to produce a reality that isn't so real. Anything from Michael Moore has as much fiction or misrepresentation as it has facts. "An Inconvenient Truth" excludes scientific rebuttals and therefore misleads. Now we have Redacted that is presented as the "reality" of war, but is a strange mix of Internet video and scripted scenes with actors. The viewer will be left out of knowing the context of the downloaded videos, who created them, and how reliable the author was (keep thinking Scott Beauchamp or Jayson Blair). De Palma may have given us such gems as The Untouchables, but like so many other Hollywood liberals, will demonstrate his lack of integrity, knowledge, and insight as he turns his talents to politics. Mon, 03 Sep 2007 16:49:23 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=371 I had to take a small break because of a quick stint in the hospital. It ended up being not serious. Back to work, I guess. Mon, 03 Sep 2007 14:52:18 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=370 Last Friday night, my daughters were among the millions that set the record for "High School Musical 2" to be the highest rated basic cable viewing ever. They swooned over Zac Efron (even though neither would admit it) and even tried to sing along to the new songs. It was cute, except for the part of "High School Musical 2" that told kids it sucked to work a summer job and serve other people as well as how unimportant college is when compared to making summer memories with your friends. From the CNN article, 'High School' sequel smashes ratings records: "Breaking the viewership record is terrific, but records come and go, and what's really important is the impact the 'High School Musical' movies have had on kids all over America and all over the world," said Gary Marsh, Disney Channel Worldwide entertainment president. The impact he's referring to is probably the merchandising, which is to be expected from a franchise this big. However, I noticed a not-so-subtle message about work and future planning. The characters came right out and said it. First they complain about working during summer vacation and having to serve other people. Then Zac Efron's character initiates the main plot in which he disses his friends because he's trying to get a basketball scholarship. This was really played up and he was a "jerk" and "sellout". Vanessa Hudgens's character eventually tells Efron that he is wrong because she wanted to "make memories" during the summer while chastising him for being too focused on the future. Naturally, Efron's character sees what a dope loser he's been and comes around and they end with a big song finale, "Everyday", where the cast sings "Today is all we have" and how it's all about "Right here and right now". The script naturally didn't answer how Efron's character was going to go to college without a scholarship. Was his dad going to cough up the money? Was he going to apply for student loans or end up working full time to pay for part time school? Why the hell were his friends such whiners? Sure, these were plot devices. I just don't like the message that working sucks and today is the only important day in your life shoved in my kids' faces. The first one was a remake of Grease. This one was something altogether different. Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:53:50 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=369 Just to underscore the risk of outsourcing private information, one of Pfizer's vendors allowed two relatively insecure laptops containing private employee information to be stolen: Pfizer Reports Second Data Breach In Two Months. In a letter to Pfizer employees, Lisa M. Goldman, out of Pfizer's privacy office, said two password-protected laptops owned by consulting firm Axia were stolen out of a car in Boston. The information contained employee names and Social Security numbers.Letters about the data breach were posted online by TheDay.com. Pfizer could not be reached for comment.Bernard Nash, a lawyer representing Pfizer, sent a letter to the state attorney general on July 20, notifying him of the data breach. He said the 950 people involved are health care professionals who were or were considering providing the company with contract services. He also noted that additional information, such as home addresses, cell phone numbers, and e-mail addresses, also were compromised."All data security incidents are unfortunate, and Pfizer and Axia are committed to maintaining the confidentiality and security of data," said Nash in the letter. "Pfizer is working with Axia to improve data security protections and will apply the lessons learned from this incident to its work with other contractors and its own employees, as well." Why would a vendor have such important information on a laptop without encrypted hard drives among other hardened security? Wed, 15 Aug 2007 06:39:09 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=368 Last week, Xiaodong Sheldon Meng, a Chinese national from Beijing with Canadian citizenship, pleaded guilty to providing restricted software products to China. His guilty plea came at the cost of 34 of the original 36 counts against him. His maximum jail time will be 24 months--I suspect fewer. What struck me most about this story was the way all of the news agencies reported it. What Meng allegedly gave to the Chinese government was called "trade secrets" or was considered "industrial espionage". The original press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office was very telling. United States Attorney Kevin V. Ryan stated, This case highlights the vital importance of protecting the intellectual property and trade secrets not only in Silicon Valley but also for our country's businesses. The alleged economic espionage and theft and export of trade secrets such as these -- visual simulation training software that has military application, no less -- has real consequences that could jeopardize our country's military advantages in the world, in addition to creating substantial financial losses for our businesses which legitimately developed and owned this information. We are grateful to our law enforcement partners for taking swift and appropriate action here, and also want to acknowledge the pivotal role private industry's ready cooperation has in these investigations. Since when did military secrets become simple intellectual property? Meng is a spy and stole information that is reported to give another country's military a distinct advantage over ours. However, the U.S. government spent three years investigating Meng, only to cut him a weak plea deal, and then the prosecutors charge him with intellectual property theft. How did a DOD defense contractor allow a Chinese national access to such sensitive information? This is bothersome. Back in the late 80s when I obtained my own TS-CSI clearance, I had to report any and all connections I had to any communist country. This included relatives, acquaintances, or business relations. I fault the DOD for not classifying the software and for not holding defense contractors to higher standards. If this software was that sensitive, Quantum3D should have been forced to follow certain protocols and hiring practices. It's like the government learned nothing from the Cold War. Inept management of sensitive information and technology has become a theme with the government these days. Each agency seems to outdo the other with complete incompetence. I think some of this stems from the 1990s when the Government Accounting Office (GAO) analyzed why so many defense contractors were bailing from government contracts. They documented personnel frustrations about bureaucratic processes and inability to make things happen. I also remember that many previous government defense contractors saw the dot com millions and how much easier that seemed than jumping through hoops for a large contract. At the same time, the branches of the military were pressuring the DOD to become more nimble and get better technology faster. What was lost in all of this discussion was how to deal with classified information in a sensible way. I haven't had TS clearance for a long time now and can't speak directly to current DOD policies versus how they are actually implemented, but as the case of Xiaodong Sheldon Meng demonstrates, the government as a whole has become too passive when it comes to protecting national secrets. The very fact that the comically ineffective ICE was investigating this guy for three years for "economic espionage" is frightening. ICE can't secure the borders and deport illegals, but they are charged with protecting military secrets? This was a case of incompetence all the way around. The DOD should be enforcing standards for military secrets. That doesn't mean going back to the old days of too-long-for-profit sales cycles for defense contractors, but it does mean holding those contractors to a minimum standard for classified information. Probably the reason the information wasn't classified was to accommodate this particular vendor. ICE's job is to protect the borders, not investigate DOD-related espionage. That is actually the responsibility of the FBI and other agencies participating in the Defensive Information Counter Espionage" program like the DIA and DOD. By the time this went to indictment, it wasn't about military espionage, it became a white collar, seemingly benign crime. What will it take for these agencies to realize the dangers of not taking information security seriously? Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:45:33 -0400 http://www.mkanderson.com/portal/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=367 Michelle Malkin is writing about the link between M-13 and the execution of the Newark students: Newark execution murders update: The MS-13 connection. I touched on illegal immigration and M-13 a couple of weeks ago. I have this sinking feeling that, if you will excuse me borrowing a post 9/11 media catch-phrase, the dots are not getting connected. We are again at the beginning of a new national threat and it will continue to spread like a virus until it is at an impossible scale. Those who continue to deny the link between crime and illegal immigration have backed themselves into a corner where they refuse to acknowledge the problem. They have turned the welcome sign on for M-13. What is there to stop them? Maybe they will get deported, maybe not, but right now they don't have a lot to worry about. Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:13:03 -0400