New Florence. New Renaissance.

US Cyber Challenge

“With America’s cyber-defenses still in need of boosting, the US government has launched the US Cyber Challenge competition and talent search to find and develop 10,000 young Americans who can help the nation regain the lead in defending the Internet against attack.”

Consumer Reports

Protecting Kids online

"The Department of Homeland Security and several tech giants are teaming up to launch a nationwide volunteer program that will put tech pros in K-12 classrooms to make the younger generation aware of dangers on the Internet.

The pioneering program, to be announced today at the RSA security conference here, will teach youngsters not just to be wary of online predators and bullies but alert to the tricks of data thieves and scam artists."

USA Today

Privacy 2.0

I was catching up on some back reading and found the whole September issue of Scientific American dedicated to privacy in the age of terabytes and terror

Covers a wide range of topics that aid or threaten privacy from digital surveillance to social networks. cryptography, RFID tags, genetic markers and more.

The State of "Data Fusion"

"We have come to expect from Hollywood films such as Enemy of the State and the Jason Bourne trilogy that shadowy organizations have instant access to all the databases we rely on and, with a few keystrokes, can spy on our every movement. The process of collecting information from multiple sources and merging it, known as data fusion, is supposed to create an information resource that is more powerful, more flexible and more accurate than any of the original sources. Proponents of data fusion say that their systems let organizations make better use of the data they already have; critics say that fusion threatens civil liberties by using information in ways that were never envisioned when it was first collected. Both sides assume that data-fusion systems actually work. The reality is that the systems are nowhere nearly as omniscient, as reliable or as well developed as many people think."

The article then goes into the opportunities and ethical challenges around the most common application of such fusion - profiling,

Scientific American

Michael Chertoff on Cybersecurity

As Security officers converge in Las Vegas for the Black Hat conference, Wired interviews the Homeland Security chief about cyberwar, laptop searches at airports and more

Lenovo's Face Recognition Security

The IdeaPad uses VeriFace, a "facial recognition" program installed in the IdeaPad.  Put simply: You register yourself (and anyone else that you want to have access to the laptop) by letting the software "scan in" the faces in front of the built-in, 1.3-megapixel webcam. Those facial images can then be associated with logins

Consumer Reports

Also check out this biometric security around SAP via realtime.

A Valet Key for your identity

MIT Technology Review

"As online services that make use of personal data multiply, it's becoming more common for users to need to pass data from one service to another. This often requires users to hand over usernames and passwords, in spite of the obvious security risks involved. A new open-source project called OAuth, released earlier this month, is intended to solve this problem by allowing users to give services a valet key to their identities, rather than full access."

IBM's Smart Surveillance System

"S3 uses analytic tools to index digital video recordings and then issue real-time alerts when certain patterns are detected. It can be used to warn security guards when someone has entered a secure area or keep track of cars coming in and out of a parking lot."

"Beijing's S3 network is already being rolled out and is expected to be operational by the time the Games begin in August 2008..."

New York Times

"The Art of Surveillance"

"Designers, filmmakers and architects are making art out of the technology that watches over us. Mindful of Google Earth, camera phones, over-the-counter spy gear, reality TV, terrorist-conscious politicians and security-obsessed corporations, these interactive auteurs put their own spin on a surveillance-saturated global culture."

See a gallery at Wired

Extreme Transparency

There is Justin.tv

Now Hasan.tv goes a bit further in this coverage in Wired Magazine

"So it dawned on him: If being candid about his flights could clear his name, why not be open about everything? "I've discovered that the best way to protect your privacy is to give it away,""

If you go to his web site, he shows where is is real-time. He shows what he ate. How much he spent. Specific flights he was on.

Photos of the plane meals and airports he has endured. That probably causes more heart burn than being watched all the time -)