When it comes to recent cyber security events, these past few weeks
have been most strange. It was not terribly surprising to learn that the NSA
has been using hacker tools to monitor for terrorism – that was to be expected.
After all, if the bad-guys can use a tool, we should be able to use the same
tool.
It is also not too surprising that the NSA (and possibly others) are
tracking Google searches to look for anything “suspicious”.
After all, an Internet connection is not private. And as recent events in
Boston have demonstrated – if the Feds know that someone has potential to do
something and they don’t do something
about it, things can get bleak fast.
[BTW, here is a nice link about how the CDC uses Google search trends
to track influenza]
And, it is not even surprising that if someone Googles related terms,
such as “backpack” and “pressure cooker”, they can expect a visit from thelocal SWAT team.
Although in this case, we did learn later that the fellow did a search on “pressure
cooker bombs”. That changes the story just a bit.
However, when it comes to personal security, what does make me nutz is
when we do it to ourselves. A perfect example of a mental lapse is this story
which broke in today’s Oregonian where the folks at Sylvan Learning Center
tossed a massive amount of personal data on their clients – including social
security numbers and credit card numbers – into the dumpster!! It will cost them $100k for that slip up.
Grrr. And who says “dumpster diving” is a lost art?
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