Friday Squid Blogging: Squid-Inspired Hydrogel

Scientists have created a hydrogel “using squid mantle and creative chemistry.” As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. Read my blog posting guidelines here.

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Kevin Mitnick Hacked California Law in 1983

Early in his career, Kevin Mitnick successfully hacked California law. He told me the story when he heard about my new book, which he partially recounts his 2012 book, Ghost in the Wires. The setup is that he just discovered that there’s warrant for his arrest by the California Youth Authority, and he’s trying to figure out if there’s any way out of...

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A Guide to Phishing Attacks

This is a good list of modern phishing techniques.

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On Alec Baldwin’s Shooting

We recently learned that Alec Baldwin is being charged with involuntary manslaughter for his accidental shooting on a movie set. I don’t know the details of the case, nor the intricacies of the law, but I have a question about movie props. Why was an actual gun used on the set? And why were actual bullets used on the set? Why wasn’t it a fake gun:...

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US Cyber Command Operations During the 2022 Midterm Elections

The head of both US Cyber Command and the NSA, Gen. Paul Nakasone, broadly discussed that first organization’s offensive cyber operations during the runup to the 2022 midterm elections. He didn’t name names, of course: We did conduct operations persistently to make sure that our foreign adversaries couldn’t utilize infrastructure to impact us,” said...

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Bulk Surveillance of Money Transfers

Just another obscure warrantless surveillance program. US law enforcement can access details of money transfers without a warrant through an obscure surveillance program the Arizona attorney general’s office created in 2014. A database stored at a nonprofit, the Transaction Record Analysis Center (TRAC), provides full names and amounts for larger transfers...

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No-Fly List Exposed

I can’t remember the last time I thought about the US no-fly list: the list of people so dangerous they should never be allowed to fly on an airplane, yet so innocent that we can’t arrest them. Back when I thought about it a lot, I realized that the TSA’s practice of giving it to every airline meant that it was not well protected, and it certainly ended...

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Publisher’s Weekly Review of A Hacker’s Mind

Publisher’s Weekly reviewed A Hacker’s Mind—and it’s a starred review! “Hacking is something that the rich and powerful do, something that reinforces existing power structures,” contends security technologist Schneier (Click Here to Kill Everybody) in this excellent survey of exploitation. Taking a broad understanding of hacking as an “activity allowed...

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Friday Squid Blogging: Another Giant Squid Captured on Video

Here’s a new video of a giant squid, filmed in the Sea of Japan. I believe it’s injured. It’s so close to the surface, and not really moving very much. “We didn’t see the kinds of agile movements that many fish and marine creatures normally show,” he said. “Its tentacles and fins were moving very slowly.” As usual, you can also use this squid post...

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Real-World Steganography

From an article about Zheng Xiaoqing, an American convicted of spying for China: According to a Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment, the US citizen hid confidential files stolen from his employers in the binary code of a digital photograph of a sunset, which Mr Zheng then mailed to himself.

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