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is-a-password-protected-computer-like-a-locked-box

Posted by: admin 16 years, 3 months ago

A recent Cirtcut Court decision found them to be so:

The 10th Circuit's recent 2-1 decision in U.S. v. Andrus, No. 06-3094 (April 25, 2007), recognized for the first time that a password-protected computer is like a locked suitcase or a padlocked footlocker in a bedroom. The digital locks raise the expectation of privacy by the owner. The majority nonetheless refused to suppress the evidence.
In the case in question, the father of the suspect gave the officers permission to search the house and his son's computer. The test for the majority was pretty high:
Judge Michael R. Murphy, joined by the court's newest member, Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, said the legal test is "whether law enforcement knows or should reasonably suspect because of surrounding circumstances that the computer is password protected."
While the dissenting judge pointed out that it might be hard to determine if a computer is password protected:
In dissent, Judge Monroe G. McKay called the unconstrained ability of law enforcement to use forensic software to bypass password protection without first determining whether such passwords have been enabled amounts to "dangerously sidestepping the Fourth Amendment."

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phishers-exploit-weaknesses-in-certificate-process

Posted by: admin 16 years, 3 months ago
The Washington Post Security Fix points out how phishers are exploiting weakness in the certificate granting process to fool users.

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bank-security-article-published

Posted by: admin 16 years, 3 months ago
Please check out the article I wrote for Bankinfosecurity.com: Reducing Online Banking Fraud with Stronger Authentication Methods

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banking-group-sues-tjx

Posted by: admin 16 years, 3 months ago

In an interesting development in the economics of information security and data breaches, a group of banks is suing TJX for "negligent misrepresentation". According to Massachusetts Bankers Association CEO Daniel Forte:

"Banks all across the nation re-issued debit cards as a result of the TJX data breach. Preliminary estimates of the costs vary from institution to institution, up to $25 dollars per card," MBA officials said in a statement. "This alone would run into many millions of dollars for banks throughout the country. Moreover, when fraud occurs, banks generally cover the entire fraud, replacing money in customer accounts to protect their customers."
The banks, which once owned Visa, the creator of the PCI data security standards, now recognize that there costs are an externality in that system. The tort system is a pretty good system for dealing with externalities. Unfortunately for those who like to have real data on these matters, if the case is settled out of court, we probably won't know how much it actually costs TJX. I continue to believe it will not affect their brand or sales , but it will hurt their stock price as would any expenses that do not generate revenue.

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more-on-biometrics

Posted by: admin 16 years, 3 months ago
Adam points to a recent academic work on reproducing fingerprints from the 'templates' of data points that most systems use (instead of a full image of the fingerprint).

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