A Password Strategy

Most people have a terrible password strategy; it consists of one password used for every type of account. It's usually either something easy to remember or uses one of those crazy letter substitution schemes.

If you follow this advice, it will keep your stuff more secure.

1. Wherever possible, use a "pass phrase" rather than a password. A long pass phrase such as "we wish you a merry christmas" is much harder for a computer to crack than, "p@ssw0rd1" for example. The theory behind this is that machines can easily crack words using letter substitution so using symbols in place of letters is no help. However, a pass phrase with a minimum of 12 characters takes a LOT longer for computer to crack. In my example of a pass phrase above, it's a 28 letter password (including spaces). Do you have any idea what kind of resources would have to be thrown to decrypt a password that length? Also, a pass phrase is easier to remember than a cryptic, but shorter password.

2. Use a different pass phrase for each banking or financial account. Even if there are only slight differences, protect your most important asset. Databases can get cracked. Sometimes when this happens, the passwords are also discovered. You don't want one database being cracked to result in all of your accounts being drained. If you use one of those RSA tokens to access your account you probably don't have to worry about this so much, but still use a good pass phrase.

3. Account levels. You don't need a million different passwords, but having a couple of account levels is definitely appropriate. The levels should resemble the following:
*Financial - we already discussed this
*Communications - social networking, email
*Shopping and memberships - Amazon, iTunes, Netflix.
*Casual - Pretty much everything else that is non-critical

So we're talking about 4 different pass phrases to remember. The don't need to be totally different but don't make the difference obvious. Remember, 12 characters MINIMUM.

One other point of note, some stupid sites require you to use capitalization and at least one number and one symbol. In that case, come up with a standard combination and stick to a pass phrase. "we wish you a merry christmas D8$" would take care of most requirements. And if any site that is not in the "casual" category restricts you to using less than 12 characters, you should consider using some other service.

A Modern Day Hero

A man in Knoxville, TN has been arrested for shooting out red light cameras.

He apparently made some mistakes, but hopefully he'll serve as an inspiration for others. I'm not advocating illegal activity here, really I'm not but, if someone really wanted to know the best way to take out traffic cams and I was to offer my advice, this is what it would be. What I am about to describe is ILLEGAL. Do not attempt to do this. This post is for informational purposes only.

1. Do NOT make your first target a cam you've been given a ticket from. Maybe your 4th or 5th if you make it that far. As it is, the police are going to comb the list of 'criminals' that have run red lights in that city or county. Preferably you should never target a cam in your city at all. But you can bet that if all the surrounding cities have their cams shot out and your city doesn't, they'll narrow it down a bit. Just don't be obvious.
2. ONE SHOT - ONE KILL! It doesn't matter if you miss or just 'wound' the thing. Do not EVER take a second shot. There can be no exceptions to this rule.
3. Take your shot from as far away from the cam as you can while maintaining your accuracy.
4. Scope out your target at least a week in advance. If this becomes a Federal issue, they're going to have to review a lot of footage from surrounding surveillance cams to look for suspicious behavior. I don't credit the police with an overabundance of brains but there's no reason to make it easy for them.
   
5. Do not use a weapon traceable to you and only use that weapon to take out the cams. If you use a variety of weapons you have a greater probability of getting caught.*
6. Do NOT brag about what you've done. Someone will turn you in. Do what you're doing for ideological reasons; there is no reason to brag about. Get it done and keep your mouth shut.
7. Know when to stop. The longer you keep doing it, the closer they'll get to catching you.
8. Watch your background. Don't shoot at a cam that has housing or a building with lots of windows behind it. You're only trying to kill a cam, not a person.
9. If you can, always have an alibi; preferably a different one for each act. Letting a potential alibi know why they're an alibi makes them an accessory. People like that will turn on you in a heartbeat if it keeps them out of jail if/when the cops get close.
10. Be very observant of all your surroundings at all times during planning and execution.
    

Yes, I think that red light cams and the dearth of other surveillance cams invading our privacy are a detriment to our liberty. It's not just the cams either. It's the increasing thirst of bureaucrats for information about our lives in the interest of "security." One day, all of this stored data will be dumped in to some sort of quantum computer and you'll be categorized, ranked and rated for your overall threat level to society, yourself, your children, etc. Whatever the government deems merely inappropriate will be the law of the land because it will become increasingly easy to enforce their will and catch those that are not in compliance. As it is, if the technology existed today to capture all of your thoughts and store it in a database, the government would insist on doing it and say that it's for our own good.

Technology is encroaching on our freedoms daily. The answer is not less technology, it is, as always, less government.


*Some of you might suggest using as many different weapons as possible to disguise the fact that it's just one shooter. As far as I'm concerned it's better that they know they're looking for just one person and that the media knows it too. They would figure it out anyway.

We're So Much Safer Now

Yes folks, we have verifiable evidence that more government has made us more secure.

Ok, you're laughing and rightfully so because the statement above is purely a work of fiction. The fact of the matter is, we're not safer now, we're far from it. USA Today published an article that says that airport screeners missed 75% of fake bombs at LAX and 60% at O'Hare.

**TERRORIST INSTRUCTION ALERT**
If terrorists decided to send 10 guys with one bomb each on 10 different place going from LAX 7 out of 10 of them would succeed in getting aboard the plane with the bomb.
**END TERRORIST INSTRUCTION ALERT**

The fact is, we're not safer and the government (any government) is incapable of making us safer from anything but an invading enemy hoard (even that is questionable at times). After 9/11, the TSA took over airport screening duties. Obviously they had to hire a lot of existing screeners from the private companies who ran them. I haven't done any research but I imagine more than a few security companies went out of business because the government essentially stole their businesses from them.

The article says that in the late 1990, screeners only missed about 40% of fake bombs. Certainly the technology available to the general public to make bombs has improved, the ability to screen for bombs has improved too so we should be seeing at least some consistency in that number. But no, when you work for the government your ability to perform does not increase. You are more hampered by bureaucracy (or bureaucrazy as Nelly called it once) when you work for the government. Walk in to any government office and see what a model of efficiency, innovation and pure joy it is. Could you expect anything more from government security screeners? If it's really a matter of national security, why not use military? They tend to have more of a sense of dedication than the typical government worker.

Let's put airport security back in the hands of the airlines where it belongs. They have a responsibility to keep their passengers safe. Their livelihood depends on it so let them do it. Let them compete for a "Safest Airline" award by some private entity.

Let's get rid of every other Federal agency and let the market fill the need if there actually is one for the services it provides at our expense.