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The Telecom Digest
Volume 29 : Issue 96 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: California's upcoming 1-2-punch against distracted driving (David Clayton)
Re: California's upcoming 1-2-punch against distracted driving (Adam H. Kerman)
Re: Most people can't talk on a cellphone and drive safely, study finds (Robert Bonomi)
Re: Data security law sparks concerns (Robert Bonomi)
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Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:02:44 +1000
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: California's upcoming 1-2-punch against distracted driving
Message-ID: <pan.2010.04.06.05.02.41.951432@myrealbox.com>
On Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:20:22 -0700, Thad Floryan wrote:
........
> It's been
> awhile so my memory is fuzzy on this, but when I drove in Europe (mostly
> Germany and France) there was only one chance: get caught DUI and never,
> ever be able to drive again. We need that level of enforcement and
> sentencing everywhere.
I like the place that has traffic fines as a proportion of annual income.
IIRC a Nokia big-wig got caught a few years ago and was find hundreds of
thousands of dollars for a traffic offence under this method.
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 07:03:01 +0000 (UTC)
From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: California's upcoming 1-2-punch against distracted driving
Message-ID: <hpemb5$lb2$1@news.albasani.net>
Steven <diespammers@killspammers.com> wrote:
>Sam Spade wrote:
>>Steven wrote:
>>>The only way to stop usage of cell phones by drivers while holding them
>>>is to increase the fines to a few thousand dollars, anything under that
>>>will have no effect. I see hundreds of people each day using phones as
>>>I drive around. I stay as far as I can from them.
>>Why not take their car away from them, revoke their license, and give
>>them 10 years in prison?
>Give the police more reasons to take cars and you will have some
>agencies setting up road blocks and taking every car that comes through
>with a cell phone on board even if it not in use. And I spend 2o plus
>years as a Reserve Sheriff. Revoking the drivers license is fine with
>me, 10 years in Prison would have to make it a Felony.
A few hours in lockup would scare an otherwise law-abiding citizen
into not doing it again.
Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:52:21 -0500
From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Most people can't talk on a cellphone and drive safely, study finds
Message-ID: <L_idncj_2vuoVCbWnZ2dnUVZ_smdnZ2d@posted.nuvoxcommunications>
In article <9ovtn.31425$iu2.25592@newsfe15.iad>,
>
>***** Moderator's Note *****
>
>I'm feeling foolish: I always believed what the airlines said about
>how cellphones might interfere with the navigational equipment. Was
>that a lie?
There was, and may still be, an FAA rule of long standing that banned
the operation of devices that 'might' generate either magnetic or RF fields
during certain 'critical' parts (notably take-off and landing) of flights,
UNLESS that particular device had been tested in that particular aircraft
and found not to interfere with any of the navigation, communication, or
flight control systems (I believe there's another 'system' component, too,
but the name escapes me.) No provision for 'type acceptance' of either the
aircraft, or the 'electronic' device.
There was no hard evidence to say any such devices were a risk to flight
operations, but there was nothing that =guaranteed= that it was safe to
operate such devices. With lives on the line (literally), prudence demands
that one take the course of 'risk avoidance'.
For 'less-critical' portions of the flight, airlines did have some
discretion in the matter -- (paraphrasing) If they had "hard evidence"
that certain devices (or classes of devices) would not, under anything
approximating 'normal' circumstances, affect flight operations, etc. they
had the _discretion_ to allow the use of such devices, *IF*THEY*CHOSE*TO*.
"Absolute proof" was not a requirement (_that_ is impossible, in context),
but there did have to be 'compelling evidence' of innocuousness before
they had the freedom to make a choice. Needless to say, a lot of airlines
found it simpler/easier to 'just say no', than to put in the research to
establish, 'conclusively', what devices were, in fact, innocuous.
Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:33:41 -0500
From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Data security law sparks concerns
Message-ID: <0e-dndNL6phofSbWnZ2dnUVZ_jidnZ2d@posted.nuvoxcommunications>
In article <p0624082ac7dec3365af2@[10.0.1.4]>,
>
>***** Moderaotor's Note *****
>
>My new employer has given me a new laptop, which has a built in
>provision to encrypt the entire hard disk. The encryption is done by
>the laptop's hardware, not the Operating System, and I've been assured
>that the hard drive is unreadable in any other machine.
Don't believe everything you've been told. <grin>
Consider: If the machine (*not* the disk) breaks, is all the data on that
drive then "irretrievably" lost? or can it be recovered? If not, then either
(1) there is 'nothing important' on the machine, (2) it can all be readily
re-constituted from other records (raising the question of how secure are
those records), or (3) the data is duplicated 'somewhere else'.
Consider: all the "box specific" information needed to encrypt/decrypt
is in the hardware on that box. And, on another identical machine, it
has the corresponding information for -that- boxes encryption/decryption
stored in the same places. Once you identify where that information is
stored, how difficult would it be to copy the 'secrets' from the first
machine to the second one, assuming you got access to the hardware?
>The point is that I don't think protecting data is that hard to do.
That is an utterly *MEANINGLESS* statement -- unfortunately.
Before one can classify the effort required for protection, one must
decide "how much" protection, is required. This requires analyzing
the type of 'threat' one is protecting against, and how_much they
have by way of resources to 'attack' you.
For 'securing' _anything_, data or anything else, there are precisely
three basic methodologies, known colloquially as:
1) "something you have" -- e.g., a physical key.
2) "something you know" -- e.g., a password.
3) "something your are" -- e.g., a fingerprint, retinal scan, etc.
Protection against 'more determined' threats may employ _more_than_one_
of the above methodologies.
And, it is worth noting that 'whatever it is' that is protected by the
security system is ONLY as secure as the security on the thing you
'have/know/are'. If the bad guy is willing to go to the effort of
cutting off your finger, then protection by a fingerprint scanner is
NOT adequate, nor effective.
If the extent of the 'threat' is "accidential disclosure", then providing
'adequate' protection is fairly simple/straightforward.
If you're talking about a 'directed threat' -- where the bad guy has
expressly targeted you and/or your secrets -- the landscape is VERY
different. WHAT is the value of those secrets to someone else (not just
"anybody", but to someone who is optimally positioned to 'take advantage'
of those secrets, and has the resources to do so)? HOW MUCH money or
other resources can they devote to getting the secret and still 'come out
ahead' (in whatever measuring system they are using)? And, lastly, HOW
MUCH can -you- afford to devote to 'making it difficult' for them to do
so?
Say you know where you can sell stolen credit-card numbers, with the related
ID info, for $10 each. Say you know somebody who has a million such records.
That's a potential $10,000,000 'sale'.
Is it 'worth it', if it takes you 6 months, and you have to spend $3,000,000
to 'make it happen'? You don't have the $3 mill? is it worth it if you find
somebody who will 'front' the $3 mill, but wants triple their money back if
you succeed? Is $1 million 'adequate' compensation for the 6 months you'll
have to put in?
"Merely encrypting the disk is -not- going to be adequate. in this kind of
a situation. Controlling physical access to the machine is also part of
the game. Next, where is the access key ('what you have/know/are') kept
and how is that protected against forcible seizure? physical or other-
wise.
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End of The Telecom Digest (4 messages)
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