Andrew Patrick

Do you know who Alan Turing is? Mathematician, cryptanalyst, and perhaps the father of modern computing. His work is widely considered to be responsible for shortening WWII by at least two years.

His code breaking machines, long before the days of modern computers, allowed the Allies to decrypt and analyze German communications, even though the Germans were using the “unbreakable” Enigma machines. It is easy to forget just how impressive and important this work was.

In this story one of the code breaking machines, a 6-foot tall electrical and mechanical “computer”, has been reproduced. I think this is a fitting tribute.

Code breaking machine that shortened the Second World War by two years

The rows of silver dials and tangle of scarlet wires look more like a telephone exchange.

But this is the inside of the Turing Bombe, the part-electronic, part-mechanical code-breaking machine and forerunner of the modern computer, which cracked 3,000 messages a day sent on Nazi Enigma machines during the Second World War.

There were 210 such bookcase-like Bombes that gave Britain advance warning of Hitler’s plans and shortened the conflict by two years.

Restaurants are often the source of stolen credit card information. The waiter takes your card when you pay and swipes it twice; once in the legitimate machine and once in a surprisingly small skimming machine that can be carried in a pocket. The waiter can make good money for each card that they swipe, and the result is that bad guys gather all the card information and make fake cards. It is good to see some of these people getting caught, but I think it is far more common than this one case represents.

Washington D.C. Restaurants Become Credit Card Cloning Hot Spots

With unobserved access to diner’s credit cards, restaurant wait staff have long been the source of a steady stream of stolen magstripe data. It takes only a second to swipe a customer’s card through a tiny skimming device purchasable over the internet, which is easily concealed in pocket or apron.

An interesting article from Wired on engineering versus design at Google. Douglas Bowman, Google’s visual design lead, is leaving because he says there is too much emphasis on engineering and not enough on design. While I am a big fan of having empirical evidence when making decisions, I can understand where it could be frustrating to have to run studies to decide on the width of a line or a shade of blue.

Google’s Data Culture Drives Designer Crazy — and Out

… he got fed up with constant pushback from a bureaucracy that seeks empirical justifications for choices made within what is essentially is an art form — and often about relatively insignificant details.

Here is an article on data storage that quotes Anil Somayaji from Carleton University. As he says, the answer to the question depends on what you are protecting against. It the case of protecting confidentiality, the article fails to mention the importance of encryption.

I am becoming a big fan of encrypted containers on laptop hard drives and USB keys. This gives me confidentiality and integrity for my important files. If you have not tried this, check out TrueCrypt.

The safest place to store your data

Given the conflicting information, what is the safest place to store your data?

“It all depends on what you define as safe,” says Anil Somayaji, an associate professor at Carleton University who specializes in computer security.

Typically, people consider three things, he says:

1. Confidentiality: Making sure your private information stays private.
2. Integrity: Making sure your data isn’t damaged.
3. Availability: Making sure your data isn’t lost.

In a related article, FEMA is moving to protect data on its laptops.

Thanks to flyinghamster for the tweats.

Schneier makes an obvious and valuable point: when assessing risk there is a big difference between a stranger approaching you and you approaching the stranger. In the first case you don’t know their motivations, while in the second you do know your motivations and, chances are, the stranger will not be dangerous.

I was thinking about this over the weekend when I happened upon a child wandering in a large hotel complex in San Diego. The small girl had that all-too-recognizable look of increasing panic on her face — it was clear that she was lost. As I approached her to ask if I could help, I could not help thinking about what this would look like to her and to anybody else nearby.

As it turned out, she was waiting for someone and was not sure she had the right meeting place. Within a minute or two her face changed dramatically as she saw the person she was waiting for, and off she ran with obvious relief. I wonder what the conversation was like when she got in the car with her adult caregivers.

Schneier on Security: The Kindness of Strangers

When I was growing up, children were commonly taught: “don’t talk to strangers.” Strangers might be bad, we were told, so it’s prudent to steer clear of them.

And yet most people are honest, kind, and generous, especially when someone asks them for help. If a small child is in trouble, the smartest thing he can do is find a nice-looking stranger and talk to him.

Financial Cryptography & Data Security was held in Barbados recently. I have posted a few photos from the island on Flickr. Next year…. the Canary Islands!

I think I have fixed the technical problems on this web site. It appears that the MySQL database that drives the Wordpress system became corrupted. Once that was repaired, there was also a strange problem with how the permalinks were configured. And of course, this happened when I was thousands of miles away and busy with other things.

Anyway, things should be working now. Let me know if you see any problems.