Host Black Swan
Site down for most of the day as a result of a backhoe in Pennsylvania slicing the optic line that Burst.net relies on. Redundancy system apparently just fell apart. But, important part is I’m back up and kicking.
TSA Uniforms
WMC –
Federal records obtained by our sister station in Nashville show screeners across the country have lost hundreds of their uniforms and credentials over the past two years. That includes 15 at both Memphis and Nashville International Airports.
A total of 88 were gone from Atlanta’s airport.
Debit Card System At Risk
MSNBC –
Researchers who work for an Israeli computer security company say they have discovered a fundamental weakness in the system that banks use to keep debit card PIN codes secret while they are transported across bank networks – a flaw that they say could undermine the entire debit card system.
The U.S. Secret Service is investigating the matter, and MSNBC.com obtained a memo compiled by the agency that indicates that organized criminals are systematically attempting to subvert the ATM system and unscramble encrypted PIN traffic.
Maximus and Safranski On Barnett
Nice dialog between Maximus and Sarfranski in these comments.
Fabius:
Barnett advocated aggressive international action, but with full knowledge of our National Security systems (State, Intel, DoD). If they did not meet the requirements of his Sys Admin etc forces, he should have protested strongly BEFORE the invasion.
It’s useless telling us far after the fact that the military we went to war with did not meet his theoretical requirements. I doubt any real world force does or will in our lifetimes.
Mark responds:
However, my best recollection is that Tom wrote that he expected that if Iraq turned into a debacle, it would ultimately force the military to commit to the structural transformation to deal with failed states/4GW/Sys Admin that they were avoiding with all their strength.
Which brings us back to one of my arguments regarding Barnett’s vision, which basically states that building a better mousetrap is not the right approach when the mice can innovate. Doing so implies that the enemy stays static while we propel forward, which we know is simply not the case.
AQ Thinks About Financial Cyber Attacks
MSNBC –
NBC News’ Pete Williams reported that a unit of the Homeland Security Department sent out an advisory to banks, saying that a jihadist Web site posted an “aspirational” item, which said it would be a good thing to carry out cyber attacks on the U.S. financial industry to retaliate for abuses at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility.
The item was one posting on a Web site that expressed a desire, and is not thought to be in any way imminent or actual.
Anyone know if these advisories are going out every time an open source threat is published?