PEDES3ANTECH

First Edition Cover - image  source   This book resonated a lot with me. If you follow my blog or my twitter timeline you will see one theme that I am very passionate about - privacy and how the surveillance state is trying to eradicate it.  I became very passionate about this topic when I read about Snowden's revelations. Reading about the NSA's surveillance program and their seeming disregard of individual privacy was shocking to me. It made me want to know more about how our data is being collected and how it is being exposed to surveillance. Reading George Orwell's 1984 felt like it was a critique of our current state. There were three themes in the story that really struck me the most and I will go through each one of them in this post. The mere threat of constant surveillance is enough to kill dissent.  In the book the Party had installed countless Telescreens and listening devices as part of its surveillance infrastructure. The Thought Police could...

My humble book collection.  Almost everyone everywhere every year comes up with their own new years resolution. My wife, my son and I are no different. This year we decided to start a family project - to come up with a list of 100 books to read in our lifetime and start reading them. We got this idea when we were watching The Equalizer by Denzel Washington. In this movie Denzel Washington's character had a list of 100 books he wanted to read in his lifetime - an idea he got from his wife. The movie got us interested in this project and we decided to do it. There are a few immediate benefits to this project: It is very cheap - we both love going to the Public Library so access to these books was fairly easy and cheap. Some people want to go on a trip or buy a cool new gadget but this project costs nothing.  It is very easy to do. Me, my wife and my son can read and that is basically all that is required. It does not require any preparation, special skill or equipm...

Obama during his January 17, 2014 speech. Photo credit thinkprogress.org We are coming up to the 1 year anniversary of President Obama's speech promising the American people reforms on how the NSA works (see transcript of speech here ). Although the speech was an exercise in political babbling it had some promised reforms that would have limited the NSA's capabilities. On January 17, 2014 President Barack Obama promised the following reforms to the American people; Strengthen Executive oversight and review of Intelligence operation.          Obama said: " This guidance will strengthen executive branch oversight of our intelligence activities. It will ensure that we take into account our security requirements, but also our alliances, our trade and investment relationships, including the concerns of American companies, and our commitment to privacy and basic liberties. And we will review decisions about intelligence priorities and se...

The year 2014 was a big year for security and privacy. Big in a sense where people around the world were exposed to the reality that our privacy and security is at risk each and everyday. It was a great year for security and privacy awareness because there has never been a year in my memory when security and privacy took a very central role in our public debate. This is why I want to take a look back at the most important events in 2014 that highlighted the importance of security and privacy protection. Data Breaches in Major Retailers Less than a year after the Target data breach, two major US retailers fell victim to another attack. This time it was Home Depot and Staples. The Home Depot data breach saw the theft of 56 million email address, credit and debit card numbers. The attackers apparently gained access to their network using a vendor username and password - almost similar to how the Target attack began. The Staples data breach was smaller in scope - it exposed just a l...