encryption

Passwords are a real pain. It's not so bad dealing with one or two, but once you have five or more log-ins and passwords at various sites, even the sharpest mind will have trouble remembering what goes where. PassPack is a new service that attempts to solve this problem, letting you create a personal archive of log-ins and passwords that can be packed and unpacked with one master password.

After setting up PassPack, you can start plugging in as many accounts as you want. When you're done you can "Pack it up!" using a special packing … Read more

Like most webware fans, I love to play with the cool features at sites such as Splice, Jumpcut, and the like, but most of these Web 2.0 ventures require registration, which in turn requires filling out forms and tracking passwords and log-ins. It's not only Web-based applications and community sites. I often get most frustrated when buying airline tickets or holiday gifts through new online vendors. Typing out my entire address and credit card information is fine a few times, but I have lots of relatives, and the 23rd form gets to be a bit tiring.

In the … Read more

When you hear Los Alamos National Laboratory is disabling its computers' USB ports to prevent people from toting away flash memory drives filled with classified nuclear weapons information, it's not a stretch to imagine that there might be a market for thumb drives with a bit of security.

Enter Lexar's SAFE PSD S1100, a product line announced Monday geared for use at corporate or government customer sites where there's a need to keep the lid on sensitive data.

The drives offer built-in 256-bit file encryption and a mandatory password to gain access to the data. The encryption … Read more

Finally, a storage device we can use while snorkling and hiking up volcanoes.

This week, Kingston Technology released a new line of waterproof and temperature-resistant USB 2.0 flash drives with hardware encryption capability. The titanium-coated stainless steel DataTraveler Secure is available immediately in capacities of 512MB, 1GB, 2GB and 4GB and ranging in price from $40 to $244. The device's 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) hardware-based encryption does not require additional software in order for authorized users to encrypt and decrypt information stored on the device.

For the James Bond or Lara Croft in your life recently returning … Read more

Just an interesting note today: In a move that could boost the adoption of facial recognition technology, the Department of Homeland Security settled on a standard format for facial data.

The standard, developed by the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), tells facial-recognition software and hardware companies how to design their products to allow them to communicate with one another.

This should help the United States, and countries with which it shares visa waivers, roll out passports that contain facial recognition data that much faster.

The current chaos of an Internet plagued by viruses, worms, spam and phishing could be a vision into the future of the human race and genetic warfare, especially given that a stem-cell research measure passed in California on Tuesday.

As researchers dig farther into the human genome and perfect the technology of targeting specific human genes, doctors have begun to argue that programmable biology could give rise to viruses that target ethnic groups or needed resources, such as food stocks. A report by the British Medical Association paints a future world where biological threats could be created by the irresponsible … Read more

Many pundits have posited that the United States needs better identity cards and, in some cases, have argued for national identity cards.

Much of the time the argument for new identification measures rests on the fact that our current amalgam of identification is horribly insecure. Wide-open drivers' licenses and a proof of identity that general consists of an easily discoverable set of facts, such as date of birth and social security numbers, make adopting another person less than difficult. Without a doubt, it needs to be improved.

However, the recent arrests of the suspected members of an identity crime syndicate … Read more

The numbers are in, and they're big.

This week, President Bush signed the 2005 budget for funding the Department of Homeland Security, allocating some $40.7 billion to that agency, an increase of 6.6 percent over 2004.

The DHS's Science and Technology Directorate will get a 20 percent boost in pocket money, to some $1.1 billion. Almost half of the money will be spend on research and development of technologies that counter chemical, biological and radiological weapons. The United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) Program will received $340 million to deploy technology aimed … Read more

Richard Clarke responded to yesterday's post, indicating that the data he mentioned was for al-Qaida attacks. According to Clarke: "The number of al-Qaida attacks in the 36 months since 9/11 is twice the number of al-Qaida attacks in the 36 months prior to 9/11. The data you show is not al-Qaida attacks, but all attacks including by such groups as the Colombian FARC."

While that clears up the confusion, it remains debatable whether al-Qaida, currently the most urgent terrorist threat to the United States, should be the sole measure of U.S. national security.