Dear Readers,
This time of year is the balance point between summer and winter, which means that we are approaching flagship conference season. The venerable Security and Privacy Symposium will be held in San Francisco, CA May 20-23, the excellent European Security and Privacy Conference is in Vienna, Austria July 8-12. Time to make travel plans!
The news recently has been full of information about hacking emanating from China. It is interesting, even fascinating, to think that the home router sitting in the corner gathering dust could be part of a massive international espionage and sabotage scheme. The Internet has brought forth the age of interconnection, where distance and unfamiliarity are not barriers to intrigue. Some of us grew up in what now seems a primitive age in which landlines and film cameras where the height of technology. Now, we wonder if that amazing bird feeder webcam is controlling cargo unloading in Baltimore.
Sven Dietrich has reviewed a recent book about a topic from days of yore: hacking locks. It's like cryptography, but physically tangible.
This month's parody poesy is a taken from literature unknown to me until just now when I looked up the source of one of my favorite quotes.FBI's sharp questions must I shun;
Must separate my router from the fun -
A tangled Internet we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!
Hilarie Orman