Author Archives: Kris Plunkett

Water: Essential for Life

Posted on March 16, 2008 by Kris Plunkett

Summary: As humans we are cursed by the need for a number of basic necessities. Among these include nutritious food, clean air, and of course water. In this brief post I will focus on the later of these. While the … Continue reading →

Posted in Physical Security, Security Reviews | 1 Comment

The House on Amending FISA Act

Posted on March 14, 2008 by Kris Plunkett

Today the House of Representatives voted on a bill that would amend the FISA Act of 1978, which deals with government wiretapping. The amendments would deny amnesty to telecommunication industries for complying with illegal warrant less wiretaps by the Bush … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Policy, Privacy | Comments Off on The House on Amending FISA Act

The Goolag Scanner and Google Hacking

Posted on March 9, 2008 by Kris Plunkett

Bruce Schneier posted on his blog earlier in the week about a new, free, open source application by the “Cult of the Dead Cow” (cDc) called Goolag Scanner. It essentially automates a technique called Google Hacking, which was pioneered by … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Ethics, Policy | 4 Comments

ISP vs. BitTorrent

Posted on February 16, 2008 by Kris Plunkett

Since ISPs, most notably Comcast, some time ago began identifying and purposefully destroying or severely throttling BitTorrent connections passing through their networks, the struggles on both sides of the fence have been nothing short of a game of cat and … Continue reading →

Posted in Availability, Current Events, Privacy | 2 Comments

Our Nation’s Borders

Posted on February 6, 2008 by Kris Plunkett

The security of our nation’s borders is a topic of great importance. The importance of border security, like most forms of security, can only be truly appreciated when it fails. Some forms of border security failure can have devastating consequences … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous, Physical Security, Policy, Security Reviews | Comments Off on Our Nation’s Borders

Website Defacing Example

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Kris Plunkett

A while ago I wrote a post about having stumbled across a site on the uwnews domain that had been attacked. Yoshi reported the problem after determining it to be genuine and uwnews fixed the problem promptly. At the time, … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

Latest on the RIAA and Copyright Infringement

Posted on February 2, 2008 by Kris Plunkett

(article) The RIAA is trying to push the PRO-IP bill through Congress, which would grant them more protection under copyright law, including the ability to sue even more for illegal copying of media. Thought $9,000 per song was too much? … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events | 1 Comment

UWnews hacked?

Posted on January 29, 2008 by Kris Plunkett

I stumbled upon this and wanted to share: First go here ->  http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/article.asp?articleID=34207 Now go here  -> http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/ Any thoughts?  Just a basic site defacing?

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

Keeping an Open Wireless Network?

Posted on January 10, 2008 by Kris Plunkett

I’d like to briefly share with you an interesting article by famed computer security scientist Bruce Schneier that he recently wrote for Wired. In it he argues against securing your wireless network and for having open networks that others can … Continue reading →

Posted in Ethics, Miscellaneous, Policy | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments