Category Archives: Security Reviews
Moving to a Forum
For CSE 484 this year, we have switched from the blog format to the forum format. The course website is online at http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/484/10wi/. This year’s forum is online at https://catalysttools.washington.edu/gopost/board/kohno/14597/. We switched from the blog format to the forum format … Continue reading
Security Review: Urban Chicken Coops
Chicken coops form the heart of many urban farmers’ livelihoods. Providing sustenance directly through eggs, indirectly through fertilization of soil, and supplementing any waste management system through the digestion of otherwise unusable organic matter, the occupants of these structures play … Continue reading
Google’s Online Library
Google has been scanning whole books and archiving them since at least 2004. More recently, it settled a lawsuit that will allow it to legally copy copyrighted books and making them available online. Google allows users to search their book … Continue reading
Security Review: New Weapons in the Fight Against Doping
The use of performance enhancing drugs and medical techniques is a serious problem in every sport, but no sport is as notorious for doping scandals as is professional cycling. While Olympic athletes, baseball players, and body builders are often caught … Continue reading
Security Review: Helios Online Voting
The Technology The technology being evaluated is the Helios Online Voting Booth, usable at http://www.heliosvoting.org and outlined in the 2008 Usenix Secuirty paper available at the same site. The election system does not create novel cryptographic tools or algorithms, rather … Continue reading
Security Review: Online Taxes
For the last couple of years, I have done my taxes online. Compared to doing them by hand on paper, the online method takes far less time to fill out. However, it also brings with it the host of security … Continue reading
Security Review: Eye-Fi
Eye-Fi “The Eye-Fi Card stores photos & videos like a normal memory card. When you turn your camera on within range of a configured Wi-Fi network, it wirelessly transfers your photos & videos. To your computer. Or to your favorite … Continue reading
Security Review: Hollywood Awards Presentations
Big Hollywood parties have big time guest lists, so it’s no wonder that many people want to be there. These include both (mostly) benign fans and some people of the less benign variety. Hence, security at these events is a … Continue reading
Security Review: AI
Although thanks to Sarah Connor from The Terminator, 1997 wasn’t quite the day machines went out of control, autonomous systems become more and more integrated into our lives. Although AI might take many years to get developed to the level … Continue reading
Security Review: Web based Remote Access
Many operating systems include some sort of remote access solution by default. Windows XP, for example, ship with Microsoft’s Remote Desktop as a simple remote administration interface. Even OpenBSD, the Unix variant which is usually regarded as the most secure … Continue reading