Category Archives: Security Reviews
Security Review: Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature Profiling in Criminal Trials
In September of 2008, a 24-year-old woman in Maharashtra, India, was found guilty of murdering her fiancé. Her trial set a (troubling) legal precedent because brain electrical oscillation signature (BEOS) testing was cited as major evidence in her conviction. This … Continue reading
Pacemaker and Implantable Defibrillator Security Paper at Oakland
University of Washington CSE PhD student Dan Halperin et al.‘s paper on the security and privacy for pacemakers and implantable defibrillators just received the Best Paper Award at the annual IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (a.k.a. the “Oakland” conference). Dan and … Continue reading
Happy Spring Break!
Have a great spring break everyone! To readers of this blog: Please expect low activity for a while. The University of Washington is on the quarter system, and our quarter just ended. Everyone in the class is, of course, encouraged … Continue reading
Security Review: Husky Union Building
The Husky Union Building is the center of life on campus. It is home to the Associated Students of the University of Washington, hundreds of student clubs and organizations, the university bookstore, food vendors, university employee payroll and accounting, information … Continue reading
Security Review: Wireless Home Automation Systems
Summary:Home automation systems in general attempt to enable home owners to have a “smart” house. Instead of light switches you have integrated panels that control everything from your lights, to your shades, to your entertainment system, climate control, alarm system, … Continue reading
Security Review: “Smart Guns”
Overview This is a security review of “Smart Guns,” a general class of locking/use prevention mechanisms for firearms that rely on biometrics or other authentication indicators (such as “smart” chips embedded in the gun and in rings or other tokens … Continue reading
Security Review: credit cards stored in company databases
Summary: It is now very common to do business with companies that will by default (or even as a requirement to patronize) permanently store credit card and associated personal information in a database to help speed up future transactions or … Continue reading
Security Review: The Human Heart
As our professor has continually emphasized throughout the quarter, one of the primary aims of our course has been to go beyond technical details of current computer security in order to learn the security mindset. This new way of thinking … Continue reading
Water: Essential for Life
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
Security Review: Car GPS Navigation Systems
Summary Car GPS navigation systems are handy tool for finding one’s way on the road. With features like local points of interest, address book and SD card backup it would not be surprising if becomes a common everyday item soon. … Continue reading