evilrouters.net

computer world is reporting that:

a laptop containing “strategic information” was stolen from a campaign field office of presidential contender John McCain.

The laptop contained “strategic information for the [Republican party] on how we are going to reach out to people in the Kansas City area.”

i guess they’ve never heard of pgp or whole disk encryption, in general, both of which i use and recommend.

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stolen from bob plankers:

“if elected president, senator john mccain would reserve the right to run his own warrantless wiretapping program against americans…”

anybody who votes for this guy doesn’t deserve freedom, which will be good since there won’t be much left.

mccain: i’d spy on americans secretly, too

barack obama was in casper, wyoming, today at a town hall meeting. obama condemned the use of the bush’s administration habit of getting wiretaps without warrants and also their willingness to imprison people without actually charging them with anything.

“there’s nothing republican about that. everyone should be outraged…”

obama said that he would ask his attorney general “to review every executive order” that the bush administration implemented.

“we are going to overturn those that are unconstitutional. we are going to overturn those that are unnecessary.”

he was rewarded for that with a standing ovation.

…like the nsa headquarters.

thanks to the billboard liberation front!

just wanted to wish a belated happy birthday to president abraham lincoln, who was quoted as saying:

“i see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me, and causes me to tremble for the safety of our country. corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the republic is destroyed.”

thanks to bob plankers, “the lone sysadmin” for this:

here’s senator russ feingold talking very frankly about fisa and the issue of privacy (it’s short):

this guy gets it.

according to the international association of privacy professionals, january 28th is “data privacy day”:

north america joins 27 european countries to celebrate data privacy day 2008. the day will feature several efforts to promote the importance of data protection, including a meeting at duke university among european and u.s. privacy experts.

the iapp is encouraging privacy professionals to contact local schools, colleges and universities and offer to give a presentation on or during the week of january 28 about privacy using the materials provided. our goal is to have privacy professionals all over the country giving presentations to students about the importance of privacy today. details about presentations that happen during the week of january 28 should be sent directly to kim macneill at kim@privacyassocation.org.

as john bambenek mentioned on the sans handler’s diary, however:

“the important note about this effort is that it focuses its attention on the weakest area of privacy protection, the individual themselves. if people do not protect their own information (for instance, by putting their entire lives in their facebook profile) there is little other groups can do to prevent the misuse of that information.”

i just wish i had heard about this earlier. i work in higher education (college students are the most prominent facebook users) and could have done some presentations there. my hometown, an hour away, also has its share of parents who i’m sure would have benefitted from something like this. alas, maybe next year.

if you’re interested in seeing how much personal information i have on my facebook profile, add me as a friend!

in regards to “the end of privacy”, i just stumbled across glenn greenwald’s political blog on salon. he was liveblogging earlier today on the proceedings and has a really awesome write-up in plain english about today’s fisa vote.

by blocking an extension, republicans just basically assured that the paa — which they spent the last seven months shrilly insisting was crucial if we are going to be saved from the terrorists — will expire on friday without any new bill in place. since the house is going out of session after tomorrow, there is no way to get a new bill in place before friday. the republicans, at bush’s behest, just knowingly deprived the intelligence community of a tool they have long claimed is so vital. is the media going to understand and be able to explain what the republicans just did? yes, that’s a rhetorical question.

this is fucking awesome! it’s only a small step, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

elliot cohen, ph.d., posted a piece today entitled “the end of privacy” that’s definitely worthy of a read. in the article, cohen discusses the foreign intelligence surveillance act (fisa) that is a huge violation of american’s fourth amendment rights.

personally, i don’t see how people can just by and allow the government to take their freedoms away. i lost some of mine years ago when, at the age of 19 or 20, i was an dumb kid and committed a felony. i’d really like to keep the ones that i still have left.

though the phrase (and many similar ones) is often incorrectly attributed to benjamin franklin and we’ve all heard it before, it’s definitely proving true (in the united states):

“those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”.

i don’t want to summarize the whole article — which describes the project for the new american century — because i definitely think everyone should read it, but i do want to quote the last paragraph:

it would be a mistake to underestimate the resolve of the bush administration. but it would be a bigger mistake for americans not to stand united against this familiar pattern of government scare tactics and manipulation. there are grave dangers to the survival of democracy posted by allowing any present or future government unfettered access to all of our private electronic communications. these dangers must be carefully weighed against the dubious and unproven benefits that granting such an awesome power to government might have on fending off cyber-attacks.

and with that, i’m off to compose a letter to my governmental representation in washington.