LOOKUP

We can't imagine our lives without the Internet these days -- but hey, as they say..every story has 2 sides! Consider for example how easy it is for someone who wants to look you up (and possibly stock you, for whatever the reason) :) Gone are the days when you wanted to elope..and be in hiding for a few years.

There might be more services out there, but here is one that I ran into LookupAnyone.com

Oh come on..why do state/federal offices or other collecting agencies even sell their data to such websites! Why? What happened to privacy of citizens? I agree criminal and background checks are need when necessary -- but these can be done by offices specially delegated to do this. Why make the data 'public'? There is cost of course...seems like it is all about the money, at someone else's mercy.

Anyway -- if I ever move, or when I move..you know how to find me. :)

Fake faces ..real Identity?

..and you thought that ID theft due to "dumpster diving" was a problem. Check out the look-alikes that resemble some famous people. I ran into this website:
http://www.fakefaces.co.uk/ recently that claims to have celebrity look-alikes.

Assuming that the images are not-morphed (which also is a possibility), the resemblance is pretty striking. Think what would happen if Mr. Beckham, or Mr. Austin Powers would walk into a Thailand resort for a vacation. VIP service?

Well..I wonder if there is a look-alike that exists for every one of us -- not just celebrities. Oh yes, I learned a new word too. Apparently, a person who is a look-alike, but not related to you is called a "Doppelgänger".

Need a friend -- a bio or genetics scientists to tell me how close a match can ever get? Spooky.

Tweet Tweet

You think Facebook is intrusive? ..Checkout Twitter. I know Twitter started in 2006, but has been big only since the recent 1-2 years. There are pros and cons to such information (or status) broadcasts of course. Plus side -- you can be a social animal (only connected to the virtual world). The down side -- what about privacy? and what happened to the good old fashion in-person talk -- or even healthy gossip? :)

Here is a newscast where BU professor Azer Bestavros was recently interviewed. Nice discussion. By the way, President Obama also tweets.

My question is: How much should we tweet, but still enjoy the in-person experiences that usually become lasting memories?

P.S: I am not on Twitter. Will tweet for __ (not sure yet)

Data loss incidents -- Web portal

DataLossDB -- a comprehensive website that documents data loss incidents that happen world-wide. The implications of data loss are severe of course, but knowing about such incidents is good too. TJX case with 94,000,000 records compromised holds the record so far.

From the website:
"DataLossDB is a research project aimed at documenting known and reported data loss incidents world-wide. The effort is now a community one, and with the move to Open Security Foundation's DataLossDB.org, asks for contributions of new incidents and new data for existing incidents. For any questions about this site or the data contained within the site, please contact curators@datalossdb.org"

Da Vinci and Fibonacci

I just finished reading the novel "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. Leaving the controversies surrounding the books aside, I was intrigued by the use of Fibonacci numbers as a password, or crypt.

Fibonacci numbers as you are from the sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, ...

One could start with one of the numbers in the sequence, and use the rest of sequence (with minor modifications that are easy to remember) as a password. Brilliant - Jacques Saunière! Well, actually brilliant Leonardo of Pisa. I just learned that the Fibonacci sequence is named after Leonardo of Pisa, who was known as Fibonacci (a contraction of filius Bonaccio, "son of Bonaccio".)

If my password or PIN were: 131722 ...can you guess how I derived it?

Authentication (I am who I am)

There are a plenty of ways to authenticating (proving that you are YOU) in this world. In everyday life we are asked to authenticate ourselves by showing an ID, typing a password, finger print, etc.

Someone recently recently asked me:
What is most secure form of authentication or to establish one's identity?

a) one based on what you are

b) one based on what you can do

c) one based on what you know


Tricky!

Paper published at SEKE 2009

My paper titled "iPass: An Integrated Framework for Educating, Monitoring and Enforcing Password Policies for Online Services" was accepted at the 21st International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE 2009), Boston, USA, July 2009.

Creating your own security lab

Here is book on how you can create, set-up and practice + develop solutions.

Build Your Own Security Lab: A Field Guide for Network Testing (Paperback)
By Michael Gregg

I am in the process of develop some exercises, labs for my students -- let me know if you have any experiences :)