[EAS] The Insecurities All Around Us

[Peter J. Kindlmann]

Dear Friends and Colleagues -

The recovery from the damage done by Hurricane Sandy to our physical 
infrastructure reminds us vividly of its vulnerability. As get our 
various network services back, it is also worth reflecting on how 
fundamentally vulnerable those network services are.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/science/rethinking-the-computer-at-80.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

or if you want to get into detail,
http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/10/155536-internet-voting-in-the-us/fulltext

Banks are regularly and quietly replenishing funds stolen though 
computer fraud, without publicity, so as to not shake confidence in 
their services. The amounts involved are growing.

And now we are on the eve of a likely very close election using 
computers systems often not thoroughly tested, with provisional 
software patches, .....  We, the voters, can only hope there won't be 
quiet replenishments.

Or as Stalin is chillingly quoted in the NYT article: "It's not who 
votes that counts, it's who counts the votes."

All the best in all regards,  --PJK

[Again I am grateful to my security-expert friend, Alfred Ganz of AG 
Consulting, for this material.]