Category Archives: Security

Security

BaaCode for Icebreaker Clothing

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Icebreaker is a company that makes wool clothing. They provide a page where you can enter a code from your clothing to find out all kinds of information about its “source”:

Your unique Baacode will let you see the living conditions of the high country sheep that produced the merino fibre in your Icebreaker garment, meet the farmers who are custodians of this astonishing landscape, and follow every step of the supply chain. We’re sure you’ll find the experience as inspiring as we do. Enjoy your journey back to the source.

“Traceability” seems like a really good way to get a handle on the information that has to be displayed on packaging like sulfur, or nuts, or types of sweeteners. The use in garments is nice too, but seems more like a novelty than a necessity.

I wonder if anyone has invented a device that could scan a barcode, identify the product and then immediately advise whether the contents and/or source is suitable for purchase. That could save shoppers significant time/effort and help drive change in the market.

On the flip side, I wonder if Icebreaker monitors who checks their BaaCode and from where.

The demo code they offer for testing is 213C3F390 and the URL seems to support automated/scripted testing, like this:

https://www.icebreaker.com/site/baacode/trace.html?language=en&baacode=213C3F390

How long before someone runs every alphanumeric and downloads their database? Maybe there’s no threat. I mean what could anyone do with a database of wool fiber supply chain information? Could suppliers use it to reveal competitive info and set prices?

Energy, Food, Security

Degrading Plastic

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A story from last year’s TheRecord.com explains that plastic can now be degraded by natural microbes at an impressive rate. The solution? A high school student figured out he should isolate the most productive strains by testing them on plastic bags.

He knew plastic does eventually degrade, and figured microorganisms must be behind it. His goal was to isolate the microorganisms that can break down plastic — not an easy task because they don’t exist in high numbers in nature.

First, he ground plastic bags into a powder. Next, he used ordinary household chemicals, yeast and tap water to create a solution that would encourage microbe growth. To that, he added the plastic powder and dirt. Then the solution sat in a shaker at 30 degrees.

After three months of upping the concentration of plastic-eating microbes, Burd filtered out the remaining plastic powder and put his bacterial culture into three flasks with strips of plastic cut from grocery bags. As a control, he also added plastic to flasks containing boiled and therefore dead bacterial culture.

Six weeks later, he weighed the strips of plastic. The control strips were the same. But the ones that had been in the live bacterial culture weighed an average of 17 per cent less.

That wasn’t good enough for Burd. To identify the bacteria in his culture, he let them grow on agar plates and found he had four types of microbes. He tested those on more plastic strips and found only the second was capable of significant plastic degradation.

Next, Burd tried mixing his most effective strain with the others. He found strains one and two together produced a 32 per cent weight loss in his plastic strips. His theory is strain one helps strain two reproduce.

The risk of plastic now has to be recalculated.

History, Poetry, Security

La Steaua – To the Star

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by Mihai Eminescu

La Steua care-a rasarit
E-o cale atit de lunga
Ca mii de ani i-au trebuit
Luminii sa ajunga.

Poate de mult s-a stins in drum
In departari albastre
Iar raza ei abia acum
Luci vederii noastre.

My translation:

To the Star that rises
So far away
Many thousands of years
before we see the light

Perhaps it disappeared already
In the blue void
But only now it appears
shimmering in our eyes

Security

Kuala Lumpur Secret Agent Scam

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The New Straits Times Online tells an amusing story about a secret agent scam in Malaysia:

The opportunity to work as a secret agent or investigate high-profile cases involving VIPs seemed like a dream come true for 36 people who signed up to join the Federal Special Forces of Malaysia.
Led by what police sources described as a charismatic leader, the 36 men, aged between 20 and 30, signed up thinking they would serve the country in the field of national security.

“Recruits were told that selected people would get important tasks, including intelligence gathering, which carried great responsibility as it involves national security,” a source told the New Straits Times.

How do you confirm the authority of a secret agency when it is secret? Apparently you can check the registration.

“The movement was registered with the Registrar of Companies while the authority to form an enforcement unit lies with the Home Ministry.”

Just ask for their tax ID.