Category Archives: Security

Poetry, Security

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by Jim Harrison in The Shape of the Journey

    I went to Tucson and it gave
    me a headache. I don’t know how.
    Everyone’s a cousin in this world.
    I drove down a road of enormous houses
    that encompass many toilets. Down hallways,
    leaping left or right, you can crap at will.
    A mile away a dead Mexican child slept
    out in the desert on the wrong side of a mattress.

Jim Harrison is sometimes a satisfying source of insight. He has some clever quips that show he’s trying to avoid resting on the surface of things…

So I was fiddling around with some of the new online home valuation services, like Zillow, and found them disappointingly superficial. Who thinks up these algorithms? Can they be a real reflection of our society? For example, I noticed I could just keep adding bathrooms to increase an estimate of a home’s value. It does not matter how many bedrooms, kitchens etc. are in the house; configure a single-story 1 bedroom, 5 bathroom house and it is worth far more than a two-story 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom house.

Clearly, the more toilets, the better off you are.

Poetry, Security

Kitchen Villanelle

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Ode Less Travelled

This extract of a poem by Stephen Fry, in his new book The Ode Less Travelled, seems especially fitting for information security practitioners:

    How rare it is when things go right
    When days go by without a slip
    And don’t go wrong, as well they might.

    The smallest triumphs cause delight –
    The kitchen’s clean, the taps don’t drip,
    How rare it is when things go right.

    Your ice cream freezes overnight,
    Your jellies set, your pancakes flip
    And don’t go wrong, as well they might …

Energy, Security

Tax break on surveillance

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Someone mentioned new software licensing regulations that are tied to the “Secure America’s Homes and Businesses Act of 2005 (HR 3632)”. So I went online to read the text of the act and discovered that homeowners are elligible for $5,000, and businesses for $50,000, when they install surveillance systems.

Check out the exact text on THOMAS:

(a) Allowance of Deduction- In the case of a taxpayer who elects the application of this section, there shall be allowed as a deduction for the taxable year an amount equal to the cost of any expenses relating to the purchase and professional installation of a qualifying electronic premise security system in a residential or commercial premise owned or occupied by the taxpayer during such taxable year.

`(b) Maximum Deduction- The deduction allowed by subsection (a) for the taxable year shall not exceed–

`(1) in the case of a qualifying electronic premise security system installed in a residential premise, $5,000, and

`(2) in the case of a qualifying electronic premise security system installed in a commercial premise, $50,000.

`(c) Definitions- For purposes of this section–

`(1) QUALIFYING ELECTRONIC PREMISE SECURITY SYSTEM- The term `qualifying electronic premise security system’ means any of the following:

`(A) Electronic fire or life safety devices, intrusion detection alarms, and any other burglar alarms or devices.

`(B) Video surveillance or other security cameras and equipment.

`(C) Access controls, including biometric controls, automated fingerprint identification systems, and other electronic access control devices.

`(D) Components, wiring, system displays, terminals, auxiliary power supplies, and other equipment necessary or incidental to the installation and operation of any item described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C).

Nice that they specifically call out the fingerprint identification systems. Any old fire or life safety device will do, but you’d better consider fingerprints if you’re thinking about access controls. Come to think of it, it is about time I installed that solar-cell array and battery backup sytem with a diesel generator for my house. After all, what good is any kind of physical security system if it can be switched off or if the main power goes out? $5,000 worth of security per home sounds about right, no?

And what do you think constitutes a legal residential premise?

`residential premise’ means any house, condominium, cooperative unit, boat, or trailer used as a dwelling by the taxpayer

Sorry, you can’t live out of your urban assault vehicle and still get the tax break for security. And that takes me back to my earlier point on a strange loophole in the laws that I see people trying to worm their way into. If someone works/lives in a large vehicle on private property it appears that laws covering a residence do not apply, nor do the rules set forth by the department of transportation.

Now, where is that new law about software licenses?