Nothing says Australia like a few jokes in a Financial Review about sex:
However you intend to put them to use, the new P9521 mobile handset from Porsche has impressive privacy credentials.
Nothing says “I love you (and I don’t want to know all about the other lovers)” quite like giving your cheating husband a mobile phone with a biometric lock on it.
Or, if your partner is not quite so long-suffering, nothing says “I want to protect my spouse (and while I’m at it, me) from the embarrassment of having my many indiscretions exposed by the ever-curious kiddies” quite like buying yourself such a mobile phone – one which locks itself after 15 seconds of inactivity (if only your zipper could enjoy such a respite), and which requires a swipe of your finger before it will unlock.
Culture obviously plays a big part in designing security controls, as well as figuring out how to market them. This story reminds me of the time I had dinner at the Tornado worlds in France. The Australian crew was constantly giggling as they tried to send phone-porn videos via bluetooth to each other and anyone else they could find who happened to have an insecure connection.
The article does not even touch upon the fact that this phone will utilize screen-lock technology far more efficiently than keypads, thereby offering a safer and more user-friendly alternative.
No, I am not talking about Halloween. I have seen quite a few people dressed as pirates already, though. I am referring to news on the International Chamber of Commerce Commercial Crime Services (ICCCCS) site:
Piracy and armed robbery attacks against ships rose 14% in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period in 2006, the second consecutive quarterly increase in attacks, as the coastal waters off Nigeria and Somalia became ever more dangerous, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reported [16 October 2007].
In the first nine months of the year, 198 attacks were reported versus 174 attacks reported in 2006 during the same time frame. A total of 15 vessels were hijacked, 172 crewmembers were taken hostage, 63 were kidnapped, and 21 were assaulted. If this trend continues, the decline in piracy attacks begun in 2004 will have bottomed out. Crew assaults, kidnapping and ransom rose dramatically from 2006.
The IMB Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) apparently keeps track of trend data and incidents, but I have yet to find any analysis or root-cause discussion.
That’s what I think the whole trick of saving oneself comes down to. If you’re going to swim, you don’t expect to be picked out of the water by a boat that may never come.
At this point I feel like I should translate the lyrics to Pedro Navaja.
It’s the story of a small gangster, of whom the song makes us a very successful portrait, who attacks a prostitute. In the aggression, the girl defends herself by shooting Pedro Navaja. They both die, while a drunk finds the bodies, searches them, and sets out again while singing out of tune what immediately becomes the chorus of the following ‘montuno’.
Instead, I think I will just say that swimming is not something that gets easier through collaboration. The more people in the water, the more they ultimately still have to save themselves or perhaps just one other — may the strongest swimmer survive. They may even interfere. A boat (e.g. technology-enhanced processes that can be leveraged by people trying to save themselves or others) is an entirely different story — may the strongest sailors provide value unto others and be justly rewarded for his/her collaborative efforts.
a blog about the poetry of information security, since 1995
