Category Archives: Security

Poetry, Security

How many ways can you say “rain” in Arabic?

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A new meme floating around lately on social media emphasizes how Arabic has many poetic ways to say “rain”; I mean the bone-chilling stuff that falls from storm clouds, which soon may cry on us with their sorrow (ﻏَﺪﺍً ﺳَﺘُﻤﻄِﺮُ ﺍَﻟﺪُﻧﻴَﺎ ﻋَﻠَﻰ ﺍَﻟﻘِﺼَﺺِ ﺍَﻟﻤُﺠَﺮَّﺣَﺔِ).

Source: alkhaleejonline.net إنفوجرافيك (infographic)

Does the rain fall continuously (Al-Wadaq) or in long waves (Al-Shaabeeb), frequent short squalls (Al-Youlool) or intermittently (Al-Martha’ina’)? Is the size of the drop small (Al-Qitqit), misty (A’-Tull) or large (Al-Wabil) and is it strong (Al-Gadaq) or weak (A’-Rihmah/Al-Hameemah)? Was it long and soft (A’Deemah)? Is the rain needed (Al-Ghaith) and nourishing (Al-Jaaw), leave a lot of water around (Al-Bu’aaq) or was it a deluge (A’-Saheetah) that washed away soil (A’-Saahiyah)? Does it cover a wide area (Al-Jada), and does it last many days with the consistency of a spring (Al-Ain)?

While these are beautiful thoughts about the variables of nature and the utility of language, it reminded me also of the old meme also about water from a different angle; all the ways you can say “camel” in Arabic…

السلوف-A female camel that leads other camels to the watering hole to drink

الدفون -A female camel in the middle of a herd of camels

الملواح or الهافة- A female camel that gets thirsty quickly

عيوف-A female camel that smells the water but often doesn’t drink it

مقامح- A female camel that doesn’t drink to heal her affliction

رقوب — A female camel that doesn’t drink from the watering hole when it’s busy, but waits and observes

ملحاح A female camel that doesn’t often leave the watering hole

ميراد A female camel that rushes to get to the watering hole

All food (er, water?) for thought when translating a very outlaw-sounding “revenge” message scrawled on a small fixed-wing drone that was just shot out of the sky by a counter rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) at 0430 local time near Baghdad International Airport.

Source: Twitter @HeshmatAlavi
Source: AFP

Reading right to left…
عمليات (eamaliaat) = operation
ثأر (thar) = revenge
القادة (alqada) = leaders

Now we just need to start translating the Chinese writing for what appears to be a DLW-20 engine or similar variant.

Source: REUTERS
Source: REUTERS

The writing on these wings distinguishes the drone from others that dropped from the sky six months ago, as documented on social media then by the “Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD) of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC)” (دژه تیرۆری کوردستان).

Related: Death from above.

Drones pose the biggest threat to US troops in the Middle East since IEDs, top general says

History, Security

If a color (pink) helps safety, why don’t motorcyclists wear it?

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It always surprised me that men’s motorcycle safety equipment didn’t come in the color pink. Baker-Miller pink, for example, has been alleged to reduce aggression.

Baker-Miller pink is a color named for two US Naval officers who first investigated the influence of that specific color. Baker-Miller pink was originally produced by mixing one pint of outdoor semi-gloss red trim paint and one gallon of pure white indoor latex paint (cf. Schauss, 1979). Presumably, the visual processing of the Baker-Miller pink affects neurological and endocrine functions, which in turn reduce physical strength, and thus aggressive behavior (cf. Ott, 1979; Pellegrini, Schauss, & Miller, 1981).

Here it is.

Do you feel calmed?

Does anyone really think two military men experimenting with shades of a color long associated in the west with male aggression (red) discovered a way to reduce aggression by diluting it?

The tint was, in fact, often considered more appropriate for little boys because it was seen as a paler shade or red, which had “masculine,” military undertones.

Regardless of that science about reducing violence by making a color less dark (dubious, it turns out), it’s still fair to say pink is extremely visible as documented in other research.

“Our study determined red-pink high visibility colours, less common in nature, could be searched for without false warnings using our system. The downside of this was some colour-blind workers had difficulty distinguishing pink. Subsequently, a multi-coloured solution including both yellow-green and red-pink may be recommended,” he says.

Studies in England further support the idea that yellow is all-too-common a color in their culture already to make it stand out as a personal safety device.

The results are interesting in that they show the previously held assertion that a bright reflective jacket will improve rider conspicuity may not always be true …

[T]he message seems to be that the most conspicuous outfit will be dictated by the lighting conditions and local environment at the time, which may be extremely variable within the confines of even a fairly short ride.

The studies conclude here that “standing out” is the definitive way to draw attention. Pink, thus, is very visible and almost never found in the kind of high-traffic landscape where motorcyclists are subjected to constant threats.

Go on, search for pink motorcycle gear for men, however. There’s nothing, not a thing, to be found. It’s almost so obvious as the best option, it’s even unavailable making it an even better one. But maybe that will change soon and we’ll return to the past…

There’s a shared recognition that pink can be pretty and powerful, feminine and feminist. Men are turning to it, too — as (they did) in the 18th century.

Security

Zoom Encryption Class Action Lawsuit: Victims Get $15 for False E2E

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This lawsuit settlement with Zoom begs the question how much Facebook users should get, given similar false claims of end-to-end encryption.

Zoom misrepresented its end-to-end encryption.

Seems like a redundant sentence, yet still good to see it officially stated.

Strangely, this giant lawsuit excludes any large customers who may have suffered the most egregious violations of trust. Note the “only” exception:

…“registered, used, opened, or downloaded the Zoom Meeting App” between March 30th, 2016, and July 30th, 2021, you can file a claim for $15. However, if you have only used Zoom with an “Enterprise-Level Account” or a government account, you’re excluded from the settlement.

Why?

It is not explained. The settlement details are in a PDF Notice.

The key phrase (pardon the pun) for me out of all the court documents is here from page 2 (also a PDF).

Zoom can still access the video and audio content of Zoom meetings.

That’s in fact a very similar problem to Facebook’s false representation (lies) about its implementation of encryption.

Technically Zoom made a different set of mistakes, however, and a court doc like this one all about that kind of distinction and detail.

For example, the court says the plaintiffs are probably right that Facebook and Zoom conspired to violate privacy (after all, Zoom hired the disgraced ex-CSO of Facebook to help drive its Titanic-level errors) but plaintiffs also did not always provide evidence of how they themselves were affected by each flaw.

The Court concludes that one former Plaintiff may have adequately alleged that Zoom shared her personal data through the Facebook SDK. Specifically, former Plaintiff Cynthia Gormezano alleges using Zoom on an iPhone “in March of 2020,” FAC ¶ 52—which is likely
while Zoom’s iOS app still implemented Facebook’s SDK. However, on February 18, 2021, Gormezano voluntarily dismissed her claims against Zoom without prejudice. ECF No. 158. Thus, the question is whether the remaining Plaintiffs adequately allege that Zoom disclosed their device data through Facebook’s SDK.

So Plaintiff Cynthia Gormezano dismissing her “adequate” claims meant an important specific flaw was swept under a rug since others couldn’t continue without her.

Is $15 enough compensation for such a failure of encryption and the exposure to Facebook’s “criminal executives” who failed even more massively at privacy?

Other related posts:

Security

Army Algorithm Predicts Internal Layout of a Building

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The accuracy in this one seems very low, but the StrategyPage article emphasizes a mindset where some knowledge is better than none.

…an algorithm developed by an army reserve officer, 2nd lieutenant Christian Lance Relleve, whose academic studies covered architecture as well as HSGI (Human Security and Global Intelligence) and International Relations. Relleve presented an algorithm that could predict the internal layout of a building with 70 percent accuracy based on what country the building was in, what the apparent purpose was and obvious external features. Relleve noted that there were many external indicators of how the internal layout was and he examined layouts in many countries for various types of structures.

I’m kind of curious if the accuracy is even lower in reality because many of the “correct” assessments are just warehouses, toilets or similar single-use simple construction.