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Posts in English

Geekiest EJC ever

English, Events, Juggling, Unterwegs, , , , , ,

This year’s European Juggling Convention was probably the geekiest ever, featuring a geek point managed by Daniel Shultz. The predominant topic was siteswaps [FAQ]: creating, representing, discussing, and juggling them. This seems natural for a juggling convention.  But the point accommodated other types of geekery as well, such as cubes, board games, and the workshop Finnish for beginners. To save me some writing, see an interview with Daniel about the geek point (Nathan’s live streaming was geeky, too) and his video wrap-up.

Geekiest EJC ever weiterlesen →

Celebrate the 80th year of David Kahn in Luxemburg

English, Events, , , ,

The New Codebreakers, Luxembourg, June 28-29, 2010:

»The purpose of this event is to celebrate the 80th year of the eminent writer and historian of cryptography and intelligence David Kahn.

Dr Kahn is arguably the most famous writer on these subjects. In particular, he is the author of the famed book „The Codebreakers„. This appeared in the 60s and for decades was the only widely available and readable book on the making and breaking of codes and ciphers. For many researchers in the field this book was an inspiration and a key ingredient in setting them on their professional course.

The event brings together several eminent researchers in cryptography and the history of intelligence. Anyone interested in the event and in its topics is warmly invited to attend. There is no registration fee …«

http://www.codebreakers2010.uni.lu/

Security Engineering vs. Targeted Attacks

English, IT, Security, Werkbank

In a followup blog post on Zalewski’s security engineering rant, Charles Smutz argues that security engineering cannot solve the problem of targeted attacks:

»Lastly, while it technically would be possible to engineer defenses that would be effective, very few people really want to live the resulting vault in fort knox, let alone pay for the construction.«

(SmuSec:
Security Engineering Is Not The Solution to Targeted Attacks)

So what can security engineering do for us—and what can we do if we want to take reasonable precautions against targeted attacks?

P.S.: This new paper by Cormac Herley might be losely related: The Plight of the Targeted Attacker in a World of Scale. I haven’t read it yet.

Bigger Dogs

English, IT, Propaganda, Security,

Robert Graham of Errata Security explains how the notion of cyberwarfare misses reality by an inch or two:

»I’m reading various articles about the Russia’s proposal, with support from the UN, for a „cyberwarfare arms limitation treaty“. What astounds me is that nobody seems to realize that „cyberwarfare“ is a fictional story, and that „arms“ in cyberspace don’t exist. (…)«

(Errata Security: Cyberwar is fiction)

There isn’t much to comment on his text. I think he got it right.