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Small Bits: Long tunnels, Marburg virus, Cyber Cons

(Posted by adam)

  • Iraqi prisoners have dug a 200m tunnel out of one of the US run prisons in Iraq. The BBC has pictures.
  • The Marburg is spreading in Angola. Marburg is an Ebola-like heamorraghic agent. Some analysis.
  • Charles Cooper has some commentary ranting about the state of the information security industry at cnet:
    It's tempting to become cynical about so sensitive a subject, but the blunt truth is that Americans care more about the ultimate outcome of "American Idol" than they do about repairing the nation's IT infrastructure. Outside of the confines of the security nerds who live and breathe this stuff, most folks are bored silly by the subject.
  • If you're not bored silly by this stuff, Not Bad for a Cubicle has a nice post on The Costs of Keeping Data. If you're responsible for security programs, you should read what he says about your costs and risks.

Posted by adam on March 27, 2005 at 12:54 PM in . You can: comment, view comments (4), see trackbacks (0) or search Technorati.

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Comments

Considering only the quoted portion of Cooper's rant, I would ask why InfoSec should be any different?

Outside of the civil engineering nerds who live and breathe the arcana of dam-building, nobody cares about advances in cement-based materials science, either, but I don't see anyone surprised by it. The same can be said for nearly any highly-technical profession.

This is master of the obvious material.

Posted by: Chris Walsh | March 27, 2005 3:01 PM

Amazing. Where did they put all the dirt? I can't believe that they threw it all down the toilets.

And why didn't the US people figure this out?

Posted by: Simson Garfinkel | March 27, 2005 3:32 PM

Oh, I thought that Marbug was a computer virus...

Posted by: Simson Garfinkel | March 27, 2005 3:35 PM

The book The Great Escape (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/044921068) is well worth reading. As you say, managing the dirt is amongst the biggest problems. At Sagan (http://www.1940.co.uk/history/books/greate/greate.htm), the prisoners dispersed it during exercise periods, from bags concealled in their pants. Everyone would shuffle to create dust swirls, and they had strings that would allow them to open and close the bags when their hands were in their pockets.

It's remarkable how clever people can be when they have nothing else to do but plot.

Posted by: adam | March 27, 2005 3:38 PM