Notes for 2015-09-13

TSA goof renders its system for securing airline baggage completely useless

This month, using a photo mistakenly allowed by the TSA — and published by The Washington Post — a enterprising solid modeler has uploaded a 3D-printable model for a master key. Now anyone with an upmarket 3D printer can make his or her own key. More importantly, the black market will no doubt be flooded with those keys as a result — rendering the several-hundred-million TSA-approved “Travel Sentry” locks not much more useful than cable ties.

This perfectly explains why we shouldn’t put a government back door into our computer encryption systems. One goof and everything is insecure, and the things we encrypt are a lot more valuable than some clothes in a suitcase.

You don’t pack anything valuable in your checked suitcase at the airport right?

Department of Energy Hacked Over 150 Times in Four Years

The US Department of Energy, the agency that helps regulate our power grid, nuclear arsenal, and national labs, has been hacked 159 times between 2010 and 2014, according to a review of federal records obtained by USA Today.

Even if there was a way to give the government a backdoor into our encryption standards, how can we possibly trust them to keep those keys secure?

I got a computer chip implanted into my hand. Here’s how it went. – Vox

now have a chip embedded in my left hand.

Specifically, it’s a glass-encased RFID/NFC chip. I barely notice it, honestly. While you can feel the chip if you know where to poke, it’s not visible once it’s inside your hand. I just have a tiny cut that’s healing fast:

Sci-fi movies have been really good at predicting things, or maybe the people that watch the movies end up getting their ideas that way. Either way, it’s interesting that things like this are showing up.

So how long until these are mandatory? 30 years? 50?

DISCUSS ON OUR FORUM

Previous Thoughts You Might Have Missed:

  • Tuesday: Microsoft is Trying Really Hard to Shoot Themselves in the Foot
  • Monday: The Best Upgrade for Your Surface Pro 3 is the SP4 Keyboard
  • Saturday: First Impressions of the Apple TV: Lots of Entering Passwords Using the Remote
  • Friday: Soon, Windows 10 Will Be Automatically Pushed Through Windows Update
  • Monday: The Emperor Has No Clothes and Nobody Cares

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How to Play Wii and GameCube Games on your PC with Dolphin

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How to Test if Your ISP is Throttling Your Internet Connection

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