google's voice recognition software

So it appears google's voice to text software has matured to the point they're adding captions to youtube videos and automatically transcribing voicemail.

I, for one, breathe a big sigh of relief knowing all audio communications/recordings are easily text searchable.

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In other personal communication security related news, someone gave pager intercepts from 9/11 to Wikileaks. The more interesting part:

"someone, possibly not even a government, was routinely intercepting most (all?) of the pager data in lower Manhattan as far back as 2001. Who was doing it? For that purpose?"

Schneier on Security

great article on computer security

A french hacker collected a lot of information about Twitter from Twitter employee accounts and sent it to TechCrunch. I especially liked the hacker's extreme but appropriate advice (in an apology letter translated from French):

I did not do this to profit from the information. Security is an area that fascinated me for many years and I want to do my job. In my everyday life, I help people to guard against the dangers of the Internet. I learned the basic rules .. For example: Be careful where you click the files that you download and what you type on the keyboard. Ensure that the computer is equipped with effective protection against viruses, external attacks, spam, phishing … Upgrading the operating system, software commonly used … Remember to use passwords without any similarity between them. Remember to change them regularly … Never store confidential information on the computer …

The Anatomy of the Twitter Attack (h/t Schneier)

There's a takeaway at the end of the article that's good advice too. I'm not sure this guy shares the hacker ethic but TechCrunch also has to deal with the ethical question.

the perils of social networking

Schneier has a couple recent posts on the insecurity of social networking that are worth taking a look at.

Identifying People using Anonymous Social Networking Data
Social Networking Identity Theft Scams

"Schneier on Security" - the book

Possibly the most important book published in 2008.

The US government's approach to security is nonsensical. Schneier explains why.

Slashdot review


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Bruce Schneier facts (based off Chuck Norris Facts)