The Internet of Things is going to be hard to secure, and there are number of community-based projects working on the problem. The goal of this page is to link to them and differentiate them according to their scope and purpose. The OWASP Internet of Things Top 10 ProjectThis project lists the 10 primary attack surface areas for…
Archives for February 2015
The Difference Between Software, Firmware, and Hardware
People don’t often think about the words software, firmware, and hardware, but let’s explore the first part of each term. Soft Firm Hard It’s like a sliding scale of permanence. Software is the set of user programs running on a system that are designed to be updated often by those users Firmware is semi-permanent software running on a…
Addressing the Decomposition Argument Made by Free Will Compatibilists
There is a common narrative put forth by compatibilists that goes something like this: Even if free will can be broken into subcomponents and disproved individually, that doesn’t make it false. Eddy Nahmias, a professor at Georgia State University, puts it this way in a New York Times piece where he defends compatibilism: The sciences of the mind…
Were Asimov’s Laws Flawed?
I just finished listening to the Partially Examined Life’s episode on Artificial Intelligence. They had Nick Bostrom on, talking about his book and his work in trying to make sure AI doesn’t ROFLStomp human civilization. I found the episode fascinating, but of all the things I learned there was an omission that rang loudest of all: They didn’t…
Take 1 Security Podcast: Episode 7
START CONTENT New stuxnet like piece of malware was discovered Was found by Kaspersky Has infected thousands of computers, mostly in Iran The malware is the most advanced ever found Can hide on the computer even after reinstall Many of the names used in the application are known NSA codenames, such as GROK Wired said those targeted groups…
Compatibilism’s Contradiction
I’m currently engaging in an email discussion on free will with Billie Pritchett, a keen thinker and writer on many philosophical topics. He is posting our exchange on his blog, which you should definitely take a look at. [ An Exchange with Daniel Miessler About Free Will ] The conversation has illuminated a key point for me in…
Universal Deamonization is the Future of the Internet and the Internet of Things
This piece is going to describe the future of the Internet and the Internet of Things. This isn’t just a potential future—it’s a virtual inevitability. Not many have heard it. You’ll be one of the first. The concept is called Universal Daemonization, and I’ve been writing and presenting on the topic for about a year now. Concepts Universal…
Why You Should Start Backing Up to the Cloud
I have a set of four 4TB hard drives sitting next to me that I’ve been waiting to put in my existing NAS. It’ll take me from 8TB of storage to 16TB. I was even considering upgrading to an 8-bay enclosure so I could combine them, for a total of 24TB (minus parity). But now I’m thinking I…
Take 1 Security Podcast: Episode 6
START CONTENT Ukrainian banks hacked for up to 1 Billion dollars Evidently installed malware on bank admin machines using phishing Not sure they have an FDIC As if the Ukraine didn’t have enough problems 10 million password project Mark Burnett posted 10 Million password combinations Went through a long explanation of why he was doing it I’ve broken…
Practice Reciting Your Core Life Lists
As a manager one of the core things I focus on with my team is keeping track of what value our team has provided for others. We not only want to know this so we can see if we’re doing good job, but also so that we can communicate successfully the value that we offer. The same concept…
It’s Time for a Free Press National Holiday
We have holidays for all manner of things. Staplers, kittens, dead presidents—whatever. I don’t keep track. I propose we create a new one for free speech, where every year on January 7th, the country’s media organizations, newspapers, bloggers—and anyone else who wants to participate—comes together to post content that would-be-banners object to. When Charlie Hebdo was hit there…
My Favorite Book on Writing
I have a project where I parse the books I read and then summarize them for myself and others. I’ve just done this with my favorite writing book: ‘Spent: The Basics of Clarity and Grace’, and you can find it here. [ Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace ]
Addiction Caused by Isolation?
I think one of the most interesting breakthroughs in medicine, if it turns out to be true, is that addiction is caused by social isolation and not the drug itself. In Rat Park, all the rats obviously tried both water bottles, because they didn’t know what was in them. But what happened next was startling.The rats with good…
For Free Will, Aren’t the Brain and Brain Tumor Identical?
Let’s assume we’re all determinists as it pertains to free will (compatibilists believe determinism is consistent with free will). So we’re all agreeing that there is nothing but physics, and that events are nothing but chains of causes rippling through time. Good. That’s where all but the Libertarians agree, and none of us is a Libertarian. So now…
Tipping Anyone with Apple Pay
People are really excited about being able to use Apple Pay to pay for gas. I get that. It is exciting. But I think there’s something potentially more useful. Tipping. I don’t like cash, and I try not to carry it. But I also don’t like not having cash to give valets, bag carriers at hotels, and, well…lots…
Why Studies Show That Attacking Free Will Makes People Less Moral
If you’ve been monitoring the free will debate at all you might recall that some studies were done recently that show the removal of the belief in free will makes people act more selfishly. I’ve been arguing for some time that humans believing that free will is an illusion can, and ultimately will, lead to us being more…
Take 1 Security Podcast: Episode 5
START CONTENT Anthem, the second largest healthcare company, had a major breach They lost around 80 million socials, addresses, emails, etc., which is roughly double the Target breach There’s speculation that it was China, trying to penetrate government, but it’s early Watch for phishing scams related to it The megabreaches continue…weee! A WordPress plugin called FancyBox had a…
An Argument for God and Free Will
Many atheists are fond of arguing that God does not exist. They claim that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, but ignore the billions who experience a divine presence every single day. As a scientifically-minded believer myself, I will show you below how the intelligent and anti-religious unconvincingly discount the existence of God, and I will show why they…
I’m Hiring a Part-time Researcher
I am hiring a part-time researcher to work on a project for me. The project is the following: For every member of congress, list their party and their top 10 donors For every donor, list the top 10 campaigns they donated to, the top issues they lobby congress on, and the top 3 goals they are trying to…
The Future of Global Entanglements
One of the most troublesome challenges for modern nations is determining what to do about failed states such as Iraq and Syria. These are places housing millions of human souls, and they have little infrastructure, no real economy to speak of, and precious little hope for all these reasons. For Iraq, this is after the United States spent…
Take 1 Security Podcast: Episode 4
START CONTENT Ghost bug in PHP could affect millions of servers Flaw is in glibc, which is extensively by all Linux distributions Patch and reboot using yum or aptitude The US Army Released DShell, a malware forensics tool This is an interesting trend where we see tons of formerly secret groups flock to Github. Great to see Reddit…