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Archive for the ‘Security’ Category

Rhode Island school district to begin using RFID to microchip students

Posted by patriot on June 19th, 2008

Another reason why we all love public education:

A Rhode Island school district has announced a pilot program to monitor student movements by means of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips implanted in their schoolbags.

The Middletown School District, in partnership with MAP Information Technology Corp., has launched a pilot program to implant RFID chips into the schoolbags of 80 children at the Aquidneck School. Each chip would be programmed with a student identification number, and would be read by an external device installed in one of two school buses. The buses would also be fitted with global positioning system (GPS) devices.

Safe deposit boxes aren’t safe

Posted by patriot on June 13th, 2008

So much for safe safe deposit boxes…

Police searching safety deposit boxes believed to have been used by Britain’s master criminals have found up to £14 million in cash.
…
Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s specialist crime directorate raided seven addresses on Monday as part of Operation Rize. It was the first swoop of its kind against criminals using this type of secure storage to hide their ill-gotten gains.

Detectives believe some of the UK’s top villains used the company to hide the proceeds from almost every type of crime. Police said they have been inundated with phone calls from concerned box owners as they try and sort legitimate property from criminal proceeds.

More than 7,000 safety deposit boxes of all shapes and sizes, rented for as little as £100 a year, were seized during the operation.

Woman admits to spying for China

Posted by patriot on May 29th, 2008

Gee, how many more spies are there?

A Chinese woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to helping a spy provide the Chinese government with U.S. military secrets about arms sales to Taiwan.

Yu Sin Kang, a Chinese citizen living legally in the United States, admitted serving as an intermediary for the delivery of classified information from agent Tai Shen Kuo to the Chinese government.

Kang, 33, faces up to 10 years in prison when she is sentenced August 1 in federal court in Virginia.

Kang’s plea marks the third and final guilty plea in what the U.S. government has called a “significant” conspiracy to obtain sensitive information on U.S. weapons destined for Taiwan.

Keeping Secrets

Posted by patriot on May 21st, 2008

Shhh, don’t tell:

Sometime in the next few years, if a memorandum signed by President Bush this month ever goes into effect, one government official talking to another about information on terrorists will have to begin by saying: “What I am about to tell you is controlled unclassified information enhanced with specified dissemination.”

That would mean, according to the memo, that the information requires safeguarding because “the inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure would create risk of substantial harm.”

Bush’s memorandum, signed on the eve of his daughter Jenna’s wedding, introduced “Controlled Unclassified Information” as a new government category that will replace “Sensitive but Unclassified.”

Travelers beware

Posted by patriot on April 29th, 2008

As one who will soon be traveling overseas, this news disturbs me:

Following in the wake of February’s news that customs agents were seizing electronics and making copies of all the files on cell phones and laptop hard drives, a federal appeals court has ruled on the legality of such searches. The result: Yeah, customs can do whatever it wants to your computer when you come across the border, without a warrant, and without cause.

The ruling extends to all electronics: In addition to laptops, feds can seize phone records and even digital pictures on your camera as they hunt for evidence. The ruling was unanimous among the three appellate judges.

More airports prepping to use full body scanners

Posted by patriot on April 15th, 2008

Peekaboo, I see you!

Some travelers at key airports in New York and Los Angeles may be put through machines that see through clothing and provide a detailed image of a person’s body beginning later this week.

The TSA says the screener who reviews the images is in a booth, unable to see the travelers.

It’s the first expansion of the program since the machines were first put to the test in Phoenix, Arizona.

The “whole body imaging” machines have sparked complaints from privacy advocates.

But the Transportation Security Administration says that it has taken steps to protect individuals’ privacy and that 90 percent of the travelers in Phoenix preferred the imaging machine to a pat-down.

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