Saturday, November 16, 2002

Here's the Markoff article Safire referenced. "The Pentagon is constructing a computer system that could create a vast electronic dragnet, searching for personal information as part of the hunt for terrorists around the globe [~] including the United States." [Scripting News] 10:44:15 AM

William Safire: You are a suspect. If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you: Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend [~] all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database." [New York Times] 10:40:38 AM

Minnesota's shame. Republicans don't like my criticism? Too bad. They have to answer for Norm Coleman's campaign, which exploited 9/11 in a way that was truly evil. [Salon.com] 9:43:49 AM

MS Takes Hard Line on Security. Microsoft Trustworthy Computing head Craig Mundie says the company plans to fix security holes in Windows -- even if it means forced upgrades and breaking applications customers use every day. Paul Boutin reports from Mountain View, California. [Wired News] OK, combine this with two other items on this page, the security chief for homeland contracts, and the felon Poindexter's new Big Brother database on all Americans, and what do you get? That's right, Microsoft will be putting software into Windows, and pushing it out to your computer, so it can spy on you for the US government. If that doesn't scare the shit out of you, you're not paying attention. 9:30:45 AM

MS hires security chief to win federal homeland contracts. Snuggling up to Washington [The Register] 9:28:06 AM

Bracing for MS Patent Suit Attack. With the Microsoft antitrust settlement more or less settled, open-source advocates worry the company may renew its assault on free software by filing patent lawsuits. By Robert McMillan. [Wired News] 9:27:36 AM

Security 'impossible' for Win9x, buy XP now, says MS exec. Company to begrudgingly forsake compatibility, it says here... [The Register] Actually, security is impossible for Windows XP, too. Read The Peon's Guide To Secure System Development to understand why, if you've got Windows on your network, you should just give up now. 9:23:33 AM

Big Brother redux William Safire's must-read column today reprises the reporting John Markoff did last week on the government's plans for a master database of personal information. You thought online marketers were bad? Admiral John Poindexter (of Iran-contra scandal fame) is spearheading a plan -- it's currently a part of the Homeland Security Act, which is seemingly on the verge of passage into law -- for "Total Information Awareness," a centralized federal spy database with dossiers on every U.S. citizen. It's significant that the outcry against this plan is hailing not just from the left but from civil-libertarian conservatives like Safire. Safire, of course, served as a speechwriter in the Nixon White House, where routine abuse of FBI files on American citizens was the order of the day. That era's rampant and hideous misuse of government surveillance for private political ends should stand as a reminder of the perils in Poindexter's plan. (Different Strings has posts on this issue here and here, as well.) [Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment] 9:13:57 AM

© Copyright 2003 Michael Alderete.