Friday, January 16, 2004
Abuse of power - Yet another reason for regime change in Amerika
Gore--the person who actually won the vote for president in 2000--said recently in New York: "...I have noticed a troubling pattern that characterizes the Bush-Cheney administration's approach to almost all issues. In almost every policy area, the administration's consistent goal has been to eliminate any constraints on their exercise of raw power, whether by law, regulation, alliance or treaty. And in the process, they have in each case caused America to be seen by the other nations of the world as showing disdain for the international community."
From Bob Herbert's op-ed column in the New York Times, Masters of Deception
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/16/opinion/16HERB.html?hp
Gore--the person who actually won the vote for president in 2000--said recently in New York: "...I have noticed a troubling pattern that characterizes the Bush-Cheney administration's approach to almost all issues. In almost every policy area, the administration's consistent goal has been to eliminate any constraints on their exercise of raw power, whether by law, regulation, alliance or treaty. And in the process, they have in each case caused America to be seen by the other nations of the world as showing disdain for the international community."
From Bob Herbert's op-ed column in the New York Times, Masters of Deception
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/16/opinion/16HERB.html?hp
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Are you Red or Green? Or: How to defeat CAPPS--the Computer Assisted Passenger Screening System
It's bad enough that the government is taking advantage of the current climate of fear to restrict our civil rights and infringe on our privacy. Worse is that some of the steps they are taking may actually be making us less secure. The recently revealed plans for the second version of the Computer Assisted Passenger Screening System, CAPPS II, will color-code us when we travel. if you're determined to be a Red, you will simply not be allowed to fly; if you're a Green, you'll breeze through security.
Why does this make the flying less secure? A paper from MIT,"Carnival Booth: An Algorithm for Defeating the Computer-Assisted Passenger Screening System" shows that because they can find out if individuals are Red or Green, or something in between, terrorists can use CAPPS II to their advantage, and ensure that their plans are successful.
The gist of the method is contained in this excerpt:
3 Defeating CAPS
[T]ransparency is the Achilles’ Heel of CAPS; the fact that individuals know their CAPS status enables the system to be reverse engineered. You [...] know if you’re carryons have been manually inspected. You know if you’ve been questioned. You know if you’re asked to stand in a special line. You know if you’ve been frisked. All of this open scrutiny makes it possible to learn an anti-profile to defeat CAPS, even if the profile itself is always kept secret. We call this the “Carnival Booth Effect” since, like a carnie, it entices terrorists to “Step Right Up! See if you’re a winner!” In this case, the terrorist can step right up and see if he’s been flagged.
3.1 Carnival Booth Algorithm
We will now present an algorithm that a terrorist cell can employ to increase their probability of mounting a successful attack under the CAPS system as opposed to an airport security system that employs only random searches. The key idea is that a terrorist cell can probe the security system to ascertain which of their members have low CAPS scores. Then they can send these members on destructive missions. Since security manpower is disproportionately spent on people with high CAPS scores, and the operative has a low score, he will most likely face reduced scrutiny.
The algorithm, which we call Carnival Booth, then is as follows: (1) Probe the system by sending an operative on a flight. The operative has no intent of causing harm. He has no explosives. He has no weapons. He has nothing. He simply takes the flight and notes whether or not CAPS flags him. (2) If he is flagged, then send another operative in the same manner. (3) Repeat this process until a member who consistently eludes CAPS flags is found. (4) Now send this operative on a mission with intent to harm, complete with weapons or explosives. Since CAPS didn’t flag him last time, he likely won’t be flagged this time, so he incurs much less risk of special scrutiny.
From:
Carnival Booth: An Algorithm for Defeating the Computer-Assisted Passenger Screening System
http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/6805/student-papers/spring02-papers/caps.htm
It's bad enough that the government is taking advantage of the current climate of fear to restrict our civil rights and infringe on our privacy. Worse is that some of the steps they are taking may actually be making us less secure. The recently revealed plans for the second version of the Computer Assisted Passenger Screening System, CAPPS II, will color-code us when we travel. if you're determined to be a Red, you will simply not be allowed to fly; if you're a Green, you'll breeze through security.
Why does this make the flying less secure? A paper from MIT,"Carnival Booth: An Algorithm for Defeating the Computer-Assisted Passenger Screening System" shows that because they can find out if individuals are Red or Green, or something in between, terrorists can use CAPPS II to their advantage, and ensure that their plans are successful.
The gist of the method is contained in this excerpt:
3 Defeating CAPS
[T]ransparency is the Achilles’ Heel of CAPS; the fact that individuals know their CAPS status enables the system to be reverse engineered. You [...] know if you’re carryons have been manually inspected. You know if you’ve been questioned. You know if you’re asked to stand in a special line. You know if you’ve been frisked. All of this open scrutiny makes it possible to learn an anti-profile to defeat CAPS, even if the profile itself is always kept secret. We call this the “Carnival Booth Effect” since, like a carnie, it entices terrorists to “Step Right Up! See if you’re a winner!” In this case, the terrorist can step right up and see if he’s been flagged.
3.1 Carnival Booth Algorithm
We will now present an algorithm that a terrorist cell can employ to increase their probability of mounting a successful attack under the CAPS system as opposed to an airport security system that employs only random searches. The key idea is that a terrorist cell can probe the security system to ascertain which of their members have low CAPS scores. Then they can send these members on destructive missions. Since security manpower is disproportionately spent on people with high CAPS scores, and the operative has a low score, he will most likely face reduced scrutiny.
The algorithm, which we call Carnival Booth, then is as follows: (1) Probe the system by sending an operative on a flight. The operative has no intent of causing harm. He has no explosives. He has no weapons. He has nothing. He simply takes the flight and notes whether or not CAPS flags him. (2) If he is flagged, then send another operative in the same manner. (3) Repeat this process until a member who consistently eludes CAPS flags is found. (4) Now send this operative on a mission with intent to harm, complete with weapons or explosives. Since CAPS didn’t flag him last time, he likely won’t be flagged this time, so he incurs much less risk of special scrutiny.
From:
Carnival Booth: An Algorithm for Defeating the Computer-Assisted Passenger Screening System
http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/6805/student-papers/spring02-papers/caps.htm
Friday, January 09, 2004
Today is a green day: this post is about the environment. And there's nothing to make me see red like the Bush administration's raping the environment in the name of greed.
Ya know I almost believe that W himself is a nice, trustworthy guy. But he's ignorant and proud of that fact; he's proud that he doesn't read the newspapers or even watch news on TV. So he's dependent on the cooked pablum that his neocon, right-wingnut, and religious fanatic staff serve him for information. So perhaps this makes him amenable to calling the shots, good ol' frat boy that he is, in a way that benefit his friends and family. Maybe W is a victim too.
If you want to get worked up about the Bush administration's record on the environment yourself, there's this piece in Rolling Stone by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that indicts the administration on the terrible things that it is doing to this country: Crimes Against Nature.
Here's one excerpt to think about:
Ya know I almost believe that W himself is a nice, trustworthy guy. But he's ignorant and proud of that fact; he's proud that he doesn't read the newspapers or even watch news on TV. So he's dependent on the cooked pablum that his neocon, right-wingnut, and religious fanatic staff serve him for information. So perhaps this makes him amenable to calling the shots, good ol' frat boy that he is, in a way that benefit his friends and family. Maybe W is a victim too.
If you want to get worked up about the Bush administration's record on the environment yourself, there's this piece in Rolling Stone by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that indicts the administration on the terrible things that it is doing to this country: Crimes Against Nature.
Here's one excerpt to think about:
The rise of fascism across Europe in the 1930s offers many informative lessons on how corporate power can undermine a democracy. In Spain, Germany and Italy, industrialists allied themselves with right-wing leaders who used the provocation of terrorist attacks, continual wars, and invocations of patriotism and homeland security to tame the press, muzzle criticism by opponents and turn government over to corporate control. Those governments tapped industrial executives to run ministries and poured government money into corporate coffers with lucrative contracts to prosecute wars and build infrastructure. They encouraged friendly corporations to swallow media outlets, and they enriched the wealthiest classes, privatized the commons and pared down constitutional rights, creating short-term prosperity through pollution-based profits and constant wars. Benito Mussolini's inside view of this process led him to complain that "fascism should really be called 'corporatism.' "
