The Stupidest Bill of the Month

The winner of my "Stupid Bill of the month" award goes to Sen. Robert Adley, Republican of Louisiana (http:⁄⁄senate.legis.state.la.us⁄adley⁄), for his SB 151 which was signed into law as Act 62 on June 1, 2010. This bill adds a mandatory 1 year additional sentence for an burglary or other crime against person or property which was facilitated by an Internet map (Google maps, or MapQuest). If such a nefarious device (Google maps), is used in an act of terrorism, then an mandatory 10 years is added to whatever penalty the criminal received.

So, if you commit a burglary in Louisiana, don't let the authorities know you used Google or MapQuest to get your directions. It'll be an additional 1 year.

Brazil and the FBI Vrs. Truecrypt

Daniel Dantas was under investigation for money laundering in Brazil. Under Brazilian law you cannot be compelled to reveal your passwords. He had 5 hard drives encrypted with TrueCrypt. I've done articles on it before, starting in 2006. The Brazilian authorities tried to crack it for 5 months before giving up and asking the FBI for help. After a year of working on it, the FBI also failed and returned the drives.

It turns out that the FBI has a special dictionary file for Truecrypt to help them break it, but if you have a good long passphrase or password which isn't in their dictionary and is sufficiently unpredictable, then they just can't crack it.

More articles:http:⁄⁄news.techworld.com⁄security⁄3228701⁄fbi-hackers-fail-to-crack-truecrypt⁄http:⁄⁄g1.globo.com⁄English⁄noticia⁄2010⁄06⁄not-even-fbi-can-de-crypt-files-daniel-dantas.html

US Treasury Sites Hacked

Three different websites belonging to the United States Treasury department were hacked in May. They directed visitors to a malware attack site in the Ukraine which then attempted a wide range of possible attacks exploiting many attack vectors to compromise the visitors computer.http:⁄⁄www.computerworld.com⁄s⁄article⁄9176278⁄US_Treasury_Web_sites_hacked_serving_malware

The Club Doesn't Really protect your car

In the 1990s the design engineers at Chrysler were looking to improve their cars' resistance to theft. They actually hired some car thieves to come in and consult. When asked what they thought of the club, they laughed. They said they carried a short hacksaw which would cut through the plastic steering wheel in just a couple of seconds. Then they could release the Club and use it to apply torque to the steering wheel and break the lock in the steering column. Many said they preferred cars with the club, so they didn't have to carry a long pry bar which is hard to conceal.

I'm not an expert in car theft, but I loved the idea of a very strong steel alloy club, which is almost unbreakable, locked to a plastic steering wheel.

http://www.freakonomics.com/2010/06/08/what-car-thieves-think-of-the-club/