Security

Passwords are a constant headache, a headache that will one day grow so bad that—if infomercials can be believed—your grandmother will pound a table in frustration. How to manage them? Early this year, one of the largest as-seen-on-TV companies produced its innovative answer: the Password Minder.

Despite the grandiose name, the Password Minder is a blank notebook. It has a black cover. You write all your passwords in it. It costs $10 (plus shipping and handling).

The security community is one that thrives on controversy, drama and debate. For years–decades, really–no topic satisfied this desire like vulnerability disclosure. Long after every possible argument had been forwarded and the horse was not just dead but buried and the grave covered by a strip mall, the debate has limped along, like Happy Days post-shark jump. Now comes the flood of bilious opinions regarding the commercial exploit market, a discussion that feels even more pointless than the disclosure debate because there’s absolutely nothing to debate.

We’re attending the Secure360 conference in (surprisingly) sunny St. Paul, MN this week, learning everything from lockpicking to disaster recovery. It’s a great event and reasonably priced, so if you’re in the area we highly recommend attending every year.

One topic that interested us was identity theft, especially with the catchy title of, “Identity Theft Prevention – YOU ARE VULNERABLE!” We went into the session, presented by Kelley “Mike” Archer, and were prepared to hear about all of the cool (and scary) technology attacks in the wild that are stealing everyone’s identity.