We need more encryption and security, not less

http://falkvinge.net/2015/01/14/hilarious-activists-turn-tables-on-political-surveillance-hawks-wiretaps-them-with-honeypot-open-wi-fi-at-security-conference/

The linked article shows just how trivial it is to use metadata to identify the entity associated with the connecting device and start to unpick further details of their life, work and the supposedly secure stuff they’re working on.

Security, a thought for the day

If the ‘good guys’ have a backdoor then so do the criminals
If the ‘good guys’ can crack your encryption, so can the criminals

Having weak encryption would not have stopped the Paris attacks as the security services had already stopped monitoring them.

If you think “I don’t use encryption” then think again, when you bought something online you used encryption, when you made a mobile phone call encryption was needed to protect the setup of the call, your password is stored (or should be) in an encrypted format to prevent hackers from simply downloading a human readable list and so on. Encryption isn’t some dark evil used only by terrorists, it’s used by all of us for good reasons. The government needs to give better reasons for denying it to the public than “terrorists!!”.

Alternatively maybe they’ll be happy that all their governmental and private communications are no longer encrypted to make the job of the press easier in reporting on their deeds and misdeeds, for surely if they have “nothing to hide they have nothing to fear”

Stupid reporting

*sigh*

–[ – ]–
“It’s worrying to see that so many think they’d struggle paying the mortgage should the base rate rise by as little as 2%. What’s also clear is that the understanding of how interest rates affect payments is incredibly low. Simply put, a rise in rates from 1% to 2% is a hundred percent increase, which means a doubling of payment. For example if you were paying £750 per month your new payments would be £1,500,” said Nick Hungerford, CEO and founder of Nutmeg.
–[ – ]–

While ‘accurate’ it’s not a fair representation of the real world unless of course you have a interest only mortgage which is held at BASE + 0%.

A more realistic example is a £181k mortgage at 1.49%+BASE which rises by ~£200/month with a 2% rise in the base rate {not that I have a spreadsheet already setup to track this sort of thing..}

Getting across the risks of interest rate rises is a good thing but seriously guys, bring some reality into the equation so the public can actually properly assess their risk rather than trying to panic the herd.

Link to original article