SSS 2008-08-18

This is Scientific American 60-second Science. I am Steve Mirsky. Got a few minutes? Today we have a special edition featuring a brief interview with Scientific American’s Larry Greenemeier.

So, Larry, who’s..who’s the fan of our video right now?

Well aye, I can tell you but I ( you’re not going tell me?)..isn’t that right? or have to write about it.

You have to write about four hour, special privacy of your package.

Absolutely.

Ay, which is the this wept package goes along with our single top issue? This issue of magazine

Yeap.

So, seriously, are there people just right now who are, you know, either randomly 1 or on purpose looking into some mine stuff or any other listeners’ stuff?

Well, that depends upon what you do, how you spend your time. A lot of these days has to do with where were going on the web, people are tracking the sites that you go to, and how much time you spending there. That’s all through internet service providers. We don’t get into that too much in the package but that is most likely some of them wacker types of things are, you know, phone tapping, surveillance cameras and I doubt anyone following you around with the surveillance camera.

But I just look behind it. Um, when they are looking what I am doing on the web? Is that for some kind of security purpose or it’s just business try to figure out what up to, so they can try to sell me more stuff?

Yeah, that’s a good point. Really a lot has to do with selling ads online. And best way to sell ads is to know exactly who you are advertising 2 into, or companies who will buy your information. And use that, sell that to advertisers. So that’s probably the most common form of spy if you build that pipler have to deal with.

Let’s talk about some of the big issue in computer security right now because, you know, everybody’s nightmare is identity theft. What’s going on to both make that big problem and hopefully fight against it?

Well, making it..what’s making it a bigger problem actually is something I hadn’t really heard about it until I spoke 3 with doctor Herbert Thompson news writing a column for the package. He pointed 4 out that: since social network sites become so popular, people are randomly filling in the profile with all kinds of informations about themselves. Then they, you know, you do without realise, you know, you are putting into the information about your pat, your family, and what’s you did, what’s you like to do, your hobbies. And his point was that: there are people out there who can piece together the puzzle and figure out how to answer questions such as last time you forgot your passport, your bank said: what’s your pet name or what’s your favorite movie. And you sign those things up when you sign off those account, so you know the answer thinking that most other people wouldn’t, but that’s not necessarily the case. And that’s one of the points he brought up.

So, just voluntarily indulge in personal information is probably a bad idea.

Well, that’s..that’s the thing. So do we stop going on social network sites? Do we stop signing up for online banking 5 or getting movie tickets online because when you sign up things they wanted information. You don’t really get services online without giving them something in return. And that’s really the issue, that’s, there is no real answer right now, it’s just something that people individually have to decide.

Is there different expectation of privacy that’s kind of involve since the internet became what it is today?

I think for younger people who are most involved in social networking, there is no expectation of privacy.

None ?

Right. So, um, and I think some of the older generations to resist doing everything online, do that, it’s someone because they don’t know the technology that well, but also because they’re not taught or are they, I should say, they were taught not to give too much information about themselves(Right, right.), different mind sets.

Let’s talk a little bit about cyber warfare 6, I mean, there are people out there who are trying to take down the internet, spread deadly virus, just because they has a little cause.

Yeah, absolutely, that’s..there are couple of different aspects. There are the attacks from one country against another, which happened most prominently when Stony 7 was in attack. There are countries that’s since the Soviet 8 Union left. They’ve been highly tiled as very techonology advanced country, and they came back to get them because someone in the accusation 9 is appointed to Russia was not been approved. Somebody took down the network with denial services attack which mean bascially sent a bunch of junk data doesn’t mean anything, but they clogged 10 up the network., it takes everything down. So there is this idea cyber warfare, it’s also the idea of cyber terrorism which could be as straightforward 11 as recruiting terrorists online. There are websites that doing that, and there are sites that, well, um, organise 12 group of terrorists. There are also sites where you can buy um marijuana, viruses that’s sort of thing. So even you don’t know how to write them, you can use them against people. You know, you don’t have to, it’s sort of buying package the online weapons. So this lots of different aspects too. Some visits it’s, you know, might be in some circumstances, be considered warfare, you know, they concern is that the somebody taking over network and you know, military operation is interrupted because they are not able to communicate that’s sort of thing. And some visits is for a cause, not necessarily state sponsored cause, maybe a religious cause or some other cause.

I’d like to see the guy who is gonna pay back credit cards for free package mailware.

Yes, I wouldn’t that myself, I actually heard that there was one site that offered for volunteer if they didn’t work, they would..they would, I don’t know, send to you or another.

Those works we were clear are your bank guarantee?

Yes, money bank guarantee.

So, we have well interesting slide show in the package?

Yeah, there’s gonna be couple of slide shows. Both of them around survelliance equipments. One of them is more contemporary technology, it’s kinda thing you might see them at streets like those survelliance cameras at corners attached buildings. And we have another slide show that highlights lots of cold war spy technology, and these were lots of things that the State Department piced up over the past of forty years or fifty years, um, just form countries most of them are the Soviet Union spy on embassy around the world. So they’re pretty cool.

What are couple of cools in there?

There is a suitcase that filled with listening gear so that could carry around without noticing, very James Bond.

Right, the suitcase camera is always a big favorite.

Yeah, absolutely.

So how could people find package gizzly?

Go to the main page, you’ ll see all kinds of pointers to different stories are there, at least none of original pieces content we’ve been working on them past several years dealing 13 with security of pricacy. One of the wondering pieces I were doing is on evolding, problem that would be upcoming election we’ll have to deal with and that is, that after 2000, lots of states, counties invested in touch screen electronic vaulting 14 technology and it hasn’t really worked advertised. So there’s gonna be story in the package that deals with. Ohio particular has lawsuit 15 against one of the providers, that provider re-suing Ohio. And it’s none of these gonna be resolved by November of 2008. But for that reason, we’re gonna be seen a lot of paper amounts.

So we’re definitely be seen stories on electronic day about computer problems promoting.

Hopefully we won’t, ‘cause we don’t expected to be because they didn’t know about the problems not mean they didn’t exit.