Thanks to Angry Alien Productions for providing links to 30-Second Bunnies Theatre. If you have never watched these collection of movies re-enacted by animated bunnies in 30 seconds, more or less, follow the links. If you enjoy the episodes, support the creative effort by buying the recently released DVD through Amazon.
For geeks, and those who love them, Kreg Steppe and Douglas E. Welch have written a story that you are going to love, “A Geek Christmas Story.” To quote the site, it is the story of “Mattie Stevens, a young boy of the early 80’s, dreams of owning a Commodore 64. He sets out to convince everyone this is the perfect gift. But, along the way runs into opposition from his parents and everyone around him including old Santa Claus”
In a stunning possible security breach, Gregory Mone reveals in his book, “The Truth About Santa: Wormholes, Robots, and What Really Happens on Christmas Eve” some of the sensitive data loss that has been occurring in Father Christmas‘ organization. Answers to questions that have plagued human kind since the first report of the jolly old elf are beginning to appear on the Internet. Through heavy research and interviews with scientists and other field experts (management consultants, Berkeley astrophysicists, Navy SEALs) Mone was able to discover that Baba Noel accomplishes the seemingly impossible annual mission using advanced science and technology. Mone claims no information was obtained through disgruntled elves.
Kanakaloka is not immortal, but retains his jolly vigor with the help of organ printers.
Swiety Mikolaj does not, in fact, leave toys under the tree; instead, he comes bearing complex chemical reactions — toys assemble themselves in their packaging.
Ded Moroz’s Christmas Eve rounds are actually accomplished via several teams of Santa-recruited lieutenants, a series of short-distance wormholes, and time travel.
Papai Noel’s base of operations (actually in Greenland, not the North Pole) is greatly threatened by global warming — to keep his unfathomably large server farm cool, he needs the Arctic chill. Papai Noel’s own green initiatives include planting trees and cloning his elves (“because he wouldn’t want [them] breeding on their own”).
According to Mone, Sinter Klaas uses tools that are hundreds of years beyond what we have at our disposal. For example, “Santa’s suit is laden with what are called metamaterials, which have the effect of bending light around a person so that they turn invisible” — which can come in handy if there are curious children peeking during his Christmas deliveries.
Questions on the Internet have been raised as to where Mone may have obtained his information. At the beginning of the month, Mone traveled to Google allegedly to take part in the Authors@Google series. During the talk Mone discussed how implanted listening devices in the ornaments help Hoteiosho keep the naughty and nice kids straight. Also discussed was the use of cloning and wormhole technology to help Baba Chaghaloo get to every household. A few posts on the Internet question whether Google could be providing information to Shengdan Laoren through advance data mining in exchange for some of the advance technologies.
Could the US government also be involved? Those Internet posts point to the partnership between Google and NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command), a bi-national United States and Canadian organization. NORAD and Google are helping children track the journey of Jolasveinar around the world using Google Maps and Google Earth. In a possible attempt to gain patents and disrupt Google market shares, there are even rumors that Gaghant Baba’s workshop has been purchased by Bill Gates. Could a secret message exist behind the Microsoft Bing commercial about Daidi na Nollag?
Google maintains that they take user privacy very seriously. In this case, I believe them. If there is trickery, Tomten would likely be behind it. How can one trust a person who goes by so many names? And what exactly is his past? Every country provides a different story. If he is a jolly old elf, there are reports that elves have used trickery as a means to an end. Local and federal governments across the world have gift policies limiting the the value and number of gifts that can be given to government employees. Gifts can be used as bribes. One could begin to wonder if the gift bearing holiday might be a cover for a massive yearly bribery event. More troubling, attempts to trace those questioning Internet posts lead back to ISPs in Greenland. Maybe Jack Bauer is needed to get at the truth.
I am not saying Chimney John is not a jolly nice fellow. I am just not a great believer in security through obscurity. There is a great deal we don’t know about Samichlaus. As security minded people, we need to be always questioning. Video of Mone’s Google talk has been made available. View it below and judge for yourself:
Wishing you a great holiday, wherever you may be and whatever you may believe.
Siobhan Gorman, Yochi J. Dreazen, and August Cole have broken the story “Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones” in today’s Wall Street Journal. The story provides several interesting points that could provide valuable lessons. Quoting from the article:
The U.S. government has known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s, current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local adversaries wouldn’t know how to exploit it, the officials said.
Last December, U.S. military personnel in Iraq discovered copies of Predator drone feeds on a laptop belonging to a Shiite militant, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.
The militants use programs such as SkyGrabber, from Russian company SkySoftware. “It was developed to intercept music, photos, video, programs and other content that other users download from the Internet — no military data or other commercial data, only free legal content,” Andrew Solonikov, one of the software’s developers said by email from Russia.
The difficulty, officials said, is that adding encryption to a network that is more than a decade old involves more than placing a new piece of equipment on individual drones. Instead, many components of the network linking the drones to their operators in the U.S., Afghanistan or Pakistan have to be upgraded to handle the changes.
Predator drones are built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. of San Diego. Some of its communications technology is proprietary, so widely used encryption systems aren’t readily compatible, said people familiar with the matter.
Some officials worried that adding encryption would make it harder to quickly share time-sensitive data within the U.S. military, and with allies.
The Air Force has staked its future on unmanned aerial vehicles. Drones account for 36% of the planes in the service’s proposed 2010 budget.
Today, the Air Force is buying hundreds of Reaper drones, a newer model, whose video feeds could be intercepted in much the same way as with the Predators, according to people familiar with the matter. A Reaper costs between $10 million and $12 million each and is faster and better armed than the Predator. General Atomics expects the Air Force to buy as many as 375 Reapers.
What lessons are applicable to your organization? Three points to think about:
Design, cost, and risk. There is no doubt that there are many difficulties with adding encryption to drones. Design of these systems involves many factors (power, weight, security, transmission rates, etc.). The problem is that the risk of snooping due to the lack of encryption has been known about since the 1990s. With each drone costing $10-12 million, and the Air Force expected to buy 375, that is a sizable investment. When making design decisions, organizations can expect to have to defend their choices.
Developing with standards. Future development with possible different contractors seems unlikely if widely used encryption systems are not readily compatible with the current contractor’s proprietary communications technology. Companies should want to foster flexibility and avoid vendor lock-in. It is also unlikely that sharing information will be possible with allies unless widely encryptions systems can be used.
Being realistic when assessing the risk. Companies need to avoid reports that they failed to understand the risk. In this article, the worse statement is that the “Pentagon assumed local adversaries wouldn’t know how to exploit it.”
Underestimating risk is a constant threat in security. It is wise to remember the words of Sun Tzu from The Art of War, “It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.”
Folks have their favorite stories from the season. According to a Harris poll America’s two favorite holiday movies are “A Christmas Story” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” (21% each). A close third is “Miracle on 34th Street” (17%) followed by “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (13%) and “The Santa Clause” (9%). The favorite animated movie is”Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer“.
Thanks to Angry Alien Productions for providing links to 30-Second Bunnies Theatre. If you have never watched these collection of movies re-enacted by animated bunnies in 30 seconds, more or less, follow the links. If you enjoy the episodes, support the creative effort by buying the recently released DVD through Amazon.
In a stunning possible security breach, 
