Those high-security swipe cards that secure your front door may be no good
The physical security of your company and its data just got less secure if your company is one of millions that use a particular kind of smart card designed to give commuters, corporate wage slaves, and security specialists quick passage through security gates and down the invisible elevator that takes them to the secret headquarters underneath the streets of Cardiff.
A team of German scientists have demonstrated a hack that lets them make a perfect clone of the kind of magnetic security card used to give workers in corporate or government buildings -- including NASA -- and as a daily ticket replacement on busses and subways. The same team broke a previous version of contactless-ID cards from Mifare in 2008, prompting the company to upgrade its security, creating a card able to be programmed only once and which contained a unique identifying number that could be checked against the programmed content on the card for extra security. Read more...
What do you need to work in Iraq or Afghanistan? 3G, business intelligence – but no servers
Iraq and Afghanistan are among the most unpredictable regions in the world, so if you're planning to do business there, you need to be well prepared.
Companies such as Control Risks provide advice, risk assessment, support and physical security for organisations in the financial services, mining, gas and oil industries, with the aim of allowing them to work in such regions as safely and productively as possible.
Technology plays an important role in Control Risks' work, according to the company's CIO Duncan Scott. When helping clients move around in dangerous areas, for example, Control Risks uses business intelligence to plan safe routes, using information that has been gathered about previous incidents to create a picture of situations in different regions that can inform operatives' travel decisions. Read more...