I've been busy with, you know, things.

Well, I've been busy with course work and making trying to help make decisions that affect our future, but I still have some time for creativity. Bruce Schneier, a person I look up to as, dare I say it, a security professional (I'll say it, but I've been getting way too excited to move out security and into different aspects of computer science to really consider myself a security professional. Technically, I have been paid for my research on covert channels, so that does make me a professional, I guess). He has a well balanced view of realistic problems of security, that and I'm a big fan of his cryptowork. One of the papers I'm currently working on is heavily based on his paper on secure audit logs. Anyway, he's posted, what appears to be, a fun contest. He is suggesting that people come up with extremely low probability, but still feasible, terrorist attacks. As he calls them, Movie-plot attacks. You can follow the link at the bottom to get the full scoop. For those friends of ours that read this blog, if you are interested in working together, let me know, if we're lucky, there is a movie deal in the works.

It is in this spirit I announce the (possibly First) Movie-Plot Threat Contest. Entrants are invited to submit the most unlikely, yet still plausible, terrorist attack scenarios they can come up with.

Your goal: cause terror. Make the American people notice. Inflict lasting damage on the U.S. economy. Change the political landscape, or the culture. The more grandiose the goal, the better.

Assume an attacker profile on the order of 9/11: 20 to 30 unskilled people, and about $500,000 with which to buy skills, equipment, etc.

...

Judging will be by me, swayed by popular acclaim in the blog comments section. The prize will be an autographed copy of Beyond Fear. And if I can swing it, a phone call with a real live movie producer.

Entries close at the end of the month -- April 30 -- so Crypto-Gram readers can also play.

This is not an April Fool's joke, although it's in the spirit of the season. The purpose of this contest is absurd humor, but I hope it also makes a point. Terrorism is a real threat, but we're not any safer through security measures that require us to correctly guess what the terrorists are going to do next.

Link

I think I would change it to 20 to 30 semi-skilled people, but it's just a meaningless quibble.

In other news, we've made decisions and we're off to Indiana University, me to study cognitive science and bioinformatics and Kate to study folklore. I'm looking forward to it very much, one might say I'm giddy about it. I'm finishing up my Master's in computer security at JMU currently, but I have always planned it as a stepping stone for bigger things. I'm not going to say I'm starting anything, it is just a continuation of learning, but "I love it when a plan comes together." -- Col. John "Hannibal" Smith

So now I have to finish up my classes, which, at least for this semester have been disappointing, but once again, my focus is elsewhere, like preparing to defend my thesis when I get back to the states (aforementioned work on covert channels).

I usually don't post about the music I'm listening to, but, in this instance, I feel I should mention Threnody Ensemble. The music is quite gripping, to me at least (problems with music, likes are subjective). This can be a bad thing when you are listening to it while trying to study, but Copland would say that if you are only listening to music in the background, you can never get the narrative, nor should expect to be able to understand it. When I have the time to sit and listen their music always seems to have some surprise in it, but I discovered, probably a little over a month ago, that they have some of their sheet music at their site. I think that is pretty swell. I just wish they'd release another CD and update their website.

Well, I need to sleep while my computer does work for me.