Short Takes – 4-5-23

Digital Credentials. WHMurray.blogspot.com post. Interesting discussion about what could constitute portable digital credentials. Pull quote: “In a folder in DropBox I have digital images of twenty credential documents issued to me by various authorities beginning with my birth certificate, and including my social security card, my high school diploma, my college degree, my record of military service, and my passport.  While any one of these might be a forgery or fraudulently obtained, collectively they reliably document everything significant about my identity.  Of course, the only identifying information that all these documents share in common is my name.”

Tim Scott gets Senate GOP nudge for 2024 bid. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: ““Americans always want change — always. We always want something new and fresh. … But we alternate between arsonists and carpenters,” Lankford said. “They have very different techniques on how they change things. … So we’ll see where everybody is as far as the electorate.””

2 Georgia men electrocuted during substation break-in. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “Gainesville Police say the two men broke into a fenced area and were trying to steal something, possibly copper wiring, when they were killed. Emergency crews were called to an explosion and possible fire and could not recover the bodies for hours because of the danger posed by the electricity.”

Detecting Manipulations in Microchips. HomelandSecurityNewswire.com article. Pull quote: “These days, electronic chips are integrated into countless objects. They are more often than not designed by companies that don’t operate their own production facilities. The construction plans are therefore sent to highly specialized chip factories for production. “It’s conceivable that tiny changes might be inserted into the designs in the factories shortly before production that could override the security of the chips,” explains Steffen Becker and gives an example for the possible consequences: “In extreme cases, such hardware Trojans could allow an attacker to paralyze parts of the telecommunications infrastructure at the push of a button.””