CIA pounces on chat
It’s good to know that the guardians of the free world are on the ball and Cerberus takes one of his hats off to the speed with which the CIA has cracked down on a secret Internet chat room within its own classified computer system. It only took the agency five years to discover this forum for offensive jokes and comments, and another six months to investigate it. An intelligence official was quoted as saying “They thought they could outsmart the system, wrong again.” Absolutely!
Send out a circular
The Internet and e-mail may be presenting challenges to those involved in security but when these technologies get into the hands of someone of limited intelligence they are a positive boon to tracking down wrong doers. As in the case of a man who created a star shaped crop circle (or a crop star perhaps) in Wiltshire to disprove an American professor’s claims that crop circles are the work of aliens. The crop fiend was so keen to tell everyone what he’d done that he sent an e-mail to a radio station to tell them about it – leading the police straight to him. This same IT wizard became the first person in Britain to receive a criminal conviction for making a crop circle.
A modest detail
Former New York police commissioner Howard Safir had some understandable concerns about his personal safety when he left the job to join a private law enforcement company. So, unlike most of his predecessors, he accepted the offer of a taxpayer-funded security detail – in a modest way of course.
According to the New York Post, the detail comprises a mere two sergeants, 11 detectives, and four NYPD cars – including a limousine to transport him and a van for the security detail.
Apart from pondering on how many Bonio that would pay for, Cerberus wonders what this says for Mr Safir’s confidence in the abilities of his new security company employers.
A helping hand
As biometrics finds its way into more and more security applications, the consumer is also being given the chance to reap the benefits of the technology. A fingerprint scanner that will unlock any laptop computer, as an alternative to the traditional password, is already being marketed. As is a car key that is activated by recognising the owner’s fingerprint as the button is pressed. A great idea to prevent theft and stop the kids getting the car – but what about when you want to lend someone the car – do you have to lend them a hand as well?
Saying it with flowers
Having raided the wrong house, broken down the door, dragged an elderly couple out of bed at gunpoint, handcuffed them and marched them out into the street in just their pyjamas the Metropolitan Police has sent the unlucky couple a bunch of flowers. Cerberus wonders how one goes about choosing the right flowers – red roses speak of love, lilies of bereavement, carnations of marriage – but what do you choose to apologise for an almighty cock up? Forget-me-nots perhaps.
