Best computer security paper, ever

In their 2005 paper at the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, Conti, et al. discuss various ways in which a criminal might interfere with network security monitoring systems. The best of these is the speculation that an adversary might cause the displays of the security software to flash quickly enough to induce epileptic seizures in the security staff. They observe:

With the trend toward larger displays and higher resolution the situation is worsened. In our experiments we were able to generate network traffic that caused both static and updating patterns in our network visualization system that would possibly induce seizures in some photosensitive epileptics, but we did not proceed further due to safety concerns.

Hat tip: syllabus for CS279r.

15:03 EST | permalink | /computers/security

Holy crap! We’re all screwed!

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 22:51:11 -0500
From: Adoh Fadduq
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
Subject: Possible security issue with Emacs?

Insha Allah, I am now trying to choose an editor for my software
development and typesetting work. I have closely considered Emacs,
which fits my needs in some respects. I do, however, feel that there is
a big security issue with it for me and my brethren: Emacs was largely
developed by Jews and for Jews. Considering how cunning the Jews are,
I would not be surprised to find that they have hidden special bugs
and booby traps inside emacs, in order to spy on and disrupt work of my
Allah believing brethren. Are my concerns justified?

Link thanks to clisp

15:29 EST | permalink | /computers/security