swan

From http://www.privacyinternational.org/...tupidsecurity/

PRIVACY INTERNATIONAL'S "STUPID SECURITY" COMPETITION

We've all been there. Standing for ages in a security line at an inconsequential office building only to be given a security pass that a high school student could have faked. Or being forced to take off our shoes at an airport that can't even screen its luggage.

If you thought the accounting profession was bad news, just wait till you hear how stupid the security industry has become. Even before 9/11 a whole army of bumbling amateurs has taken it upon themselves to figure out pointless, annoying, intrusive, illusory and just plain stupid measures to "protect" our security.

It's become a global menace. From the nightclub in Berlin that demands the home address of its patrons, to the phone company in Britain that won't let anyone pay more than fifty pounds a month from a bank account, the world has become infested with bumptious administrators competing to hinder or harass you. And often for no good reason whatever.

The sensitive and sensible folk at Privacy International have endured enough of this treatment. So until March 15th 2003 we are running an international competition to discover the world's most pointless, intrusive, stupid and self-serving security measures.

The competition is open to anyone. Winners will be announced at the 13th Computers, Freedom & Privacy conference in New York on April 3rd.


Guidelines



Nominations should be submitted to stupidsecurity@privacy.org by March 15th, 2003.

Nominations should be as specific as possible, mentioning the name of the guilty parties, and wherever possible, including evidence and references.

Any government or private sector initiative or action can be nominated. Legislation and technology can also be nominated.

The judges welcome nominations in the form of narratives and anecdotes.



Judges Panel


Declan McCullogh, journalist and agent provocateur, Washington DC,

Dr Ian Brown, Privacy International Trustee and Director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, London UK

Dr Peter Neumann, Principal scientist, SRI International Computer Science Laboratory and all-round security guru, USA

Jerome Thorel, journalist and privacy activist, France

Dr Barbara Simons, past president of ACM and Consulting Professor in Science, Technology and Society, Institute for International Studies, Stanford, USA

Stephanie Perrin, Digital Discretion, former CPO Zero Knowledge Systems, Canada

Tim Dixon, Solicitor, and spokesman for the Australian Privacy Foundation

Charles Platt, former senior writer for Wired magazine, and author of Anarchy Online and countless other works, USA

Erich Moechel, journalist and principal troublemaker for Quintessenz, Austria

IWatkins

... or "If I was a terrorist, how would I find out about flawed security systems ? Oh, I know, I'll hold a competition and ask people to email their stories of flawed security systems."

OK, this is probably exactly what it seems, a name and shame campaign, but in the current climate, I suggest it is somewhat foolhardy.

Cheers

Ian

swan

If you look at some of the examples given I hardly think it's going to help the terrorists - so what if you can't transfer more than 50 pounds at at time?