Remember the old Apple ad about “What’s on your iBook?” Well, be prepared to reveal all if you’re going to the Olympics. As USA Today notes:
Equipment left unsupervised for just minutes in a hotel or even during a security screening can be hacked, mined and bugged, adds Larry Wortzel, who chairs the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a federal panel that monitors China-related security issues for Congress. China’s government also controls Internet service providers and wireless networks, he says, so computers and PDAs can be monitored and planted with bugs remotely, too.
“There is a high likelihood – virtually 100% – that if an individual is of security, political, or business interest to Chinese ‚Ķ security services or high technology industries, their electronics can and will be tampered with or penetrated,” Wortzel says.
So if you’re planning on heading to Beijing for the Games, make sure you have a good password on your computer. You know–one of those complicated guys with a lot of letters and numbers like 3f85j&fp1z!84r. Got it? I know, it’s a little hard to remember and you might lock yourself out of your own computer. So maybe it’s better to keep simple. Use the “hide in plain sight” method, something real obvious like “passkey.” [No, no, no, that's crazy. The Chinese will figure that out in a minute.-ed] Okay, okay. I see what you mean. What we really need is a password that’s sort of obvious but not too obvious. Maybe one that’s been used before, but not for a long time. I’ve got it. [Hey, c'mon, we all know a password's not going to help anything going to help anything anyway.-ed. It didn't help Harpo either.]
I have a simpler Olympics suggestion. Don’t go. First of all, the Olympics have become an intensely hyped, commercialized, politicized circus of the absurd anyway. Why feed this malignant trend in “sports?”
Second, why subject yourself to the indignity (at the very least) of putting up with China’s pompous police state intrusions in order to attend a party, which is essentially what the Olympics are now?
Finally, why lend one’s support to an ostensibly “Family of Man” event that in fact is merely a vehicle for China to flaunt its muscle (both figurative and steroid-induced literal) in the face of what we like to call the international community? How many people attending the Olympics used to support divestiture of South African stocks, for example, as a demonstration of their morally attuned consciences? Why support these monstrous thugs and their coming out party? Why put up with their BS? I can’t believe anyone is going to this.
Password? I have a great one: “DownWithTheCommunistParty!”
No Chinese hacker would dare type that.
I keep a USB memory key on my key-chain with several puzzling-looking binary/hex/ascii files and some obvious crypto key material on it.
The thing is, it doesn’t do anything – although it sure LOOKS like it should.
May keep the Chicom snoopers busy, anyway.