We have our Financial Year closing in end of June. This means, it is Performance Review Time at Microsoft and it is by far not that bad. But I love Dilbert:

Sorry but you do not get a date (I do not have one either). I was just reading an article on Bink.ru with a nice representation of the Windows timeline

Roger

I just read an article on SANS: DigiNotar breach - the story so far. To be clear: This is not a Microsoft analysis nor any official statement from us. What we have to say is in the advisory: Microsoft Security Advisory (2607712) - Fraudulent Digital Certificates Could Allow Spoofing. It just gives an interesting overview of what happens.

What strikes me is the following fact: In the digital world a 99.9% security that a certificate can be trusted seems not to be enough – we need 100%. If we look at the physical world, we are completely different. I have a Swiss passport, which is highly regarded as a trusted document everywhere I traveled so far. It is well-known that it is an interesting target as well to create fake Swiss passports because it is well-trusted. We all know that a certain amount of passports are faked out there but we still trust them without even thinking twice (except if you work at immigration) for banking, health, whatever. I still try to understand, where the difference comes from. Why is this the case?

Roger

We have seen some of the attacks recently, where people started to attack either the locks or the technology/software in the car itself controlling the chassis etc.

On DarkReading I was just reading this article: Car Systems Reminiscent of Early PCs

One of the things I do not get with cars is the way they are engineered, especially when it comes to the technology we, as drivers, use. Why do car manufacturers have to develop their own navigation system if today’s smartphones have one as well, which even has current maps? Why do we not see a better integration of these technologies?

One scenario I painted to a newspaper years ago: My car is standing in the garage and would have access to my wireless. Additionally (due to Bluetooth) it even knows my calendar and thus my first meeting and the location of it. As the car has a navigation system it knows how long I am most likely driving the next morning. I would like to see my car now to reach out to my favorite news provider and this provider shall compile a podcast for me at the length of my trip with my preferences. Would be cool, no? And I would even pay for it.

Now, what about security? If the software doing all this is 10 years old, I do not want it as it is a not calculated risk – and this is what we have in our cars as they do not rely on software which is available on the market and current.

Personally I think that they should change the way they look at it and some manufacturers already do and switch to embedded systems.

Roger

Just found this on http://news.yahoo.com/photos/new-adventures-of-queen-victoria-slideshow/20110914-naqv110914-gif-photo-050626492.html

Love that

Roger