ATM PIN Numbers a Thing of the Past
SmartMetric, Inc. (OTCBB: SMME) said today that its new Biometric Card will make signing a credit card or inputting a PIN number for your ATM card a thing of the past. With Identity Theft becoming the largest crime in the United States, a new and safer way of using credit and debit cards has become a quest for Banks around the World. After more then 8 years of R&D, SmartMetric has announced today that it now can replace signatures and PIN numbers with a person's fingerprint thereby providing a 100% guarantee that the person making the transaction is who they say they are.
Inside your credit card is the smallest fingerprint scanner and reader in the world. Powered by an internal battery as thin as tissue paper the SmartMetric Biometric Fingerprint Card will only work when the card scans and reads the card owner's fingerprint. You become the key. Only the person authorized to use the card can turn it on. The company President, Mr. Colin Hendrick, said this represents a revolution in credit card security that has the potential to make his company, SmartMetric, Inc., a world leader in the credit ...   more »

By Ryan Singel  S
 The government's new cyber-security "Manhattan Project" is so secretive that a key Senate oversight panel has been reduced to writing a letter to beg for answers to the most basic questions, such as what's going on, what's the point and what about privacy laws.
The Senate Homeland Security committee wants to know, for example, what is the goal of Homeland Security's new National Cyber Security Center. They also want to know why it is that in March, DHS announced that Silicon Valley evangelist and security novice Rod Beckstrom would direct the center, when up to that point DHS said the mere existence of the center was classified.
Those are just two sub-questions out of a list of 17 multi-part questions centrist Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) sent to DHS in a letter Friday.
In fact, although the two say they asked for a briefing five months ago on what the center does, DHS has yet to explain its latest acronym.
The panel, noted it was pleased with the new focus on cyber security, but questioned Homeland Security's request to triple the center's cyber-security budget to about $200 million.
They cited concerns about the ...   more »

6-3 opinion on photo-ID law opens door for more privacy intrusions
Monday's Supreme Court decision upholding a harshly restrictive photo-ID requirement for voting deals a severe blow to people who value privacy and individuality. That's all of us, by the way.
But it's future generations that will really pay the price, because they may grow up in a country whose governments and corporations will routinely track their movements, activities, likes, dislikes, opinions, resentments — just about everything they say or do.
Monday's 6-3 court decision upholds a misbegotten Indiana law requiring voters to present photo IDs.
But it opens the door wider for more sophisticated uses of photo IDs, such as facial biometrics for tracking your movements and buying habits. That's all in the near future, in part thanks to RFID tags (which I wrote about earlier in an item about Vegas casinos).
My take is that once photo IDs are going to required for voting (and many states will now try to pass laws modeled after Indiana's), the government and corporations will have all sorts of tools to play with. The court decision blesses such attempts because Indiana's law was particularly intrusive.
So go to the Electronic Privacy Information ...   more »

By Brendan O'Neill 
In the 1950s and 1960s, bunkers were a feature of many American suburban homes, populated by families fearful of the prospect of nuclear war. That threat has subsided, but now many reasonable people are stocking up on essential supplies in preparation for a new cataclysm.
When you hear the word "survivalist", what image comes to mind?
Perhaps you think of a gun-toting loner in Mid-West America, who lives in a shack surrounded by tinned food and emergency water supplies.
Or maybe you think of end-of-the-world religionists retreating to a fortified camp with enough food and drink to last them until Judgement Day.
But today there is a new breed of survivalist – and they're well-heeled, well-educated and more likely to wear an immaculately pressed suit than a camouflage flak jacket.
Civilisation breakdown
Barton M Biggs is about as far as you can get from the old John Rambo-style survivalist. Forget long, unkempt hair and a sweat-stained vest. Mr Biggs is a former chief global strategist for Morgan Stanley, who now runs the hedge fund Traxis Partners in New York.
Yet in his latest book, Wealth, War and Wisdom, he suggests that all right-minded people should "assume the ...   more »