Double Secret Probation

As Dave Barry might say, I swear I am not making this up. It's all chronicled on the blog of security guru Bruce Schneier.


Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, the federal government has advised airplane pilots against flying near 100 nuclear power plants around the country or they will be forced down by fighter jets. But pilots say there's a hitch in the instructions: aviation security officials refuse to disclose the precise location of the plants because they consider that "SSI" -- Sensitive Security Information.


So the pilots, with the aid of a mapping company, work out where the plants are from publically available information and post it on their web site and all is well ... until TSA asks them to take the information down. No word yet on whether planes are still at risk being shot down. if a pilot happens to stray over something that he's not allowed to know about.

Here's a link:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/03/the_silliness_o.html

Is homeland security being run by idiots?

There's idiots in France too apparently. In Schneier's previous entry, he notes that it's now illegal to publish security flaws discovered by reverse-engineering. Sigh, making it illegal to publish them will not make the flaws go away.