Blog Resources: Safe and … Secure?

I bought a house. It has doors. Those doors have locks. Those locks have keys—two of them. I want more, but I can’t get them—at least not now. You see, my keys are stamped “Do Not Duplicate,” and the locksmith who originally sold the locks is going by the book. Until the old owner faxes him signed instructions to transfer the ownership of the keys to me, I can’t get spares.

It’s a security thing—but not really.

You see, this same locksmith would happily re-key the locks (for a fee) and give me (for a fee) all the keys I want for those new tumblers. Or he could remove the locks completely (for a fee) and replace them (for a fee) with locks using keys without the dreaded “DND” stamp. All this even though he knows that I have both the original keys. (And supposedly those keys couldn’t have been copied by any other locksmith as the lock manufacturer supplies special blanks to each of its distributors.)

It’s yet another fine example of security theater.

Personally, the whole event has me ready to buy a cool keyless entry system. And it got me thinking about security. And as a result I offer you a few links related to all kinds of security—IT and otherwise.

Home Security: This site has a bunch of interesting entries linking to information about everything from smoke detectors to how dogs can affect your home insurance rates. It’s about as basic a blog as you’ll ever see—I couldn’t even find any information about who created it—but worthwhile nonetheless.

ID Security: There are plenty of sites dedicated to telling you how to avoid identity theft, but 101 Identity Theft also includes links to current ID theft-related news stories and statistics around the country. It’s a good spot to find the stories that you won’t see in your local paper or on the national news.

Homeland Security: Google “homeland security blog” and security consultant W. David Stephenson’s site tops the list. If you like blogs that are updated nearly every day, Stephenson is your man, providing links and analysis of current homeland security topics.

Information Security: Few people are as up-to-date—or as vocal—about information security as Bruce Schneier. His blog can touch on all kinds of security topics, but it regularly covers information security issues. Another interesting source is A Day in the Life of an Information Security Investigator. The blog isn’t updated daily, but it does get a new entry every few days at least, and the stories (and reader postings) give a real-world, in-the-trenches view of IT security as it stands today.