Then PGP / GPG solved a lot of this bullshit, starting with generating keys for free but email clients never bothered to give it proper support. Instead they offered up some plugin APIs and unsurprisingly PGP / GPG ended up with half assed implementations too. Even fairly good extensions like Enigmail didn't integrate with the client as closely as they should.
And by this point cloud based email took off and crypto fell by the way side. If you want to use crypto in GMail then you have to cut and paste and clearly it's too much effort.
So I really don't blame GPG here. If the first thing an email did during setup was ENCOURAGE a user to create a key; and by default published that key; and attached the key sig to outgoing emails; and automatically looked up incoming email addresses; and automatically encrypted content when all recipients had their own key; and didn't hobble functionality for any of this (e.g. search still worked). THEN this wouldn't even be a problem. Encryption would have been the default and it would be an irrelevance if it was PGP or GPG was under the covers.
So I don't it being relevant who runs the prison providing it abides by standards. What is more important is the political recognition that putting the time into ensuring people don't reoffend will pay off in the future.
I believe a far bigger issue is that the US has the most fucked up justice system anywhere in the western world.
It is more likely that this guy left their services and applied some of the tricks he learned to a commercial purpose - writing a library that allows various spyware / adware libraries to hijack clicks and traffic and inject their own affiliate ids / ads / search results into the response.
No one says it's a good or honourable thing but the primary motivation appears to be money and nothing else. It's still a security threat. It's still utterly reprehensible. But it seems to be the guy enriching his own pocket.
Besides, if it really was Mossad, they'd have done a much better job.
If it was really Mossad they'd be installing the code onto PCs used by their enemies for intelligence gathering. They wouldn't be installing it onto new PCs so they could popup ads for penis enlargement pills.
Audiophiles are clearly idiots. A rich seam of idiots with a lot of money that companies specialise in exploiting by selling expensive tat to.
As for this Sony thing, the impression appears to be it would offer absolutely no benefit whatsoever to playback though I guess it's conceivable that recording artists and the like would find a use for it if it reduces radio interference when they're trying to record something.
Whatever tenuous reason they might have for a signature, it's not a very good one. If they cared for the strength of their contract they would do the minimum necessary to verify it was the person with authorisation to use the card.
As for the cashier, that's part of the reason for chip and pin. It takes the authentication and authorisation out of their hands. Either the transaction goes through or it doesn't but at least some security is applied.
The moon is made of green cheese. -- John Heywood