And you thought you had a sh*Q@$ job!!

I just read a report, titled "The Safety of the Volunteer", on the safety and security of Peace Corps volunteers . It was written by the Peace Corps Office of Safety and Security and provides some interesting statistics for 2007. One should keep in mind the Peace Corps does have a global mission which is to say these crimes were reported in various locales to include many Western countries. Of course, the report was leaked by the world's most notorious leaker - WikiLeaks. Check out these stats:

Global Composite of All Physical Assaults (2007)

Type Of Incident Number of Incidents Percentage of All Physical Assaults
Aggravated Assault 36 47%
Major Physical Assault 15 20%
Other Physical Assault 25 33%
Total 76 100%

Rape/Attempted Rape Profile

Gender: Female
Age: 20s
Ethnicity/Race: Caucasian (71%)
Time in service: 7-12 Months (43%)
Relationship of Assailant: Friend/Acquaint. (33%)
Motive: Sexual Activity (95%)
Medical Attention: Yes (86%)
Location of Incident: Volunteer Residence (43%)
Occur at Vol. Site: Yes (76%)
Weapon Use: No (67%)
PCV Accompanied: No (76%)
Time of Occurrence: Early Morning (midnight-5:59 a.m.) (48%)
Number of Assailants: One (81%)
Day of Week: Weekday (57%) Weekend (43%)
Alcohol: Volunteer - Yes (52%), No (38%)/Assailant - Yes (52%), Unknown (43%)
Intention to Prosecute: Yes (43%) No (33%)

These statistics just prove that crime can follow you anywhere and to never ever let your guard down!

Red Alert!! Don't buy Sentex locks!!

Bruce Schneier, much hyped security-guru, writes in his blog to be wary of Sentex locks:

It has a master key:

Here's a fun little tip: You can open most Sentex key pad-access doors by typing in the following code:

***00000099#*

The first *** are to enter into the admin mode, 000000 (six zeroes) is the factory-default password, 99# opens the door, and * exits the admin mode (make sure you press this or the access box will be left in admin mode!)

Wow! This is why it is extremely important to properly vet ALL security appliances before installation. I used my "Google-fu" on a different device and got this little gem. You should check the vendor's web site to see if they have product manuals online. If they do, guess who also has the manual in their files. You get a 1, 000 points if you said "The Bad Guys".

I'm baaaack!

That's right.....It's been - what - a year since I was last seen on this blog. A lot has happened since then - Mumbai, US Presidential elections, numerous major security vulnerabilities, Sri Lankan cricket incident, and more. I won't try to turn back the hand of time. Sure, we'll discuss what happened since I last wrote anything but I'd like to begin with the current news. Oh where, oh where shall I begin?