Dave Howe’s Comments

• Feb 22nd, 2017 @ 2:58am

  Actually

  on Rep. Sensenbrenner Thinks We Can Pay For The Border Wall With More Asset Forfeiture
  I would suggest *strongly supporting* making local law enforcement turn over 100% of any forfeiture taken to the federal government, ringfenced for border patrol improvements.
  
  I virtually guarantee that if they didn't get to keep any of the cash they seized, their interest in actually spending time seizing assets, selling them and doing the paperwork would plummet....
• Nov 24th, 2016 @ 2:33am

  Be curious...

  on Alex Halderman Clarifies: Not Sure If Election Was Hacked, But, Uh, Shouldn't Someone Be Checking To Make Sure?
  as to how many of those "paper copies" rely on the voting machine being honest too. Far too many seem to print an "audit log" to a secure output bin, sight unseen. Not only does that risk a printer failure making the log worthless, but also what goes into the log is under the full control of the evoting machine - which of course is going to ensure the printed log is consistent with the electronic one.
• Sep 12th, 2016 @ 6:03am

  Plus....

  on DOJ Proudly Trumpets Its Completely BS 91% FOIA Response Rate
  the "release to one, release to all" policy then plays to their "mosaic" theory - that once you have a certain amount of redacted data, you can't have related data because it *might* allow you to deduce the redacted bits...
• Aug 17th, 2016 @ 3:02am

  Re: politicians

  on Democratic National Committee Creates A 'Cybersecurity Board' Without A Single Cybersecurity Expert
  Probably the actual problem there - they don't *know* anyone else, and if you add in the usual management "you don't need to understand something to manage it" attitude you end up with an advisory board full of chiefs, who will probably direct that an external company (that they have a financial interest in, naturally) be directed to generate a report, which they will then pass on....
• Aug 17th, 2016 @ 2:06am

  Willing to bet....

  on DEA Accessing Millions Of Travelers' Records To Find Cash To Seize
  That if all seized funds went into the central government pot (rather than the seizing agency or state getting to keep them) it suddenly wouldn't seem such an effective measure against crime?
• Aug 4th, 2016 @ 4:56am

  Better yet...

  on Arizona Law Enforcement Charging Innocent Car Owners $2,000 To Reclaim Their Wrongfully-Seized Vehicles
  Why not (if you are the police) commercialize this process? have someone hire a car for a day, then immediately turn it over the police, who can change the hire companies 2K a pop to get their cars back?
• Mar 10th, 2016 @ 8:55am

  Re: Legal question here

  on The FBI Claims Failure To Guess Password Will Make Data 'Permanently Inaccessible,' Which Isn't True
  Shouldn't matter - after all, the FBI are claiming this is "just about this one phone" and they aren't really in a position to prosecute it's owner.
  
  More generally though - they could take a forensic copy of both the flash and the onboard storage, and use that to prove a chain of evidence (in that the storage is not altered, and the intel came from that storage)
• Sep 24th, 2015 @ 7:28am

  So... when does it expire?

  on Appeals Court Says The Batmobile Is A 'Character' Covered By Copyright
  Earliest appearance will have been in the pulp comics - so presumably (unless it gets forever extended as a side effect of Mikey Mouse) it will expire or have expired?