Tag Archives: who watches the watchmen

Unlockers

Hacks, security, , , , , ,

My new office is the nicest place I’ve ever worked. It’s gorgeous.

As part of a more intentional office strategy, not everyone comes in at the same time. For occasional “everyone in at the same time” events we have extra overflow space.

But since all the desks are shared, there’s a clean desk policy. Anything you don’t want to take home goes in a locker. You pick an empty locker, put your stuff in, set the code and lock it. When you return, unlock it with the code. Simple!

I love lockers because I can use them as dead drops. When I had to return a kiteboarding kite or send someone a present it’s more fun to put it in a locker and message them the combination. Sneaky fun!

But I just found a terrible hack:

The lockers unlock for any code.

I discovered it accidentally when I went to open the wrong locker and put in my code. It opened and I, a fool, thought “That’s so weird that they put in the address of our last office as the code!” Then I moved on, until I did it accidentally again. Then I went hog wild and tested that ANY four number opens it.

I’ve let the admin team know but I also feel the need to go put presents in every locked locker until they get it fixed.

Who watches the watchmen?

The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000.

 

The cases include those of 32 defendants sentenced to death. Of those, 14 have been executed or died in prison, the groups said under an agreement with the government to release results after the review of the first 200 convictions.

Source: FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decades – The Washington Post

It happened before 2000. There was other evidence in those cases. But still – false testimony from these high levels over decades happened.

It should shake you.

What is preventing us from reading a similar headline in ten more years? How could we make sure this lab has an incentive to tell the truth rather than to ally with their colleagues?