Risk a Harm?

Interesting post and comments on privacy risk from Solove at Concurring Opinions.  Despite being raised by a pack of feral solicitors, I can't claim to understand all the legal theories involved.  I'm attracted to the liquidated damages idea for a number of reasons, including the ability to build a reserve or get underwriting to mitigate potential incidents.  

Harms at Risk

On the other hand, this is where the disclosure rules suck.   For example, an organization loses track of a hunk of physical media that contains a couple hundred thousand records that contain personally identifiable information (but not financial information - no bank or credit card account number).   In this example, there is a very high probability that the media was subsequently destroyed.  Are the individuals identified on the media well served by being notified?  

Imagine there was a method to calculate the likelihood of financial damage to the individual due to the loss of the media.  Lets imagine that there is less than 1% chance that the information will be used in a crime in the next 2 years, and it decreases by half every year that follows.  However, if it is used in a crime, it is likely that the crime will be of a significant impact - a genuine fraud involving a false credentials that would take more than $100,000 for the victim to unravel.   Is notifying the victim of the risk, and making him feel uneasy (since humans perceive risk differently than equations) responsible?  

Or is this just an excuse for me to illustrate a post with a picture of Harms at risk?  

The Italian Job

Odd ball kidnapping heist documented at MCN and Roadracing World illustrates the danger of the insider beyond the pilfered laptop or unexpired system credentials.

Apparently the Alto Evolution World Superbike team "reduced the responsibilities" of Sergio Bertocchi, their erstwhile manager, after the race at Monza a while back.

On the way back to Italy from the most recent race at Silverstone, UK, the Alto truck gets hijacked at a border crossing. According to the Alto Evolution press release:

The driver was kidnapped for more than six hours and the truck diverted. The driver was able to escape in Bruxelles - Belgium, where he alerted the police and confirmed the names of the people of the gang which had kidnapped him and stolen the truck. Amongst the members of the gang have been recognised four people: one of them was Mr. Sergio Bertocchi.

Policemen from Belgium have immediately started investigations and, at the same time, Carabinieri in Italy have been alerted. Investigations have gone on strenuously and with outmost secrecy. On the 6th a van of ours was sent to Trieste to recover other spare parts and accessories still in Trieste's warehouse. On the way back, in the first rest/service area out of Trieste, the same criminals have stolen the van and its content. Unluckily for them, following a great effort of electronic interception and lots of their's tailing, law-enforcement personnel has had the opportunity to see the criminals in action in first person. Carabinieri have been on the van's tail for a couple of hours and at last they have recovered the vehicle and its content and put them under sequestration.

Meanwhile the subject liable for theft have been blocked. On Friday the 8th Carabinieri have given us communication that the truck has been found and is now in a safe place in Trieste, again judges have disposed sequestration of the goods.

Although it reads as if they got Alto's rider Muggas to do the translating directly from Italian to Tweed Headsian blindfolded, at first blush appears to be a story of justice served. The former manager plays the archetypical role of the disgruntled employee who turns against his employer by hacking, vandalizing, stealing office supplies, truck hijacking and/or kidnapping. His fiendish plot is foiled due to surveillance and electronic tracking. Chalk one up to the gallant carabinieri and their high tech tracking equipment!

And interesting question regarding identity, though. Did former manager Sergio use his identity to gain confidence and access to the truck? Seems that would be an enormously boneheaded maneuver for a hijacker. I've got issues trying to correlate the motivation of the attacker with his techniques.

Maybe it was just a denial of service attack. Check that word "sequestration" in the above quote, on which the Alto Evolution team elaborates:

This, and only this, is the reason for which we will not be able to partecipate to the race in Misano on the 17th of June.

Not too difficult to imagine Sergio in his Italian jail cell rubbing his hands together, mumbling about how they'll never race in Misano...never in Misano..

The Red Duck

Yesterday was a tough one at work, made especially tougher by the fact that the House of Tooth is flying out on vacation tomorrow, earlier than I feel comfortable contemplating.
But if Mr. Howell is going to write about motor vehicular risk, so will I.

When I got home last night, I watched Race 1 of the WSBK at Silverstone. Nasty conditions: standing water on the track, filthy visor-coating mist flung up from rear tires, cold rain, poor visibility, and very heavy very aggressive traffic. So nasty that the second race was red flagged. Sounds like Chandler's Chicago commute, with the following exceptions:

• Everyone is on two wheels (except for the Alfa 159, which follows only on the warm up lap, and at a discrete distance).
• The cycles have been freshly massaged by well paid mechanics, sparing no expense in picking the fly poop from the pepper in handling, power delivery and suspension according to the desires of the rider. When the track is hot, statuesque women in high heels hold umbrellas over the motorcycles to keep them cool.
  
• Everyone on the track is wearing leathers, gloves, boots, back protector and a full-face helmet.
  
• No one is chatting on a cell phone or drinking coffee whilst riding round the track. The only communication is through flags waved by officials and corner workers, and the pit board with a couple of numbers hung out for the rider to read as he speeds past. None of this NASCAR-style chit chat and sippy cups.

All the WSBK machines are produced to a regulation, a formula that is more rigorously enforced than PCI, Basel II or the FFIEC guidelines. Sunday's race at Silverstone revealed the difference of how a regulation is interpreted, viz., traction control. Despite the best efforts of a well funded Ten Kate team, with full support of the mammoth Honda Racing Corporation, and a skilled and extra-dreamy rider at a home course, Mr. Toseland's CBR1000RR ended up like this after only a few laps. Nonetheless, water spewing from his radiator, and mud in the engine, he picked it up and rode on, finishing 8th. He was lapped by the pack who had figured out traction control: Xerox Ducati and Yamaha. And the Ducati bike is a year old.

Are strictly enforced regulations and technical innovation what makes for great racing? Is it all physics, themodynamics, fluid mechanics, geometry and friction?

No. What makes for great racing is the fact that these machines are piloted by the world's finest chaos generating engines, i.e., motorcycle road racers. Otherwise, why does nutso "Nori" get wear a rainbow wig on the podium, while his stoic Wollongongian team mate does not? What is to prevent a twitchy Frenchman on an equally twitchy Kawasaki from having a fleeting existential moment, resulting in a high velocity green missile smashing into a focused Texan's perfect line round Ascari? Nothing. The black swan rides the track along with the red Ducks.

Like any enterprise, you can comply with the regulations. You can follow the rules. You can become technically innovative. But the enterprise is run by chaos driven humans. All you can do is strap them in leathers and hope they don't lose any more fingers than is absolutely necessary.