Here's a game I know some people in Bermuda -- especially those of my scuba diving friends who can always find the sunken ship -- will thoroughly enjoy.

It's called `Geocaching', and requires a pretty accurate global positioning satellite (GPS) device. Someone hides a cache of goodies in a remote location, and then publishes the GPS coordinates on the Internet. Searchers then try to find the cache.

If you find the cache, you keep an item you like and replace it with something else, or mark your discovery in a logbook buried with the goodies. The main fun of the game is being skilled with the GPS device.

GPS is accurate to about 30 feet, which leaves a lot of room for running or finning around.

Geocaching was invented by Dave Ulmer, an engineering consultant living in Oregon. The site's home page lists more than 180 stashes in 14 countries. The game is particularly popular in Australia.

The Geocashing Internet site (http:/www.geocaching.com) doesn't list any Bermuda players yet, so I'm waiting for someone to plant a stash. I'll publish the first co-ordinates if someone joins in the game.

Privacy advocates are watching the case of alleged mobster Nicodemo S. Scarfo (great name huh?), who has been charged with bookmaking and loan sharking in New Jersey.

Apart from the charges, the case could be the first legal test of cyber-surveillance technology that some critics of federal investigations say borders on Big Brotherism.

Scarfo was using PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption to scramble his e-mail messages so the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) couldn't catch him.

However the FBI went around the technology by breaking into Scarfo's office and installing a software program that logged each and every keystroke he made.

The keyboard sniffer allowed the FBI to reproduce every stroke he entered on a computer on which gambling records allegedly were stored. Investigators were able to determine the code and password Scarfo used to access an encrypted program in which, authorities suspected, he was storing gambling and loan-sharking records.

"It's another example of the FBI taking technology to its limits and possibly over the line of what's legally permissible,'' the Electronic Privacy Information Center stated about the case.

Scarfo's lawyer says that federal investigators improperly used a search warrant as authorisation to install a keystroke recorder on Scarfo's business computer in the spring of 1999.

Bruce Schneier, a cryptology expert and founder of Counterpane Internet Security Inc., says the case also illustrates the problems with methods people use to protect their information.

"The story graphically illustrates an important lesson of computer and network security: it's only as secure as the weakest link,'' Schneier said in his regular Crypto-gram newsletter.

PGP provides just one piece of an e-mail security solution. It protects messages in transit from the sender to the receiver. It protects against eavesdropping and impersonation attacks that happen during transit, in the network.

PGP does not protect either endpoint. In other words, while the technology may be good, other basic security protection may be lacking. Keyboard sniffers can capture plain text and pass phrases. Trojan horses and viruses can send signed PGP traffic in the computer user's name. A clever attacker can even find printed copies of PGP-encrypted e-mail in the trash.

"I worry that many cryptographers -- I have been as guilty as everyone else -- have lulled people into a false sense of security,'' he said. "We toss about phrases like `2048-bit RSA' and `trillions of years to break', and we believe them. Instead of building a defensive wall, we're planting a huge stake in the ground and hoping the attacker will only take the path that runs into the stake. We can argue about whether the stake should be a mile tall or a mile and a half tall, but the reality is that a smart attacker will simply go around the stake.'' That's a warning for every business: technology is just one piece of the puzzle. We all know that the moment you forget to lock the door to the office, someone's bound to walk in and take a look around.

Here's a great way to test whether you are speed surfing or just crawling on the Internet. The Bandwidth Speed Test will give you the answer. Go to www.zdnet.com and follow the links for bandwidth speedtest to find out. The site calculates your interconnection speed.

Missed all those Super Bowl ads? You can download and watch them all at the Adcritic site. Go to http:/superbowl.adcritic.com Tech Tattle deals with topics relating to technology. Contact Ahmed at editor yoffshoreon.com or (33) 467901474.