When I googled “homeland security” and “design” today I got 1,350,000 hits – up from 600,000 back in August. An editorial site called Embedded Computing Design comes top. ‘Many embedded devices are located in areas critical for homeland security’ the text intones, ‘from the power grid and the communications infrastructure to power utilities, railroads, and chemical and nuclear plants’. Yikes: and did we think about this risk before we deployed these devices? No, I don’t think we did. Curiously, a beady-eyed eagle also features on the home page: it looks as it it’s about to swoop off and eat a ton of these mission-critical devices for lunch. I also googled “design” and “freedom” and got….12,900,000 hits. That list is topped by a company that makes houses out of steel .