December 2011
4 posts
A Girl You Should Date →
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve. Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over...
The real divide in America →
Less than a year from the presidential election, the harrowing television graphics, tired sports metaphor and end-of-the-world fundraising pitches are once again upon us. You know the script — Democrats versus Republicans, good versus evil, with-us-or-against-us. Whichever team you happen to be on, you are encouraged to see it as your side’s phalanx lining up on the battlefield against the...
What I suspect Google is up to with Native Client →
I had originally intended on spending a lot more time on this, but as ever perfection is the enemy of good enough, so will just cut to the chase and reiterate the main points I made last week. I’m finding it infuriating trying to get this out cohesively, so please feel free to flag stuff for more discussion. In particular I’m going to try ignoring speculation and “gut...
Steven Levy on Facebook, Spotify and the Future of... →
Even if Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t been introduced to Spotify two years ago, it was probably inevitable that the two companies would hook up. The European music service had already won millions of fans, thanks to a business model that allowed music nuts to stream any song, instantly, for free. More important, it made it easy for people to share music with one another. This vision—of...
November 2011
12 posts
Twitter Must Provide Data on 3 Users, Judge Rules →
A federal judge on Thursday ruled that Twitter, the popular microblogging platform, must reveal information about three of its account holders who are under investigation for their possible links to the WikiLeaks whistle-blower site.
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Notes on the #Occupy Media Teams →
So far, Occupy has thrived as a prototype rather than a program: an open-source laboratory for activism. What follows is a collection of research notes on how #Occupy collectives have evolved media teams, with a special focus on the original group in Zuccotti Park, NYC. Apologies to the authors pilfered here, but no repentance…after all, this is for Science.
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Is Anthrax Trying To Become The New Metallica?... →
ny more records the band used to sell in the past. And he keeps building up steam until it’s a full on rant, complete with falsely claiming it’s “theft” (over and over and over again) and comparing it to drunk driving… including claiming that if you’re caught downloading unauthorized music, you should lose your internet access completely:
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There is no cyber war the same way there is no... →
One of the staff at my school (King’s College, London) recently published a paper that used Clausewitzian definitions of war to declaim that there has been no cyberwar, cyberwar is not happening now, and cyberwar is unlikely to occur in the future. Of course it is easy to prove a point if you control the definitions and I will stipulate that the idea of two nations engaging in purely network and...
Study: Many Facebook users are careless →
After conducting an experiment, a team of researchers at the University of British Columbia in Canada has concluded that a fifth of all Facebook users are careless when accepting friend requests and automatically disclose their private information in the process. The researchers used 102 virtual Facebook profiles to harvest gigabytes worth of user data. To collect the data, they used...
EFF Data Shows Four CAs Compromised Since June →
The EFF, through the use of its SSL Observatory, has taken a look at the data from certificate revocation lists for SSL certificates in recent months, and found that there were four separate CAs compromised in the last four months. The data that the EFF looked at was a summary of the reasons that specific certificates were revoked by CAs, as reported by the CAs themselves in CRLs. When a...
Are You on the Pwnedlist? →
2011 has been called the year of the data breach, with hacker groups publishing huge troves of stolen data online almost daily. Now a new site called pwnedlist.com lets users check to see if their email address or username and associated information may have been compromised. Pwnedlist.com is the creation of Alen Puzic and Jasiel Spelman, two security researchers from DVLabs, a division of...
Thousands Petition Obama to Block E-Parasites Act →
Net users angry at the introduction of the Stop Online Piracy Act, also known as the “E-Parasites Act,” are attempting to force the White House to oppose the bill, which would boost the government’s authority to disrupt and shutter alleged trademark- and copyright-infringing websites. And by the early results, it looks like they might at least force the administration to respond. The petitioners...
Duqu Installer Contains Windows Kernel Zero Day →
A newly discovered installer for the Duqu malware includes an exploit for a previously unknown vulnerability in the Windows kernel that allows remote code execution. Microsoft is working on a fix for the kernel vulnerability right now. The exact location and nature of the flaw isn’t clear right now.
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'Nitro' hackers use stock malware to steal... →
Attackers used an off-the-shelf Trojan horse to sniff out secrets from nearly 50 companies, many of them in the chemical and defense industries, Symantec researchers said today. The attack campaign — which Symantec tagged as “Nitro” — started no later than last July and continued until mid-September, targeting an unknown number of companies and infecting at least 48 firms...
Facebook Letting Users Designate 'Guardian Angel'... →
Social networking giant Facebook said on Thursday that it is testing a feature that will allow users to designate certain friends as ‘guardian angels’ entrusted with helping the user to recover a locked or hijacked account. The company, which has already experimented with forms of “social authentication,” such as using photos of Facebook friends to help users prove they...
Anonymous vs. Zetas Amid Mexico's Cartel Violence →
The online activist collective Anonymous posted a message on the Internet on Oct. 31 saying it would continue its campaign against Mexican criminal cartels and their government supporters despite the risks. The message urged inexperienced activists, who might not be practicing proper online security measures, to abstain from participating. It also urged individuals associated with Anonymous in...
October 2011
64 posts
Innovative Attacks Treat Mobile Phones As Sensors →
As smartphones become more powerful, technologists have increasingly referred to the devices as pocket-sized computers. Yet less often do the experts consider the implications of a different aspect of the devices workers are carrying around: that of a capable pocket-sized suite of sensors. Researchers have begun to focus on this facet of mobile phones. Last week, for example, computer scientists...
Rebuttal – “Hackers reportedly behind U.S.... →
First some historical background, this is at least the third time I have seen a similar story over the last 15 years. “OMG ‘hackers’ can control a satellite”, the previous two times it turned out to be false. The first time I was one of the first people call the story suspect. It is hard to find links that still work from 1999 but Reuters actually had to publish a retraction, if you can call it...
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Hackers Interrupt U.S. Government Satellites →
Hackers interfered with two U.S. satellites on four separate occasions in the last few years, according to a draft of a report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission obtained by Bloomberg BusinessWeek on Thursday. The attacks are believed to have been orchestrated from China.
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Police Evict OaklandOccupy With Tear Gas, Setting... →
Police violently evicted OccupyOakland, one of the more established and extensive of the occupations, on Tuesday shooting at protestors with projectile rounds and tear gas, drawing national attention. occupy Over the course of 24 hours, starting with an early morning raid, hundreds of police officers took back control of the square and removed tents. Police arrested nearly 100 protestors —...
White House Begins Responses to 'We the People' →
When the White House announced “We the People,” an online petitioning platform, activists were cautiously optimistic. Whether the platform turns out to be a new way for average people to have a two-way conversation with the White House — on a topic of their choosing, not restricted to White House talking points — depended on how seriously administration officials take their promise...
First Google.Org-funded geothermal mapping report... →
New research from SMU’s Geothermal Laboratory, funded by a grant from Google.org, documents significant geothermal resources across the United States capable of producing more than three million megawatts of green power – 10 times the installed capacity of coal power plants today. Geothermal Map of the United StatesSophisticated mapping produced from the research, viewable via Google Earth at...
Mitsubishi Hack May Have Yielded Defense, Nuke... →
A report claims the recent hack of Japanese Defense Contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries may have led to the theft of sensitive data related to weapons systems and nuclear reactors. The report, on the Website of The Asahi Shimbun, cites unnamed sources as saying that malware planted on servers belonging to MHI exporting “sensitive information concerning vital defense equipment, such as...
FBI to launch nationwide facial recognition... →
The FBI by mid-January will activate a nationwide facial recognition service in select states that will allow local police to identify unknown subjects in photos, bureau officials told Nextgov. The federal government is embarking on a multiyear, $1 billion dollar overhaul of the FBI’s existing fingerprint database to more quickly and accurately identify suspects, partly through applying...
OWS's Beef: Wall Street Isn't Winning It's... →
When was the last time the government stepped into help you “avoid losses you might otherwise suffer?” But that’s the reality we live in. When Joe Homeowner buys too much house, essentially betting that home prices would go up and losing when they drop, he’s an irresponsible putz who shouldn’t whine about being put on the street. But when banks bet billions on a firm like...
The Bitcoin Crypto-Currency Mystery Reopened →
In a recent New Yorker story, Joshua Davis wrote a story on Bitcoin, the crypto-currency that has ignited the imaginations of the technorati and led to a rush of media coverage. But this is no usual magazine feature. Not only does Davis, a marvelous writer whose work I’ve long admired, offer a primer on Bitcoin—what it is, how it works, why it’s important—he sets off on a...
Swiss Banks May Pay Billions, Disclose Names →
Swiss banks will probably settle a sweeping U.S. probe of offshore tax evasion by paying billions of dollars and handing over names of thousands of Americans who have secret accounts, according to two people familiar with the matter. U.S. and Swiss officials are concluding negotiations on a civil settlement amid U.S. criminal probes of 11 financial institutions, including Credit Suisse Group AG...
Anonymous takes down darknet child porn site on... →
Pedophiles connecting to a concealed child pornography site got an unwelcome surprise last week, courtesy of the hacktivist group Anonymous. Lolita City, a child pornography site run on over a concealed “darknet,” has been taken down by Anonymous members, and account details of 1,589 users from the site’s database were posted as evidence. The takedown is part of Anonymous’ Operation Darknet, an...
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The Mystery of Duqu →
First of all, we feel it necessary to clarify some of the confusion surrounding the files and their names related to this incident. To get a full understanding of the situation you only need to know that we’re talking about just two malicious programs here (at a minimum) - the main module and a keylogger. All that has been mentioned in last 24 hours about connections between Duqu and Stuxnet is...
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Exclusive: Nasdaq hackers spied on company boards →
Hackers who infiltrated the Nasdaq’s computer systems last year installed malicious software that allowed them to spy on the directors of publicly held companies, according to two people familiar with an investigation into the matter. The new details showed the cyber attack was more serious than previously thought, as Nasdaq OMX Group had said in February that there was no evidence the...
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Analysis: Duqu Targets Certificate Authorities →
With virus researchers scrambling to decode a new piece of malware that is based on the code of the Stuxnet worm, an analyst at McAfee is speculating that the new worm, Duqu, may have been created to target certificate authorities. Writing on McAfee’s research blog, Guilherme Venere and Peter Szor say that an analysis of the Duqu code by McAfee experts suggests that the worm was created...
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Researchers: 'Precursor' To Son Of Stuxnet Spotted... →
It was only a matter of time: What might be the first stage of the next Stuxnet attack has been spotted in the wild — and there are multiple versions of the second-generation malware in circulation, including ones that target industrial-control system vendors and certificate authorities (CAs). Researchers at Symantec say newly discovered malware, dubbed “Duqu,” shares much of...
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Report says US contemplated cyber war against... →
This spring, the US government contemplated using IT-based measures in the fight against the regime of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. A report in the New York Times cites an inside source who wishes to remain anonymous, who claims that the government eventually decided against employing cyber-warfare. The reason for the decision was that overcoming the Libyan firewall to weaken air...
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Verizon Wireless to collect and sell usage data →
Verizon Wireless, the largest cellular carrier in the U.S., had decided to track customer usage and location, and sell it. To make sure everyone is included, they’ve already enrolled their entire customer base into the new program. If you want privacy, you have to opt-in to it instead of expecting it automatically. Information is a hot commodity. There isn’t a business in operation today that...
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The Dangers in Classifying the News →
“When everything is classified, then nothing is classified…The system becomes one to be disregarded by the cynical or the careless and to be manipulated by those intent on self-protection or self-promotion.” ~ Justice Stewart, New York Times v. United States, 1971.
Last week, the White House issued the so-called ‘WikiLeaks’ Executive Order, which mandates better security for the nation’s...
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In a Single Month, the Occupation Became a Force →
On Sept. 17, Constitution Day, about 1,000 people assembled in lower Manhattan to protest Wall Street, the government’s bailout of too-big-to-fail banks, and the growing gap everywhere between rich and poor.
The world ignored them.
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America is broken, what now? →
The US is broken. In the years after WW2 the US made tangible the American dream. It did so through by connecting incomes to improvements in productivity. Simply: If you do more work per hour, your income should go up (see chart).
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Sentenced: German engineer modified card terminals... →
A German electronics engineer has been sentenced at the Old Bailey to three years in prison for committing various offences including skimming fraud. The 26-year-old assisted organised criminal networks by adding skimming components to PIN Entry Devices (PEDs) that had been stolen from retailers across Europe. Once returned to the retail outlet, the compromised PEDs harvested magnetic stripe and...
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Occupy Wall Street: A Global Phenomena Without A... →
Today, the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement is one-month old. The protest that first started in lower Manhattan and gained traction in Zuccotti Park, has become global, without a plan.
Yes, you’ve heard correctly.
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No GOP Senator Supports Bill to Protect Cloud... →
Five months ago, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) introduced a bill to update the nation’s privacy laws to protect citizen’s data stored in the cloud from warrantless searches. The move was backed by tech powerhouses including Google and Microsoft, though law enforcement opposes restricting their power to easily get data in Gmail and Hotmail. Five months later, the...
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24 year old student lights match: Europe versus... →
If you are interested in social networks, don’t miss the slick video about Max Schrems’ David and Goliath struggle with Facebook over the way they are treating his personal information. Click on the red “CC” in the lower right-hand corner to see the English subtitles. Max is a 24 year old law student from Vienna with a flair for the interview and plenty of smarts about both technology and legal...
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Sony faces more security problems - probe targeted... →
Sony is in the spotlight again, and once more the reason is security related. According to the consumer electronics company, its Sony Entertainment Network (SEN), PlayStation Network (PSN), and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) services were all targeted in an attack that impacted 93,000 user accounts. “These attempts appear to include a large amount of data obtained from one or more compromised...
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The Bitcoin Crypto-Currency Mystery Reopened →
In a recent New Yorker story, Joshua Davis wrote a story on Bitcoin, the crypto-currency that has ignited the imaginations of the technorati and led to a rush of media coverage. But this is no usual magazine feature. Not only does Davis, a marvelous writer whose work I’ve long admired, offer a primer on Bitcoin—what it is, how it works, why it’s important—he sets off on a...
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German researchers crack RFID cards →
Researchers at Ruhr University in Bochum have succeeded in copying the key from one make of RFID card. As well as having the obvious benefit of convenience, RFID cards, which are used for access control and billing, are supposed to be very secure. But a copied card would offer attackers plenty of scope for abuse.
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German Minister Wants Investigation of State... →
Germany’s justice minister has called for an investigation after authorities in at least four German states acknowledged using computer spyware to conduct surveillance on citizens. Authorities in the state of Bavaria admitted on Monday that a piece of spyware discovered on a citizen’s computer by the local Chaos Computer Club hacker group was designed for use by authorities to spy on suspects....