December 2009
17 posts
Is aviation security mostly for show? →
Last week’s attempted terror attack on an airplane heading from Amsterdam to Detroit has given rise to a bunch of familiar questions. How did the explosives get past security screening? What steps could be taken to avert similar attacks? Why wasn’t there an air marshal on the flight? And, predictably, government officials have rushed to institute new safety measures to close holes in...
President Obama, It's Time To Fire the TSA →
Today, DHS’s Napolitano’s response to the crotchbomber: “We’re looking to make sure that this sort of incident cannot recur.” But the TSA’s response to Abdulmutalib’s attempt makes one thing clear: We must stop pretending the TSA is making us safer. Security expert Bruce Schneier nails the core incompetency: “For years I’ve been saying...
Strapped to Android, HTC Takes a Dizzying Ride to... →
Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC is on a tear. This year alone, the company has released five Android handsets. Its next phone, the HTC Nexus One, aka the Googlephone, is among the most anticipated devices of 2010.
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How to obtain and install an SSL/TLS certificate,... →
Anyone operating a server on any scale should want a digital certificate to encrypt data between clients and services, whether for personal, office, or public use. Ars tells you how to obtain and install one, for free.
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7-Eleven Hack From Russia Led to ATM Looting in... →
Flashback, early 2008: Citibank officials are witnessing a huge spike in fraudulent withdrawals from New York area ATMs — $180,000 is stolen from cash machines on the Upper East Side in just three days. After a stakeout, police arrest one man walking out of a bank with thousands of dollars in cash and 12 reprogrammed cards. A lucky traffic stop catches two more plunderers who’d driven in from...
The Anatomy of The Twitter Attack: Part II →
During and after Twittergate, when a hacker broke into a few hosted email accounts and obtained a number of internal documents, I had an opportunity to spend hours speaking to the actual attacker and document how he carried out the attack. The article was called The Anatomy of The Twitter Attack, and today we unfortunately find ourselves with a sequel to that post as the Twitter DNS servers were...
Is Netflix "borking" lesbians with subscriber data... →
It was really just a matter of time before Netflix was the target of a class-action lawsuit over its privacy policies; academics have pointed out for years how the company’s release of “anonymized” movie rental data could actually be used to expose a particular user’s viewing choices. And yesterday’s Netflix lawsuit by “a lesbian who does not want her sexuality...
How Facebook Is Making Friending Obsolete →
Friending wasn’t used as a verb until about five years ago, when social networks such as Friendster, MySpace and Facebook burst onto the scene. Suddenly, our friends were something even better - an audience. If blogging felt like shouting into the void, posting updates on a social network felt more like an intimate conversation among friends at a pub.
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How to destroy the Earth →
Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe. You’ve seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth. You’ve heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world.
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When Google Runs Your Life →
Your day begins with a wake-up call from your Google Android phone. As you run to the shower, you hit Google News and check headlines, then Gmail. Your first appointment of the day has been moved to a new location; Google Maps will direct you there. Quickly update your expense report—including the printout of that sales presentation using, say, Google Template—and shoot them to the...
Mozilla exec urges Firefox users ditch Google for... →
Asa Dotzler, Mozilla’s director of community development, used his personal blog to urge Firefox users away from Google and to use Microsoft’s search engine Bing, instead. Dotzler cited privacy concerns, specifically pointing to comments recently made by Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
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Google CEO Eric Schmidt Dismisses the Importance... →
Yesterday, the web was buzzing with commentary about Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s dangerous, dismissive response to concerns about search engine users’ privacy. When asked during an interview for CNBC’s recent “Inside the Mind of Google” special about whether users should be sharing information with Google as if it were a “trusted friend,” Schmidt responded,...
“Too many wrongly characterize the debate as “security versus privacy.” The real...”
– Bruce Schneier’s reaction to Eric Schmidt (via foomandoonian) (via idiosyncratic-routine)
"100 Billion" The Most Profound Image in Human... →
The new Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken the deepest image yet of the Universe in near-infrared light. The faintest and reddest objects in the image are likely the oldest galaxies ever identified, having formed between only 600–900 million years after the Big Bang. The image shows thousands of galaxies, some more than 12 billion years old. The field view of...
EFF sues feds: tell us how you use Facebook for... →
The EFF, with the help of a group at the UC Berkeley Law School, has issued a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to federal agencies, asking for their policy on the use of social media content during investigations. Having received no response, they’re now taking six government agencies to court.
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How Facebook's New Privacy Changes Will Affect You →
In a late night post on Facebook’s company blog, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a round of upcoming changes that will affect all users of the social network. Specifically, the changes focus on new privacy controls for information sharing. For those who have been following Facebook closely, the announcement doesn’t deliver any new information, it only confirms some previously discussed...