twice-refried news

Why Google keeps your data forever, tracks you with ads

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:32:47 -0500

Why Google keeps your data forever, tracks you with ads:

Not many companies could get away with defending controversial data retention practices by saying that the data is needed to “learn from good guys, fight off bad guys, [and] invent the future.” But that’s how Google sees itself and its practices—not surprising from a company that would give itself an unofficial motto like “don’t be evil.” I had the chance recently to sit down with two of Google’s top privacy people: deputy general counsel Nicole Wong and security/privacy engineer Alma Whitten. While the “good guy/bad guy” and “don’t be evil” quotes may seem too cute by half to some, Wong and Whitten made a strong pitch for the truth of both slogans. In their view, Google really is fighting the good fight when it comes to your online privacy.

Full Article (Ars Technica - arstechnica.com)

Google Responds To Privacy Concerns With Unsettlingly Specific Apology

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:28:05 -0500

Google Responds To Privacy Concerns With Unsettlingly Specific Apology:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—Responding to recent public outcries over its handling of private data, search giant Google offered a wide-ranging and eerily well-informed apology to its millions of users Monday. “We would like to extend our deepest apologies to each and every one of you,” announced CEO Eric Schmidt, speaking from the company’s Googleplex headquarters. “Clearly there have been some privacy concerns as of late, and judging by some of the search terms we’ve seen, along with the tens of thousands of personal e-mail exchanges and Google Chat conversations we’ve carefully examined, it looks as though it might be a while before we regain your trust.”

Full Article (The Onion - theonion.com)

Exploit the User with SET – The Social Engineering Toolkit

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:26:06 -0500

Exploit the User with SET – The Social Engineering Toolkit:

I have to say… SET is just plain awesome. The Social Engineering Toolkit (SET) is a set of python scripts created by David Kennedy (aka rel1k) to automate many client side penetration testing vectors. In conjunction with Social-Engineer.org, which is also a top-notch resource, it provides for some of best extensibility in this type testing. A couple of weekends ago Dave released 0.4 of SET at Shmoocon. I’ll be honest, i hadn’t used it much until now but, after a good bit of research I now appreciate its full glory.

Full Article (Security Aegis - securityaegis.com)

Craft Night Walkthrough of New Resistor! So we had our first...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:20:39 -0500

Craft Night Walkthrough of New Resistor!

So we had our first Craft Night this week in the new space. We moved in Saturday. So in less than a week you can see how far we have come. I am pretty excited about what we’re going to be able to do.

via NYC Resistor

The Data Singularity is Here

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:30:54 -0500

The Data Singularity is Here:

In the next two blog posts I’ll attempt to sketch the forces behind what I’m calling, somewhat sensationally, the Data Singularity, and then (in a following post) discuss what I see as its consequences. In a nutshell, the Data Singularity is this: humans are being spliced out of the data-driven processes around us, and frequently we aren’t even at the terminal node of action. International cargo shipments, high-frequency stock trades, and genetic diagnoses are all made without us. Absent humans, these data and decision loops have far less friction; they become constrained only by the costs of bandwidth, computation, and storage– all of which are dropping exponentially.

Full Article (Dataspora Blog - dataspora.com)

HTC Phones Pre-installed With Mariposa Bot Client

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:11:08 -0500

HTC Phones Pre-installed With Mariposa Bot Client:

Security researchers have found that Vodafone, one of the world’s larger wireless providers, is distributing some HTC phones with malware pre-installed on them. The phone, the HTC Magic, runs the Google Android mobile operating system, and is one of the more popular handsets right now. A researcher at Panda Security received one of the handsets recently, and upon attaching it to her PC, found that the phone was pre-loaded with the Mariposa bot client. Mariposa has been in the news of late thanks to some arrests connected to the operation of the botnet.

Full Article (threatpost - threatpost.com)

Time Bandits

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:03:42 -0500

Time Bandits:

In 1933, with his great scientific discoveries behind him, Albert Einstein came to America. He spent the last twenty-two years of his life in Princeton, New Jersey, where he had been recruited as the star member of the Institute for Advanced Study. Einstein was reasonably content with his new milieu, taking its pretensions in stride. “Princeton is a wonderful piece of earth, and at the same time an exceedingly amusing ceremonial backwater of tiny spindle-shanked demigods,” he observed. His daily routine began with a leisurely walk from his house, at 115 Mercer Street, to his office at the institute. He was by then one of the most famous and, with his distinctive appearance—the whirl of pillow-combed hair, the baggy pants held up by suspenders—most recognizable people in the world.

Full Article (The New Yorker - newyorker.com)

Argos credit-card scandal worsens

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:53:57 -0500

Argos credit-card scandal worsens:

Fresh doubts have been raised over the online security of high street retailer Argos, following a PC Pro investigation. Yesterday, we revealed that Argos was sending customers’ unencrypted credit-card numbers and security codes in order confirmation emails, potentially exposing them to online fraud. Now it’s emerged that those very same confirmation emails contain a web link - ironically intended to direct customers to Argos’s security page - which contains the customer’s full name, address and credit-card details in the URL itself.

Full Article (PC Pro - pcpro.co.uk)

Obama admin declassifies major cybersecurity plans

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:45:22 -0500

Obama admin declassifies major cybersecurity plans:

Bowing to pressure from activist groups and to the dictates of common sense, the Obama administration has done what the Bush administration wouldn’t and declassified some general information [PDF] about the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), a sweeping program that the Bush White House launched in early 2008 to protect the government and critical civilian networks from cyberattacks. It turns out that, like at least one other effort launched by the Bush administration in the name of national security, the program was too secret for its own good.

Full Article (Ars Technica - arstechnica.com)

Bogus Copyright Claim Silences Yet Another Larry Lessig YouTube Presentation

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:36:12 -0500

Bogus Copyright Claim Silences Yet Another Larry Lessig YouTube Presentation:

Nearly a year ago, we wrote about how a YouTube presentation done by well known law professor (and strong believer in fair use and fixing copyright law), Larry Lessig, had been taken down, because his video, in explaining copyright and fair use and other such things, used a snippet of a Warner Music song to demonstrate a point. There could be no clearer example of fair use — but the video was still taken down. There was some dispute at the time as to whether or not this was an actual DMCA takedown, or merely YouTube’s audio/video fingerprinting technology (which the entertainment industry insists can understand fair use and not block it). But, in the end, does it really make a difference? A takedown over copyright is a takedown over copyright.

Full Article (Techdirt - techdirt.com)

The Complaint: Apple’s Patent Lawsuit Against HTC Is All About Android

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:32:02 -0500

The Complaint: Apple’s Patent Lawsuit Against HTC Is All About Android:

Earlier today, Apple issued a press release stating that it has filed suit against cell phone manufacturer HTC for patent infringement. No mention of Android or Google was in the press release. But the actual legal complaints, which we’ve obtained and embedded below, make no bones about it. As expected, this lawsuit is about Android. HTC, of course, is one of the largest manufacturers of Android handsets.

Full Article (TechCrunch - techcrunch.com)

Giga-Biter In Obstruction Charge (ATM Skimmers)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:44:23 -0500

Giga-Biter In Obstruction Charge (ATM Skimmers):

In a bold and bizarre attempt to destroy evidence seized during a federal raid, a New York City man grabbed a flash drive and swallowed the data storage device while in the custody of Secret Service agents, records show. Florin Necula ingested the Kingston flash drive shortly after his January 21 arrest outside a bank in Queens, according to U.S. District Court filings. Necula and several codefendants had been transported to a Secret Service office in Brooklyn, where they were to be questioned and processed. While there, and in the view of investigators, Necula “grabbed Subject Flash Drive 2, which had been on his person at the time of his arrest, and swallowed,” Agent Joseph Borger noted in the below February 25 search warrant affidavit.

Full Article (The Smoking Gun - thesmokinggun.com)

Yes, I’ll honor the f—-ing embargo via Boing Boing

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:39:08 -0500

Yes, I’ll honor the f—-ing embargo

via Boing Boing

Spy cameras won't make us safer

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:51:10 -0500

Spy cameras won't make us safer:

On January 19, a team of at least 15 people assassinated Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Dubai police released video footage of 11 of them. Although it was obviously a very professional operation, the 27 minutes of video is fascinating in its banality. Team members walk through the airport, check into and out of hotels, get into and out of taxis. They make no effort to hide themselves from the cameras, sometimes seeming to stare directly into them. They obviously don’t care that they’re being recorded, and — in fact — the cameras didn’t prevent the assassination, nor as far as we know have they helped as yet in identifying the killers.

Full Article (CNN - cnn.com)

Military Monitored Planned Parenthood, Supremacists

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:11:46 -0500

Military Monitored Planned Parenthood, Supremacists:

The U.S. military monitored Planned Parenthood and a white supremacist group as part of the government’s security preparations for the 2002 Olympics in Utah, according to new documents released by the Department of Defense. The U.S. Joint Forces Command liaison collected and disseminated information on U.S. citizens who were members of Planned Parenthood and the white supremacist group National Alliance regarding their involvement in protests and distributing literature, according to an intelligence-oversight report released by the Pentagon. The documents indicate that the JFC liaison was working with the FBI’s Olympic Intelligence Center at the time.

Full Article (Threat Level - wired.com)

Open Source – The Real iPhone Killer

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:08:42 -0500

Open Source – The Real iPhone Killer:

The iPhone is the king of the hill when it comes to smartphones. Everyone knows that, right? Well, that isn’t exactly true – in North America RIM (the Blackberry) holds about half of the entire smartphone market. Globally, Symbian-based devices (primarily from Nokia) are the most popular, followed by the Blackberry and then the iPhone (with Windows Mobile and Android getting small portions of the pie, followed by the once-mighty Palm).

Full Article (Nixie Pixel - nixiepixel.com)

Big Content condemns foreign governments that endorse FOSS

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:42:21 -0500

Big Content condemns foreign governments that endorse FOSS:

In accordance with US trade law, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) is required to conduct an annual review of the status of foreign intellectual property laws. This review, which is referred to as Special 301, is typically used to denounce countries that have less restrictive copyright policies than the United States.

Full Article (Ars Technica - arstechnica.com)

Microsoft Ambushes Waledac Botnet, Shutters Whistleblower Site

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:40:57 -0500

Microsoft Ambushes Waledac Botnet, Shutters Whistleblower Site:

Microsoft’s lawyers this week engineered a pair of important takedowns, one laudable and the other highly-charged. The software giant orchestrated a legal sneak attack against the Web servers controlling the Waledac botnet, a major distributor of junk e-mail. In an unrelated and more controversial move, Redmond convinced an ISP to shutter a popular whistleblower Web site for hosting a Microsoft surveillance compliance document.

Full Article (Krebs on Security - krebsonsecurity.com)

Google, Gmail, and Google Apps Accounts Explained

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:39:13 -0500

Google, Gmail, and Google Apps Accounts Explained:

If you’ve taken the leap and hosted your domain email with Google Apps, no doubt you’ve noticed that you miss out on services that regular Gmail accounts get: like Google Reader, Voice, Wave, Analytics, and right now, Buzz. After complaining about the disparities on a recent episode of This Week in Google, a helpful Googler unofficially got in touch to clarify and confirm the problem. Let’s call her/him “Helpful McGoogler.” Here’s what HM said. To the user, it may appear that there are three types of Google accounts: Gmail accounts, Google accounts, and Google Apps (for your domain) accounts. In truth, there’s only one kind of account: a Google Account.

Full Article (Smarterware - smarterware.org)

Fill in the Blanks: Using Math to Turn Lo-Res Datasets Into Hi-Res Samples

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:09:08 -0500

Fill in the Blanks: Using Math to Turn Lo-Res Datasets Into Hi-Res Samples:

In the early spring of 2009, a team of doctors at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University lifted a 2-year-old into an MRI scanner. The boy, whom I’ll call Bryce, looked tiny and forlorn inside the cavernous metal device. The stuffed monkey dangling from the entrance to the scanner did little to cheer up the scene. Bryce couldn’t see it, in any case; he was under general anesthesia, with a tube snaking from his throat to a ventilator beside the scanner. Ten months earlier, Bryce had received a portion of a donor’s liver to replace his own failing organ. For a while, he did well. But his latest lab tests were alarming. Something was going wrong — there was a chance that one or both of the liver’s bile ducts were blocked.

Full Article (Wired - wired.com)