Monday, February 18, 2008

End of an era. (Remember, the telephone had its first public demonstration the week Custer rode to the Little Big Horn...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021500036.html

Most Analog Cellular to Fade Away Next Week

The biggest U.S. mobile operators, AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, will close down their analog networks on Monday.

PC World Friday, February 15, 2008; 12:19 AM




“Hello, We'd like to buy an aircraft carrier, could you spread the cost over these credit cards?”

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080217150151216

Chinese hacker steals user information on 18 MILLION online shoppers at Auction.co.kr

Sunday, February 17 2008 @ 03:01 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

According to Hackbase.com, South Korea’s oldest and largest online shopping site (Auction.co.kr) has claimed it was attacked by a Chinese hacker who made off with the user information on 18 million members and a large amount of financial data. It is further claimed that Auction.co.kr delayed 20 hours after the attack before comfirming the loss of information. Korean users rebuked the website for being too slow to act. It was confirmed that the attack was launched through China’s internet.

Source - The Dark Visitor

PogoWasRight.org editor's note: as the original source is not in English, we are including this item but can't be sure what the original said. The Web Hacking Incidents Database also reports this incident.



Note that this one took far longer than 20 hours to reveal, yet no comment from the press...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080218061223880

LA: Outbreak of ID fraud doubted

Monday, February 18 2008 @ 06:20 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

Kenner officials recently alerted more than 8,000 Food Bank recipients by letter that a computer containing their personal information was stolen in October, city officials said.

A flat-screen computer was stolen from the Food Bank, in the 1600 block of Rev. Richard Wilson Drive, formerly Third Street, in late October, said Deborah Miller Yenni, an attorney working for Kenner. There is no indication anyone's identity has been stolen or personal information compromised, she said. [How would anyone victimized know who to contact to report the crime to? Bob]

The computer had on it a list of about 9,000 recipients of the Food Bank with their personal information, such as names, addresses and in some cases Social Security numbers.

Source - Nola.com



...because...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080218060408653

Data “Dysprotection:” breaches reported last week

Monday, February 18 2008 @ 06:15 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

A recap of incidents or privacy breaches reported last week for those who enjoy shaking their head and muttering to themselves with their morning coffee.

Source - Chronicles of Dissent



A call for Open Source?

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/17/1628210&from=rss

A Look at the State of Wireless Security

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday February 17, @01:30PM from the tubes-of-the-ether dept.

An anonymous reader brings us a whitepaper from Codenomicon which discusses the state and future of wireless security. They examine Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and also take a preliminary look at WiMAX. The results are almost universally dismal; vulnerabilities were found in 90% of the tested devices[PDF]. The paper also looks at methods for vendors to preemptively block some types of threats. Quoting:

"Despite boasts of hardened security measures, security researchers and black-hat hackers keep humiliating vendors. Security assessment of software by source code auditing is expensive and laborious. There are only a few methods for security analysis without access to the source code, and they are usually limited in scope. This may be one reason why many major software vendors have been stuck randomly fixing vulnerabilities that have been found and providing countless patches to their clients to keep the systems protected."



Can they still sell “unlimited service?”

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080207-comcast-tweaks-terms-of-service-in-wake-of-throttling-uproar.html

Comcast tweaks Terms of Service in wake of throttling uproar

By Eric Bangeman | Published: February 07, 2008 - 02:07PM CT

Months after third parties were able to demonstrate that Comcast was throttling some BitTorrent (and Lotus Notes, since fixed) traffic, the cable giant has quietly changed its terms of service. Comcast updated the ToS on January 25—the first update in two years, according to company spokesperson Charlie Douglas—to more explicitly spell out its policies on traffic management.

According to Section III of the revised ToS, Comcast "uses reasonable network management practices that are consistent with industry standards." The company points out that it is not alone in the practice, saying that "all major" ISPs engage in some form of traffic shaping.



Tools & Techniques

http://www.news.com/8301-10789_3-9873864-57.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Hacking the lobby telephone

Posted by Robert Vamosi February 17, 2008 5:41 AM PST

WASHINGTON--Two security researchers at ShmooCon demonstrated on Saturday how a laptop connected to a VoIP telephone could, in some cases, expose a business' internal network to outsiders.


Ditto

http://www.news.com/8301-10789_3-9873865-57.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Hacking public information kiosks

Posted by Robert Vamosi February 17, 2008 6:15 AM PST

Public information kiosks are supposed to allow users to find out more about a company or government agency, and that's all. But on Saturday afternoon, Shanit Gupta, a senior consultant at McAfee Foundstone, demonstrated several ways that he and others have been able to map the internal network on a system running XenApp, formerly Citrix Presentation Server.



Now I can illustrate political absurdity in an appropriate medium. (For my web site students)

http://www.killerstartups.com/User-Gen-Content/Pixtoncom---Make-Your-Own-Comic-Strip/

Pixton.com - Make Your Own Comic Strip

Pixton lets you create your own comic strip without having to draw anything by hand. Select from a ton of pre-made characters, customize them as you see fit, and put them in different poses and add text to make a coherent storyline. Once you complete a strip, it’s published on Pixton for everyone to see. Pixton also includes a feature that lets other people add to your comic strip to expand upon your storyline while your original is saved. You must be a registered user to take advantage of all of Pixton’s features. Signing up is free and allows you to participate in contests and rate other people’s work.

http://www.pixton.com/features



For all my students (don't tell the bookstore!)

http://www.chegg.com/

Chegg

The Best Way to Rent Textbooks



Onlyu because the first one is from Boulder

http://www.esquire.com/features/food-drink/sandwiches

February 16, 2008, 12:37 PM

The Best Sandwiches in America

Unranked, unimpeachable, and incomplete, Esquire’s coast-to-coast list of the finest meals on sliced bread. No burgers allowed.

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