Another candidate for the Forrest Gump
award?
"Researchers have demonstrated
a vulnerability in the computer systems used to control facilities at
federal prisons that could allow an outsider to remotely take them
over, doing everything from opening and overloading cell door
mechanisms to shutting down internal communications systems. ... The
researchers began their work after [John] Strauchs was called in by a
warden to investigate an incident
in which all the cell doors on one prison's death row spontaneously
opened."
[From the article:
While the computers that are used for
the system control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems that control
prison doors and other systems in theory should not be connected to
the Internet, the researchers found that there was an
Internet connection associated with every prison system they
surveyed.
Another article to chase away that warm
fuzzy feeling... Something for my Ethical Hackers.
Darpa
Begs Hackers: Secure Our Networks, End ‘Season of Darkness’
The Pentagon’s far-out research
agency and its brand new military command for cyberspace have a
confession to make. They don’t really know how to keep U.S.
military networks secure. And they want to know: Could you help
them out?
… U.S. networks are “as porous as
a colander,” Richard Clarke, the former White House
counterterrorism chief turned cybersecurity
Cassandra, told a packed ballroom.
Another poor method for estimating
damages in a Privacy Breach...
How
Much Is Your Identity Worth?
November 8, 2011 by admin
This may come as a blow to the
narcissists among us, but your identity isn’t worth very much these
days. Indeed, you might get more using the per pound formula.
Brian Krebs reports:
How much does it
cost for thieves to discover the data that unlocks identity for
creditors, such as your Social Security number, birthday, or mother’s
maiden name? Would it surprise you to learn that crooks are selling
this data to any and all comers for pennies on the dollar?
At least, that’s
the going price at superget.info. This fraudster-friendly site has
been operating since July 2010, and markets the ability to look up
SSNs, birthdays and other sensitive information on millions of
Americans.
Read more on KrebsonSecurity.com
Perhaps this will help illustrate how
evil Social Networking can be?
Judge
Orders Divorcing Couple To Swap Facebook And Dating Site Passwords
November 7, 2011 by Dissent
Kashmir Hill writes:
Most divorces
require spouses to part with some of their property, but in
Connecticut, a soon-to-be ex-husband and wife are being asked to give
up more than just investments, cars, TVs, kids, and pets. They have
to hand over their social networking passwords. At the end of
September, Judge Kenneth Schluger ordered that the attorneys for
Stephen and Courtney Gallion exchange “their client’s Facebook
and dating website passwords.”
Read more on Forbes.
[From the article:
Everyone knows that evidence
from social networking sites comes in handy for lawsuits and
divorces. Attorneys usually get that material by visiting someone’s
page or asking that they turn over evidence from their page, not by
signing into their accounts. But judges are sometimes forcing
litigants to hand over the passwords to their Facebook accounts.
Should they be? What was the reason behind the court-authorized
hacking in the Gallion case?
I spoke with
Stephen Gallion’s divorce lawyer, Gary Traystman,
who amazingly has no computer or e-mail account. “I
see the information people can get from computers, in lawsuits and
through hacking,” says Traystman. “They scare the hell out of
me.”
… During a deposition, Traystman
asked Courtney Gallion for the passwords for her Facebook account, as
well as EHarmony and Match (which she had apparently already joined).
She initially refused but was then counseled by her
lawyer to hand them over (Ed. note:
questionable legal advice there).
Traystman says she immediately texted a
friend and asked that person to change the passwords and delete some
of her messages. That’s when he got the judge involved, to issue
an injunction that she not delete any material and order the
attorneys to exchange passwords for both spouses so that they could
conduct discovery.
Is this overkill? An iPad and three
people (in the photo that accompanies the article) in order to fill
out a paper ballot? Why not just one person with a pencil? Or an
iPad that sends an encrypted ballot?
Oregon
Pioneers iPads as Vote-Recording Machines
… Voters in five Oregon counties
will get to vote using the iPad this year. Apple even donated five
of the tablets to the cause.
… Election officials can tote the
lightweight iPad and portable printer from location to location, and
users simply tap the device to pick candidates, and print out their
ballots.
… Voters can mail in their printed
ballot, or place it in a designated ballot box.
… To roll out the program
statewide, though, Oregon would need about two iPads per county,
which would run the state about $36,000. Still, using iPads could
end up being less expensive in the long run. Last year, Oregon spent
$325,000 on providing accessible voting tools.
(Un-Related) but an interesting video
This was a surprisingly good
video about the math of the U.S. Electoral College system.
“In for a penny, in for a pound,” a
very British expression. Makes Murdoch & company sound like New
York mobsters...
News
of the World hired investigators to spy on hacking victims’ lawyers
November 7, 2011 by Dissent
The News of the World phone hacking
scandal just gets worse and worse. Now Nick Davies reports:
The News of the
World hired a specialist private investigator to run covert
surveillance on two of the lawyers representing phone-hacking victims
as part of an operation to put pressure on them to stop their work.
The investigator
secretly videoed Mark Lewis and Charlotte Harris as well as family
members and associates. Evidence suggests this was part of an
attempt to gather evidence for false smears about their private
lives.
The News of the
World also took specialist advice in an attempt to injunct Lewis to
prevent him representing the victims of hacking and attempted to
persuade one of his former clients to sue him.
Read more on The
Guardian.
It does not look like they track which
medication you take, but rather are you taking whatever medication it
is correctly
By Dissent,
November 7, 2011
Shannon Ross reports:
You probably know
that credit reporting companies collect personal information, like if
you pay your bills on time. But, did you also know that they also
keep track of the medications you take and
assign it a score?
Senator Chuck
Schumer says they take that score and sell it to other companies,
which could affect things like whether you get a new job or a
mortgage.
He’s pushing the
FTC to look into whether all this is legal.
Read more on WIVB.
Jay Jochnowitz also covers the story on Albany
Times Union. Both articles reproduce Senator Schumer’s letter
to the FTC.
[From the Times-Union
Blog:
The New York Times reported
a while back that FICO, one of the entities that does credit ratings,
is coming out with a “Medication Adherence Score.” It’s a
score driven by statistics and certain personal traits — such as
home ownership, job stability, and marital status — to predict how
likely you are to take prescription drugs.
… The FICO medication score is
based on publicly available data, like
home ownership and job status, and does not rely on a patient’s
medical history or financial information to predict whether he or she
will take medication as directed. So, like a credit rating, it can
be compiled without a person’s knowledge or permission.
This harassment of Muslims will
continue until we have a Muslim President... Oh wait...
Muslims
angry over NYPD surveillance program find privacy laws may not be on
their side
November 8, 2011 by Dissent
Chris Hawley of Associated Press
reports that the sense in the Muslim community in New York is that
there is not much they can do about what appears to be targeted
surveillance against them in the wake of 9/11. AP has been
publishing a number of pieces on this issue for the past few months
to spotlight the problem. For background on the situation, see
previous coverage from September
and October.
Hawley reports:
“The police do
what they want,” he said, standing in front of the empty storefront
where his café used to be. “If I went to court to sue, what do
you think would happen? Things would just get worse.”
It’s a common
sentiment among those who are considering their legal options in the
wake of an Associated Press investigation into a massive New York
Police Department surveillance program targeting Muslims. Many of
the targets feel they have little recourse — and because privacy
laws have weakened dramatically since 9/11, they may be right, legal
experts say.
“It’s
really not clear that people can do anything if they’ve been
subjected to unlawful surveillance anymore,” said Donna
Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
[...]
Lawsuits filed by
surveillance targets themselves are notoriously hard to win, said
Paul Chevigny, a law professor at New York University and expert on
police abuse cases.
“The
fact that you feel spooked and chilled by it doesn’t constitute an
injury,” Chevigny said. Even in cases where
surveillance notes leak out, the chances of winning a lawsuit are
“marginal” unless the leaking was done with the clear intent of
harming someone, he said.
Read more on Chicago
Tribune. Hawley cites specific laws and rulings that may have
weakened people’s rights or redress.
This situation needs greater exposure
and discussion – and yes, outrage. As a long-time New Yorker, I
have no doubt in my mind that if the NYPD engaged in the very same
conduct but targeted Jews, there would be holy hell to pay in NY.
Yet they are reportedly targeting another religious group and the
majority of the public shrugs or ignores the problem?
What does that say about us all? Have
too many people bought into governmental FUD and now distrust all
Muslims? If so, that would be tragic as well as offensive.
We’re the melting pot, remember?
We’re the ones who stand up for
religious freedom and the rights of the underdog.
We’re the ones who presume to spread
tolerance and freedom to other lands.
Let’s clean up our own backyard.
“We need this because after hundreds
of close observations we've noticed that they never carry
identification!”
Thumbs
down on stripper fingerprint plan
November 7, 2011 by Dissent
Tom Godfrey reports:
A plan to
fingerprint 1,000 exotic dancers in Niagara Region has outraged
strippers who claim the precedent-setting scheme is insulting and
discriminatory.
The Adult
Association of Canada predicted the plan, if approved by Niagara
Regional Council, will be adopted in the Toronto area and other parts
of the province.
A proposed bylaw
would demand that dancers be fingerprinted when renewing or obtaining
a licence needed to perform in strip clubs.
Read more on CNEWS.
Why would anyone care what a college
dropout thinks? Because he's a Billionaire college dropout...
Zuckerberg
on 'Charlie Rose': Why Facebook rules
… They talked about how Google,
Yahoo and Microsoft were far more heinous when it came to taking
liberties with your privacy than was Facebook -- which is so, so open
and transparent, you see.
… Sandberg insisted that the users
are the most important part of Facebook -- something that might come
as a surprise to, well, the users.
She said: "Their trust is sacred."
She added: "Privacy is the most important thing we do."
Okay, Ethical Hackers can no longer
earn points for jailbreaking a MS phone...
"A tool to unlock (or
'jailbreak' if you like) Windows Phone devices is
now available with Microsoft's blessing. ChevronWP7 Labs was
withdrawn
at Microsoft's request a year ago, but is back now, allowing
users to run any app on their phones for a cost of $9."
Geek out, dudes!
Firefox
8 Is Available Now For Download [News]
(Related)
Amazon’s
Kindle Cloud Reader Now Available For Firefox, Too
...and just because.
Monday, November 7, 2011
This one is for the music teachers, US
History teachers, and lovers of jazz music. Today, through Open
Culture I learned about a documentary titled 1959:
The Year that Changed Jazz. The documentary was produced by the
BBC. The documentary examines four musicians and the landmark albums
they released in 1959. Those featured musicians and albums are Miles
Davis: Kind of Blue, Dave
Brubeck: Time Out, Charles
Mingus: Mingus Ah Um, and Ornette
Coleman: The Shape of Jazz to Come.
No comments:
Post a Comment