So who are the new (cyber)War mongers?
I can see my next class: Making e-nukes for fun and profit.
"Scott Kemp writes about the
similarities between the nuclear arms race and the use of
cyberweaponry for offensive purposes. As the article points out,
offensive
cyberwarfare leaves a nation's own citizenry vulnerable to attack
as government agencies seek to keep weaknesses
in operating systems (such as Windows) secret.
Quoting: 'In the world of armaments, cyber weapons may require the
fewest national resources to build. That is not to say that highly
developed nations are not without their advantages during early
stages. Countries like Israel and the United States may have more
money and more talented hackers. Their software engineers may be
more skilled and exhibit more creativity and critical thinking owing
to better training and education. However, each
new cyberattack becomes a template for other nations — or
sub-national actors — looking for ideas.'"
I'm thinking this could be the basis
for a fun Quiz for my Computer Security students...
"A common joke in infosec is
that you can't hack a server that is turned off. You better make
sure that the power cord is unplugged, too. Otherwise, you
may be exposed via IPMI, a component present on many servers for
remote management that can be used to flash firmware, get a remote
console and power cycle the server even after the normal power button
has been pressed to turn the server off."
[From the article:
- IPMI is active once the server is connected to power. It does not depend on the server to be actually "switched on".
- IPMI is implemented as a specific circuit on the motherboard. Sometimes, you may find it on an optional plugin board. But it does not require CPU, RAM or other components
Reducing “what you could see if you
were there” to “what you can see online.” The difference
doesn't seem to be a workable definition of privacy...
Swiss
Court Orders Modifications to Google Street View
Switzerland’s highest court on Friday
upheld Google’s
basic right to document residential street fronts with its Street
View technology, but imposed some limitations on the kinds of images
the company can take.
… The Swiss ruling did not involve
the collection of private Internet data but focused on the conditions
for Street View cars to photograph the country’s streets.
… In its ruling Friday, the
Swiss Federal Supreme Court, the Bundesgericht, said Google did
not have to guarantee 100 percent blurring of the faces of
pedestrians, auto license plates and other identifying markers
captured by Google’s Street View cars; 99 percent would be
acceptable. The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., says its
technology blurs faces and license plates in 99 percent of cases.
While the Swiss court sided with Google
on the adequacy of its digital pixilation methods, the panel upheld
several conditions demanded by the national regulator. Those
conditions would require Google to lower the height of its Street
View cameras so they would not peer over garden walls and hedges, to
completely blur out sensitive facilities like women’s shelters,
prisons, retirement homes and schools, and to advise communities in
advance of scheduled tapings.
Be careful who you ask for what
you ask for...
"Seventh Circuit Court of
Appeals Judge Richard
Posner, voluntarily sitting as a district court judge, in the
patent infringement dispute between Apple and Motorola has,
tentatively, dismissed the case on the eve of trial. In this
hilariously
short order, Judge Posner states, 'I have tentatively decided
that the case should be dismissed with prejudice because neither
party can establish a right to relief.' Because it is 'with
prejudice' the parties cannot refile their case. The parties are
likely to appeal the order (when it's finalized)."
Because the speed of light is a drag...
Google
and Netflix Make Land Grab On Edge Of Internet
Behind the scenes, there’s a big
change happening on internet. It’s something that’s mostly
hidden from web surfers, but it’s becoming critical to big internet
companies such as Google and Netflix.
They’re moving servers — usually
free of charge — next to the service providers’ networking gear
so that people trying to watch a popular YouTube video don’t have
to send traffic across the network to servers back to the website’s
data center. It can save companies like Google and Comcast lots of
money, and it speeds things up for consumers.
According to Craig Labovitz, founder of
network analysis company Deepfield Networks, it’s also changing
the way that internet companies work. “The business they’re
in isn’t delivering bits anymore. It’s delivering content,” he
says. And while not everyone agrees, Labovitz says there’s a bit
of a land rush going on as more companies move to get their content
closer to consumers.
… Many of these deals are secret,
but Deepfield Networks knows of about 40 companies that are setting
up their own content delivery networks with service providers,
according to Craig Labovitz.
… Of course, five years ago, did
anyone really think that Netflix would be responsible for 20 percent
of U.S. Internet traffic? Back then, they were just the guys who
mailed you CDs.
Perspective
A
Golden Age of Books? There Were Only 500 Real Bookstores in 1931
… Of these five hundred, most were
refined, old-fashioned 'carriage trade' stores catering to an elite
clientele in the nation's twelve largest cities."
… It's my contention -- and
I've made this point in other ways -- that when people look at
the sprawling mess of Internet publishing and decide that the quality
of writing has declined, they are comparing apples to oranges.
They're taking the most elite offerings
that could be imagined, which were based on the tastes of the most
educated people in 12 cities, and comparing them to the now-visible
reading habits of everyone on the Internet. That's just not a good
way to draw smart conclusions about the relationship between
technology and culture.
Take that, you young whipper-snappers!
Online
Seniors: Tech-Savvier Than You Think
It’s not often that we come across
startups that focus on seniors, but according to a new
report by analyst firm Forrester
Research, seniors ages 65 and up are probably more connected and
tech-savvy than you think. Forrester found that about 60% of U.S.
seniors are online. That’s about 20 million people and while this
obviously means that 40% don’t care much about the Internet, those
60% who are online are tech-savvy and happily use technology to
connect to their friends and family.
This explains a lot...
"The Atlantic has an article
discussing how 18- to 35-year-old males are losing
their place as the most important demographic for tech adoption.
'Let me break out the categories where women are leading tech
adoption: internet usage, mobile phone voice usage, mobile phone
location-based services, text messaging, Skype, every social
networking site aside from LinkedIn, all Internet-enabled devices,
e-readers, health-care devices, and GPS. Also, because women still
are the primary caretakers of children in many places, guess who
controls which gadgets the young male and female members of the
family get to purchase or even use?' The article points out that
most of the tech industry hasn't figured this out yet — perhaps in
part to a dearth of women running these companies."
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