Centennial Man: 2010-10-31

Saturday, November 06, 2010

It amazes me how often the topics we discuss at the Privacy Foundation [http://privacyfoundation.org/] forums appear soon after in news articles. Panelists suggested that Class Action lawsuits would become an increasingly common tool to “persuade” companies to reconsider their “We can, therefore we must” strategies.

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=16871

Class Action Lawsuit Accuses Ringleader Digital of Hacking Cell Phones to Create ‘Zombie Databases’

November 5, 2010 by Dissent

Adam Klasfeld of Courthouse News reports:

Ringleader Digital, an advertising company “hacked the mobile phones of millions of consumers” to create a database of customers’ demographic information for the benefit of major media networks such as Fox News and CNN, according to a federal class action.

Delaware-based Ringleader “stamped” a “Unique Device Identifier” into customers’ cell phones, compatible with iPhone, iPad, iTouch and PDAs and other devices, the complaint states.

Once entered into their phones, the class claims, say the code sent their private information to a database that Ringleader shared with AccuWeather, CNN, ESPN, FOX News, Go2 Media, Merriam-Webster, Travel Channel, and WhitePages, all of them named as defendants.

“Essentially, defendants hacked the mobile phones of millions of consumers … by embedding a tracking code in each user’s mobile device database to circumvent users’ browser controls for managing web privacy and security,” the complaint states.

The class claims the database collected information about “gender, age, race, number of children, education level, geographic location, and household income.”

[...]

The class seeks millions of dollars in punitive damages against Ringleader and its media partners for violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, New York General Business Law, and trespass.

Friday, November 05, 2010

“We can, therefore we must!” Motto of too many Big Brother wanna-bes

“We can, therefore we hack!” Motto of my Ethical Hackers

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=16849

Scariest speed camera of all… It checks your insurance, tax and even whether you are tailgating or not wearing a seatbelt

November 5, 2010 by Dissent

Luke Salked reports:

Even the most law-abiding driver might feel a shiver down the spine when spotting this speed camera at the roadside.

For as well as detecting speeding, it is packed with gizmos that check number plates to make sure insurance and tax are up to date. It also measures the distance between vehicles to spot tailgating and takes pictures of the inside of the car – to make sure you are wearing a seat belt.

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Cyber war? A cautionary tale at least... No indication in the article as to who might be behind the attack. Some are claiming the government is doing it to ensure they can manipulate the elections on Nov 7^th.

http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201044/6381/DDoS-Myanmar-attacks-larger-than-those-against-Estonia-and-Georgia

DDoS: Myanmar attacks larger than those against Estonia and Georgia

Starting towards the end of October, the nation of Myanmar (previously known as Burma) has suffering through a massive Denial of Service attack, leaving Web access at a crawl when it is available. According to Arbor Networks, the Myanmar attack is producing far more traffic than what was observed during the DDoS attacks on Estonia and Georgia.

“Papers, citizen” After all, they need to be able to identify “political dissidents” (anyone who voted for the other guy) in order to “reeducate” them.

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=16789

Germany’s new e-ID cards raise hackles over privacy

November 3, 2010 by Dissent

Michelle Martin reports:

Germany has introduced electronic identity cards that store personal data on microchips, raising fears over data protection in a country especially wary of surveillance due to its Nazi and Stasi past.

The so-called eIDs enable owners to identify themselves online and sign documents with an electronic signature, which the government says should “increase the safety and convenience of e-business and e-commerce.”

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

For my Computer Security students. How do you block this or at least detect it?

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=16708

A Chilling Case of ‘Sextortion’

November 2, 2010 by Dissent

From the FBI:

The hacker knew every move the unsuspecting victim made. He controlled her computer webcam and microphone. He could see her in her bedroom, hear her conversations, knew every keystroke she made online. And he threatened to expose her secrets unless she bowed to his demands.

It may sound like the plot for a scary teen movie, but it actually happened, and there wasn’t just one victim—there were more than 200, and dozens of them were adolescent girls.

… The hacker, a 31-year-old California man who was arrested in June after a two-year investigation, used malicious code to infect and control the computers of his victims. Then he searched for explicit pictures from their computers, downloaded them, and used the images in an attempt to extort more pictures and videos from them.

“What’s so frightening about this case was how easily the victims’ computers were compromised,” said Special Agent Jeff Kirkpatrick, one of our Los Angeles cyber investigators who worked the case.

… “And this guy was no computer genius,” Agent Kirkpatrick said. “Anybody could do what he did just by watching an online video and following the directions.”

… Victims—particularly teenage girls—were understandably devastated when they learned their privacy had been so completely violated. Many were afraid to tell their parents about the situation.

… “If he hadn’t attempted to contact the victims,” Agent Rogers said, “he could have done this forever and gone undetected—the victims would never have known he was listening and watching. That,” she added, “is one of the most disturbing things about this case.”

(Related) Perhaps my “fly armed and naked” idea was somewhat on point?

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=16702

In Opening Brief, EPIC Urges Federal Appeals Court to Suspend Airport Body Scanner Program

November 2, 2010 by Dissent

From EPIC.org:

EPIC has filed the opening brief in EPIC v. DHS, No, 10-1157, a case that challenges the unilateral decision of the TSA to make body scanners the primary screening technique in U.S. airports. Three frequent air travelers are joining EPIC in the lawsuit: security expert Bruce Schneier, human rights activist Chip Pitts, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations legal council Nadhira Al-Khalili. The Petitioners have brought claims under the Administrative Procedure Act, the Privacy Act, the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Fourth Amendment. The Petitioners are seeking the suspension of the body scanner program. In its brief, EPIC argues that the Department of Homeland Security “has initiated the most sweeping, the most invasive, and the most unaccountable suspicionless search of American travelers in history.” EPIC further argues that the Transportation Security Administration “must comply with relevant law, and it must not be permitted to engage in such a fundamental change in agency practice without providing the public the opportunity to express its views.” For more information, see EPIC: EPIC v. DHS and EPIC: Whole Body Imaging Technology.

A project for my Ethical Hackers.

http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/credit-card-2-0/

Credit Cards With Computer Chips: Coming to a Wallet Near You This Month

We’ve been hearing the refrain for years: the US is losing the credit card technology race. In Europe they have microchips. In Asia, people pay with their phones.

You’d think it’s only a matter of time before the US dumps its ancient magnetic stripes and joins the 21st century.

… Each of Mullen’s credit cards has a fully functional computer inside, controlled by touch-sensitive buttons on the card surface. Card 2.0 plastic works with all of those 10 million stripe readers in the wild, and merchants don’t even have to know you’re using a special card.

… Why do you want buttons on your card and a computer in your pants? Features. The first Card 2.0 plastic to hit the market is a rewards card. Press one button to pay with credit. Press the other button to pay with reward points.

Conundrum. How can a website offer data for “personal and non-commercial use only” and also forbid that use? A double-secret change of policy?

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/11/02/2344230/UKs-National-Rail-Shuts-Down-Free-Timetable-App?from=rss

UK's National Rail Shuts Down Free Timetable App

Posted by timothy on Wednesday November 03, @07:24AM

"sad tale of one developer's trying time with the National Rail, the owners of the UK's train timetable data, which flies in the face of the recent assertion of Chris Scoggins (Chief Executive, National Rail Enquiries) in Wired recently stating that they had 'opened up' their data, 'often free of charge.'"

This is a good case for keeping your old emails handy; the app's author uses cut-and-paste to excellent effect in his correspondence with the rail system.

Perhaps by sponsoring a blog?

http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/02/google-buzz-email/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

Google Emails All U.S. Gmail Users About The Buzz Settlement — And To Say They’re Not Getting A Dime

… Instead, the $8.5 million settlement money will be placed into an independent fund which Google says will support organizations working on privacy education and policy on the web.

Not new, but this video explains clearly how voting without risk of fraud could be done.

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_bismark_e_voting_without_fraud.html#9540149123968236980

David Bismark: E-voting without fraud

Video interview with Google insider. Google TV, self-driving cars, etc.

http://digg.com/news/technology/october_2010_digg_dialogg_with_marissa_mayer_of_google

October, 2010 Digg Dialogg with Marissa Mayer of Google

youtube.com — What happened when President Obama visited her home and a rooftop sniper showed up? How will the Google TV change our TV viewing habits? Is Google Skynet?

Read free online...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/025645.html

November 02, 2010

Proceedings of a Workshop on Deterring CyberAttacks: Informing Strategies and Developing Options for U.S. Policy

Proceedings of a Workshop on Deterring CyberAttacks: Informing Strategies and Developing Options for U.S. Policy, October 2010.

"In a world of increasing dependence on information technology, the prevention of cyberattacks on a nation's important computer and communications systems and networks is a problem that looms large. Given the demonstrated limitations of passive cybersecurity defense measures, it is natural to consider the possibility that deterrence might play a useful role in preventing cyberattacks against the United States and its vital interests. At the request of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Research Council undertook a two-phase project aimed to foster a broad, multidisciplinary examination of strategies for deterring cyberattacks on the United States and of the possible utility of these strategies for the U.S. government. The first phase produced a letter report providing basic information needed to understand the nature of the problem and to articulate important questions that can drive research regarding ways of more effectively preventing, discouraging, and inhibiting hostile activity against important U.S. information systems and networks. The second phase of the project entailed selecting appropriate experts to write papers on questions raised in the letter report. A number of experts, identified by the committee, were commissioned to write these papers under contract with the National Academy of Sciences. Commissioned papers were discussed at a public workshop held June 10-11, 2010, in Washington, D.C., and authors revised their papers after the workshop. Although the authors were selected and the papers reviewed and discussed by the committee, the individually authored papers do not reflect consensus views of the committee, and the reader should view these papers as offering points of departure that can stimulate further work on the topics discussed. The papers presented in this volume are published essentially as received from the authors, with some proofreading corrections made as limited time allowed."

How DHS sees risk. Explains what they are talking about?

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/025642.html

November 02, 2010

DHS Risk Lexicon

"Developed by the DHS Risk Steering Committee (RSC), the purpose of the DHS Risk Lexicon is to establish and make available a comprehensive list of terms and meanings relevant to the practice of homeland security risk management and analysis. Accomplishing this goal improves the capability of the Department to assess and manage homeland security risk. To support integrated risk management for the Department, the DHS Risk Lexicon:

Promulgates a common language to ease and improve communications for the Department and its partners;

Facilitates the clear exchange of structured and unstructured data, essential to interoperability amongst risk practitioners; and

Garners credibility and grows relationships by providing consistency and clear understanding with regard to the usage of terms by the risk community across the Department."

Notice to geeks: Think of the fun we could have using this technique!

http://politics.slashdot.org/story/10/11/02/2043222/Truthy-Project-Uncovers-Political-Astroturfing-On-Twitter?from=rss

Truthy Project Uncovers Political Astroturfing On Twitter

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday November 02, @05:10PM

An anonymous reader writes with a follow-up to the launch of the Truthy Project we discussed last month.

"Tens of thousands of tweets this election season have turned out to be automated messages generated by employees of political campaigns, Indiana University researchers have found. Quoting: 'In one case, a network of nine Twitter accounts, all created within 13 minutes of one another, sent out 929 messages in about two hours as replies to real account holders in the hopes that these users would retweet the messages. The fake accounts were probably controlled by a script that randomly picked a Twitter user to reply to, and a message and a Web link to include. Although Twitter shut the accounts down soon after, the messages still reached 61,732 users.'"

Ethical lawyers, crazy client?

http://e-discoveryteam.com/2010/11/01/win-at-all-costs-litigation-using-illegal-e-discovery-leads-to-dismissal-of-a-billion-dollar-case/

“Win-At-All-Costs” Litigation Using Illegal e-Discovery Leads to Dismissal of a Billion Dollar Case

Last week I mentioned the mean streets of litigation and my guess that most judges do not know how bad it has become. Two federal judges in South Florida know: District Court Judge Patricia A. Seitz and Magistrate Judge John J. O’Sullivan. Leor Exploration & Production LLC v. Aguiar, 2010 WL 3782195 (Sept. 28, 2010, S.D.Fl.). They have seen and responded to some real Dr. Evil type of conduct by the defendant in this case over One Billion Dollars. The misconduct culminated in illegal e-discovery where defendant hacked into the opposing party’s email and read his lawyers’ advice and strategies for the case. Judge O’Sullivan found, and Judge Seitz agreed, that defendant had a “win-at-all-costs mentality regarding this litigation.” Leor, supra at *4.

Some of my fellow teachers believe that Wikipedia is evil. I think it makes a great starting point for research.

http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/wikipedia-book-creator/

Wikipedia Book Creator: Create eBooks From Wikipedia Pages

… If you’re the kind of person who likes to print lengthy Wikipedia articles to read offline at leisure, you should give the Wikipedia Book Creator a try.

The Book Creator is a new feature from Wikipedia that lets you select one or more pages from the online encyclopedia and add them to a PDF eBook that you can then download and read offline at your leisure. You can even get a printed book delivered to your doorstep, for a small fee.

If you would like to make some changes to the pages that you just saved, you can even download the eBook in the OpenDocument Text format. [Easily read by your normal word processor... Bob]

www.en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Book&bookcmd=book_creator

Perhaps I could make my own InfrGraphics? At lest some “step by step” flowcharts for my students.

http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/grapholite-com-graphing-just-anything-you-want?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+killerstartups%2FBkQV+%28KillerStartups.com%29

Grapholite.com - Graphing Just Anything You Want

Grapholite is a web-based tool that makes creating graphs, charts and diagrams an absolute cinch. It is usable right on the browser, and it can be employed to come up with just anything you might need: organizational charts, floor plans, network diagrams...

… And every single diagram that you create via Grapholite can be saved in all the most popular text and image formats currently used, and imported into your favorite application(s).

It must also be mentioned that Grapholite is available in a desktop version.

http://grapholite.com/

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Clearly they use words differently. But is this just a reporter with a cheap thesaurus, or actual quotes?

http://capitolhillseattle.com/2010/11/01/capitol-hill-credit-card-fraud-wave-adjudicated-task-force-claims-break-in-case

Capitol Hill credit card fraud wave 'adjudicated' -- Secret Service task force claims break in case

A special task force that combines Secret Service investigators with local law enforcement experts has made a major break in the case of a large wave of fraudulent activity involving credit card accounts belonging to people who live and work on Capitol Hill, CHS has learned.

According to David A. Iacovetti, Special Agent in Charge of the Electronic Crimes Task Force Seattle office, investigators made a break on the case late Friday night. "We addressed it so no further fraud could be conducted," Iacovetti said. [What to bet? Bob]

Iacovetti would not confirm that this wave involved a skimming device on a point of sale system somewhere on the Hill. Because this is an open and ongoing investigation, Iacovetti said it's too soon to release details of how the accounts were defrauded but that the situation has been "adjudicated." [Am I wrong to think 'adjudicated' has always meant 'resolved within the judicial system?' Bob] "Our guys got on it quick," Iacovetti said.

Iacovetti said the investigation continues and people should remain vigilant of suspicious activity on their accounts. "We're continuing," he said. "There was a point of interest that we were working on Friday. That threat was reduced." [“Reduced” does not suggest “resolved” does it? Bob]

Iacovetti tells CHS that agents will work to "reverse engineer" the circumstances and could be able to trace back all fraudulent activity for victims.

Cyber War Corporate risk analysis does not typically consider attacks by a foreign military – ignoring history again...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/025630.html

November 01, 2010

Google Confronts China's "Three Warfares"

Google Confronts China’s “Three Warfares”, by Timothy L. Thomas. Parameters, Summer 2010, Vol. 40, No. 2, U.S. Army War College.

"In early January 2010, Google announced that a computer attack originating from China had penetrated its corporate infrastructure (in mid-December) and stolen information from its computers, most likely source code. The hackers also accessed the Gmail accounts of some human-rights activists and infiltrated the networks of 33 companies. In April 2010, journalist John Markoff wrote: A person with direct knowledge of the investigation now says that the losses included one of Google’s crown jewels, a password system that controls access by millions of users worldwide to almost all of the company’s Web services, including e-mail and business applications. The program, code named Gaia for the Greek goddess of the earth, was attacked in a lightning raid taking less than two days last December, the person said." .. China’s recent incursions into US military computer networks and Google’s cyber systems are of concern when viewed in isolation. They reflect a more serious problem when viewed as part of a short-term goal of conducting “preemptive reconnaissance” that accommodates a longer-term goal of affecting US military planning or the US economy. Many factors indicate that this may be China’s goal."

[From the article:

An example of a civilian source that emphasizes economic and digital issues is the Chinese book Internet Wars. It also focused on the Internet confrontation in general. The book has 18 chapters. Several chapters draw the reader’s attention immediately. They are: “The Inevitable Internet War;” “Battles for Internet Control;” “Offensive and Defensive Internet Wars;” “The Internet Will Determine Victory in Future Wars;” “Dangerous Virtual Reality;” and “Financial Wars in the Internet World.”31 The latter should be of particular interest to US analysts.

[Also see the PowerPoint at:

http://www.slideserve.com/presentation/16637/16637.swf

[Also see the book:

Unrestricted Warfare

http://www.c4i.org/unrestricted.pdf

(Related) ...and is the reverse also true?

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/11/02/0134226/Kindle-Allowing-Chinese-Unfettered-Access-To-Web?from=rss

Kindle Allowing Chinese Unfettered Access

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday November 02, @12:02AM

"Apparently, some Chinese Kindle owners have discovered that they are able to access banned sites such as Twitter and Facebook without a problem. The article speculates that Amazon may be operating a local equivalent to Amazon Whispernet with a Chinese 3G provider. Professor Lawrence Yeung Kwan, of the University of Hong Kong's electrical and electronic engineering department, told the paper that mainland internet patrols might have overlooked the gadget (perhaps because they consider it solely a tool to purchase books). How long before Kindle traffic is locked down?"

(Related) I hope not! (daylight savings time ends Sunday Nov. 7^th in the US)

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/11/01/136235/iPhone-Alarm-Bug-Leads-To-Mass-European-Sleep-in?from=rss

iPhone Alarm Bug Leads To Mass European Sleep-in

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday November 01, @10:

"A flaw in the alarm clock in iPhone 4s gave Europeans a bit of a lie-in this morning. While the Apple handsets automatically adjusted to daylight savings time, a bug in the alarm system meant many were woken up an hour later than they should have been, after clocks rolled back over the weekend. Annoyingly, Australia was hit by a similar problem last month, but Apple failed to fix the problem or even warn users. American Apple fans, consider yourselves warned. The iOS4 bug can apparently be avoided by using one-off alarms, rather than pre-set regular wake-up calls."

This looks more like typical political ass-covering. They seem to be using these request to flag areas where they may have screwed up in order to have a timely 'rebuttal' ready when the evidence is released.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/025628.html

November 01, 2010

FOIA, Transparency and Additional Reviews Based on Origin of Requests

DHS Singles Out EFF’s FOIA Requests for Unprecedented Extra Layer of Review: "The Identity Project notes on its blog today that the Department of Homeland Security singled out EFF, along with other activist groups and media representatives such as the ACLU, EPIC, Human Rights Watch, AP, etc, for an extra layer of review on its FOIA requests. Records posted online by the DHS in response to one of the Identity Project’s FOIA requests show that the agency passed certain requests through extra levels of screening. According to a policy memo from DHS’s Chief FOIA Officer and Chief Privacy Officer, Mary Ellen Callahan, DHS components were required to report “significant FOIA activities” in weekly reports to the Privacy Office, which the Privacy Office then integrated into its weekly report to the White House Liason. Included among these designated "significant FOIA activities" were requests from any members of "an activist group, watchdog organization, special interest group, etc." and “requested documents [that] will garner media attention or [are] receiving media attention."

“The world according to ___________” Could be useful to know haw they other guys think(?) but I doubt it will be used that way... I wonder if they have a Forrest Gump option?

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/11/01/1413201/Blekko-Launches-a-Search-Engine-With-Bias?from=rss

Blekko Launches a Search Engine With Bias

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday November 01, @10:45AM

"Previous specialized search engines including Cuil, Hakia, Powerset, Clusty, and RedZ — each had a special trick, but they've all faded from memory, some after crashing in flames, some after making their founders rich. Now Rafe Needleman reports at Cnet that along comes Blekko, whose claim to fame is that you can tilt your search results in the direction you like by using a category of bias, like 'liberal' or 'conservative.' Categorization lists are applied by appending a 'slashtag.' The query, 'climate change /conservative' will give you politically slanted results, for example. 'Climate change /science' will restrict your results to hits from scientific Web sites. Blekko won't have a real, Web-wide impact unless its concept — that bias is good and more aggressive search filtering is needed — gets some traction, writes Needleman. But 'Blekko is a solid alternative to Google and Bing for anyone, and more importantly it's got great potential for researchers, librarians, journalists, or anyone who's willing to put some work into how their search engine functions in order to get better results.'"

Speaking of bias... Or perhaps lobbying?

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/11/01/1942259/Google-Sues-US-Govt-For-Only-Considering-Microsoft?from=rss

Google Sues US Gov't For Only Considering Microsoft

Posted by Soulskill on Monday November 01, @04:20PM

"Late last week, Google sued the US government for putting out a Request For Quotation for the messaging needs of the Department of the Interior that specified only Microsoft solutions would be considered. Google apparently had spent plenty of time talking to DOI officials to understand their needs and make sure they had a solution ready to go — and were promised that there wasn't a deal already in place with Microsoft. And then the RFQ came out. Google protested, but the protest was dismissed, with the claim that Google was 'not an interested party.'"

Big Brother Barbie? “Train them young?” Have children (or parents) demanded surveillance enabled toys?

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=16669

Call to boycott Barbie with built-in camera

November 1, 2010 by Dissent

Daniella Miletic reports:

MATTEL’S trademark vinyl doll is getting older but she has embraced technology – Barbie’s new built-in camera abilities are worrying some privacy advocates and psychologists.

The Barbie Video Girl doll has been criticised for enabling children to film themselves and others using a hidden camera in Barbie’s necklace.

The doll, which retails for about $110, also has a small colour LCD screen in her back and the capacity to record 30 minutes of video, which can be transferred to a computer.

Centennial Man

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Friday, November 05, 2010

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Search This Blog

Followers

Blog Archive

Links

About Me