It was all a misunderstanding – we
didn't understand how to respond...
Carrier
IQ clears the air on spying allegations
December 2, 2011 by Dissent
Chester Wisniewski writes:
In an interview
with AllThingsD today Carrier IQ, the company accused of creating
spyware software for mobile carriers, cleared the air and explained
in detail what their software does and does not do.
Read more on Naked
Security and definitely read John Paczkowski’s column on
AllThingsD.
Was this just a matter of lack of
transparency but without anything really evil going on? Neither
column includes any response from the researcher who first disclosed
concerns, and it would be nice to hear his response to Carrier IQ’s
explains.
Chester raises a good point, though:
So why all of the
fuss? I think the community is becoming fed up with
being spied upon, our personal lives and habits being invaded through
secret programs and increasingly complicated and confusing privacy
statements. [It would be nice to think so... Bob]
It is unfortunate
that Carrier IQ didn’t simply disclose this information when Travis
published his research. It is also sad that the mobile phone
carriers involved didn’t make it possible to opt-out of sending
this information.
Will Carrier IQ be this week’s
privacy flame that burns out quickly? Quite possibly. But that
probably won’t stop Carrier IQ from getting sued by someone who
jumped on the earlier reports.
[From allthingsd:
Company executives insist it doesn’t
log or understand keystrokes. It’s simply looking for numeric
sequences that trigger a diagnostic cue within the software. If it
hears that cue, it transmits diagnostics to the carrier.
So, for example, if during a support
call a technician asks a customer to enter a short code, CIQ will be
listening for it; when it’s entered, CIQ will relay the appropriate
diagnostic information to the carrier. Any keystrokes beyond that
are ignored.
(Related)
Critics
Line Up to Bash Maker of Secret Phone-Monitoring Software
The backlash against a formerly obscure
California mobile-monitoring software maker grew even larger
Thursday, with a senator asking questions, citizens bombing the
company with bad online reviews, and former customer Apple swearing
it off.
Adding possible legal jeopardy to its
woes, a former federal prosecutor is also publicly wondering whether
Carrier IQ, whose phone-monitoring software was secretly installed on
millions of phones, was illegally wiretapping Americans’
communications.
… The software cannot be removed or
stopped by a phone’s owner unless the phone is rooted, though Apple
says users can easily stop diagnostic data from being sent to Apple.
Carrier IQ initially threatened Eckhart
with a lawsuit unless he apologized for his research and retracted
his statement that it was a “rootkit,” but relented after Eckhart
got legal help from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
… Verizon, the nation’s largest
wireless carrier, denies using the software.
Sprint, the third-place carrier,
defended its use of the secret software.
… T-Mobile says it uses Carrier IQ,
as well.
Yesterday it was Wikileaks...
Potential employers for my Ethical hacking students?
Big
Brother Incorporated
December 1, 2011 by Dissent
A lot of data
being released this morning on businesses
involved in surveillance. From Privacy International:
Privacy
International and The
Bureau have compiled a comprehensive
database of companies that sell surveillance products.
The database displays the types of product the company makes.
Clicking the company name brings up a pop-up box with more
information, including (where available) names of key individuals,
addresses, websites and Google Map locations. There are also links
to the brochures and other materials preleased by Wikileaks
and Privacy International.
Read more on Privacy
International and do check out their impressive
compilation at Big
Brother, Inc.
This is what happens when you believe
you are superior to the second class citizens you were elected by...
Senate
Wants the Military to Lock You Up Without Trial
Here’s the best thing that can be
said about the new detention powers the Senate has tucked into next
year’s defense bill: They don’t force the military to
detain American citizens indefinitely without a trial. They just let
the military do that. And even though the leaders of the military
and the spy community have said they want no such power, the Senate
is poised to pass its bill as early as tonight.
There are still changes swirling around
the Senate, but this looks like the basic shape of the 2012
National Defense Authorization Act. Someone the government says
is “a member of, or part of, al-Qaida or an associated force” can
be held in military custody “without trial until the end of the
hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military
Force.” Those hostilities are currently scheduled to end
the Wednesday after never. The move would shut
down criminal trials for terror suspects.
Will these pictures ever go away? Even
if you are found not guilty? False arrest? Mistaken identity?
On
Google+, police present a portrait of crime
… The San
Jacinto Police Department, in southern California's Riverside
County, has added a Google+
account to its repertoire.
… But what makes the page
intriguing to me isn't the text. It's the mugshots.
… Compare it to San
Jacinto Police Department's Facebook page. The tiny thumbnails
are of the same people, but unless you click on them, they're small.
The Google+ page draws you in and makes you want to hear the story
of what happened.
Another device that will join the
Obsolete Scrap-pile...
"Almost every year, the
estimated number of U.S. households owning TV sets goes up. Until
now. This year, for the second time since 1970, TV
ownership has gone down; by about 1%. TV ownership among the key
adult 18-49 demo also declined even steeper, down 2.7 percent and
percentage of homes without a TV is at the highest level since 1975.
The reasons behind this appear to be online
media content [Oh
look! Everything I want is on the Internet! Bob]
and the recession." [When the TV
dies, it is increasingly difficult to justify buying a new one when
your PC/laptop/tablet/smartphone works just as well... Bob]
In “Minority Report” they called it
PreCrime. As long as we can predict, we might as well go ahead and
arrest, try, convict and execute...
Model
Predicts Who Will Run Red Lights
MIT researchers have developed an
algorithm that can predict whether a car is about to run a red light,
a calculation they estimate could prevent millions of crashes and 700
deaths each year if paired with vehicle-to-vehicle
(V2V) communication.
For students taking Encryption...
(Another indication that a Cyber-war is imminent?
Crack
This Code and Become a British Spy
The GCHQ — Britain’s secretive
agency of intelligence experts — wants to find new spies. To make
sure it has a candidate who’s up to scratch, the agency is inviting
hobbyist cryptanalysts to try and break a code online.
A website called “can
you crack it” is being spread through a viral
campaign around social networks like Twitter and Facebook. The site
shows a seemingly senseless jumble of 160 pairs of numbers and
letters, and a box to enter some kind of answer.
… This isn’t the first time a
British intelligence agency has used a public puzzle to recruit new
code-breakers. During World War II, the
Government Code and Cypher School placed a letter in the Daily
Telegraph, challenging
readers to solve a crossword puzzle in under 12 minutes.
The ones who did all got interviews to join the spy service.
I keep checking, but so far my picture
isn't included...
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
The Museum
of Obsolete Objects is a neat YouTube channel
featuring videos about objects like cassette tapes that at one point
represented cutting edge technology and are now obsolete. The MOOO
isn't limited to 20th Century objects. The list includes things like
quill pens and the telegraph.
A short video...
How
to: Stream media from a PC to a Kindle Fire
You might want to read up before Israel
removes it entirely...
Country
Analysis Brief: Iran
Link
to full report (PDF; 394.04 KB) or view the
HTML
version
Keeping students honest...
Many music fans download their music
from the Internet for free. But downloading free MP3 files from
websites is illegal. What is not illegal however in most countries
is recording radio stations – that is exactly what an app called
StreamWriter lets you do.
Who says electronic is the only way to
go...
The
World at Our Fingertips: 23 Beautiful Old Texts, Available Online
The Internet's collection of old
manuscripts and texts is not only growing in size but improving in
quality. With a few clicks of the mouse you can zoom in on some of
the earliest Hebrew scrolls, the handwritten works of Leonardo da
Vinci or Jane Austen, and the first drafts of the Declaration of
Independence. The British Library's digital editions include
supplemental materials such as translations, explanatory essays, and,
in the case of Mozart's notes, audio files of the songs he sketched
out.
No comments:
Post a Comment