The
kind of article I'm hoping our student “Computer Security Club”
will start producing.
How
Easy Is It For Someone To Hack Your Webcam?
Without wishing to
scare you, the short answer is: it’s very easy for anyone to view
your webcam. The long answer is: some networked webcams require
nothing more than a secret URL, while most USB or built-in laptop
webcams would need the computer to be compromised first.
Here are three ways of
viewing a webcam without your knowledge.
Nothing
new here – unfortunately.
Trend
Micro Analyzes Targeted Attack Trends
In
a new report, researchers at Trend Micro found the
majority of exploits involved in these incidents during
the second half of 2013 focused on vulnerabilities
that had patches available, including some that were
patched as early as 2009.
… Nearly
60 percent of the time the malware used in targeted attacks are
Trojans or spyware. Next in line were backdoors (22 percent) used to
establish command and control communications.
"Spear phishing is
still the most seen entry point for targeted attacks," Irinco
continued. "These email messages use relevant-sounding subjects
that trick users into opening it and the file attachments therein
that serve as malware carriers. In our 2014 prediction, we noted
that mobile devices will also be leveraged by threat actors to gain
entry to networks."
The
full report can
be read here.
The
ethics of intelligence services. Long debated, long resolved. The
answer is “it depends.”
Should
U.S. Hackers Fix Cybersecurity Holes or Exploit Them?
There’s a debate
going on about whether the U.S. government—specifically, the NSA
and United States Cyber Command—should stockpile Internet
vulnerabilities or disclose and fix them. It's a complicated
problem, and one that starkly illustrates the difficulty of
separating attack and defense in cyberspace.
… If
vulnerabilities are plentiful—and this seems to
be
true—the
ones the U.S. finds and the
ones the Chinese find will largely be different. This means that
patching the vulnerabilities we find won’t make it appreciably
harder for criminals to find the next one. We don’t
really improve general software security by disclosing and patching
unknown vulnerabilities, because the percentage we find and fix is
small compared to the total number that are out there.
Sic
'em, Steve! (An open letter!)
Steve
Wozniak to the FCC: Keep the Internet Free
Perhaps
the Privacy Foundation could work with local entrepreneurs to suggest
a few areas for development? (They also moved their HQ to
Switzerland)
Proving there’s money
in privacy these days, secure communications firm Silent Circle has
announced a $30 million funding round from investors including Ross
Perot Jr. and Cain Capital. What’s more, Perot and Sir Peter
Bonfield, once upon a time the head of British Telecom, have joined
Silent Circle’s advisory board.
Silent Circle is most
notable for the Blackphone,
a privacy-centric handset, produced alongside manufacturer
Geeksphone, that uses an Android fork called PrivatOS and comes
loaded with all sorts of security tools including Silent Circle’s
encrypted voice and text communications tools. The much-anticipated
device will start shipping in June, probably mostly to enterprise and
government customers.
The firm is also
working with shuttered
secure email service Lavabit on “Email
3.0″, which will supposedly be both secure and easy to use, and
leak less metadata than today’s encrypted email protocols.
(Related) Because it
occurs to me that we had discussed each of these points at one
Privacy Foundation seminar or another...
Harrison Weber reports:
The
National Security Agency and the FBI teamed up in October 2010 to
develop techniques for turning Facebook into a surveillance tool.
Documents
released
alongside security journalist Glenn Greenwald’s new book, “No
Place To Hide,” reveal the NSA and FBI partnership, in which the
two agencies developed techniques for exploiting Facebook chats,
capturing private photos, collecting IP addresses, and gathering
private profile data.
According
to the slides below, the agencies’ goal for such collection was to
capture “a very rich source of information on targets,” including
“personal details, ‘pattern of life,’ connections to
associates, [and] media.”
Read more on
VentureBeat.
Facebook and Akamai
responded
to VentureBeat’s report.
Trust
me, this is worth looking at even if just for the Internet of
Things section.
Gartner's
Hype Cycle report for smart-city technologies
City planners will have
access to an amazing collection of technologies to build their smart
cities of the future. But what technologies are coming, and when,
and how will they be used? Gartner separates hype from reality with
its largest Hype Cycle report.
Read
Gartner's report The report is free and ungated. No sign-up
required
Brief article
suggesting that there are companies who can move with the
times/technology. (Looks like that's good for the CEO too)
Burberry
Struts Ahead With Tech Transformation Begun By Apple's Angela
Ahrendts
Burberry – the
high-end fashion brand and retail chain – has posted record
results, aided by an advanced digital transformation. That effort
was begun eight years ago by former CEO Angela Ahrendts, now
the retail boss at Apple.
No doubt this will
result in a bunch of “Google doesn't pay taxes!” stories. I see
it as yet another indication that the tax system isn't allowing US
firms to be as flexible as firms in other countries.
Google
plans international acquisitions worth up to $30B, it tells SEC
Google plans to spend
US$20 billion to $30 billion of its of its accumulated international
profits to fund potential acquisitions of non-U.S. companies and
technology rights.
The company disclosed
its plans to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last
year, in a
document that was published Tuesday. The SEC had asked Google to
describe its plans for reinvesting its undistributed earnings in
greater detail.
In 2012, Google
generated about half its revenue in non-U.S. markets.
Can't wait to hear what
my wife says about this App. Looks like it is targeted to mixed
breed owners – after all, one collie looks pretty much like
another.
PetMatch
uses machine vision technology to help you replace your beloved pet
… Unlike
Superfish’s Windowshopper app, PetMatch offers a more benign
and benevolent alternative for your wallet. Just upload an image of
your pet, or even someone else’s pet and let the app match you up
with a nearby puppy or kitten. The app acts as an intelligent
learning machine, so theoretically, it might improve your chances
over time.
I get a bit cranky when
I run into companies that insist on a fax rather than an email
attached document. Tools/services like this keep me from running
around looking for someone with antique machines. (Remember, the fax
predates the phone by at least 25 years.)
No
Fax Machine? No Problem — Easily Sign And Send Faxes From Your
Computer
Faxing is an
out-dated mode of communication, but it still lingers around at
some places for one reason or another. Until we can finally kill off
this antiquated machine of the past, you might need to send a
fax every once in a while but find yourself without a fax machine —
try HelloFax.
We have covered
HelloFax
briefly in the past, and even took a look at 5
other online fax services, but things have changed in the years
since then, and it’s time to take an in-depth look at the best free
online faxing service there is.
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