Hacking mechanical vibrations

These WIRED article described an interesting application of the side channel idea to key-log your typing by sensing mechanical vibrations.

We need a “DO NOT TRACK” option for smart-phones!

smartphones tracking users

Hey Apple, Google, when are you going to have a DO NOT TRACK option on your smartphones’ operating systems?
This is another idea, maybe RIM engineers can come up with a feature like that to give the BlackBerrys a fighting chance.

The fact that most of us carry (voluntarily) a tracking device should not be news for anybody. I guess the news-worthy part is that somebody expossed what Apple and Google where doing. I am not sure it is illegal, have you checked the small font bits of the contract you signed? Me neither.
Believe me, that Apple and Google know where you are and where you have been is not the biggest of our problems with privacy as discussed in here.

Related:

• A good reference to understand privacy.
• We know where you are, and there is nothing you can do about it.

(h/t) Raymond who sent this link

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2011 at its Prime

The fact that 2011 is a prime number didn’t escape the mathematical inclined minds. Moreover, as tweeted @mathematicsprof 2011 can be expressed as the sum of the 11 consecutive primes 157+163+167+173+179+181+191+193+197+199+211.

This already sets the stage for a year that, I will dare to predict, will not be easily forgotten. A confluence of processes already in motion may result in drastic changes for the world and in particular the Internet. To wit:

• Cyber-attacks can get ‘physical’ as the stuxnet virus proved,
• There is a struggle to control the internet at all levels,
• Privacy and mobile computers have compatiblility issues,
• All this against the backdrop of economical and political turmoil.

 

As the Chinese say “May you live in interesting times” ….

 

del.icio.us Tags: in the news,Security,networks,technology,Mathematics,Hacking,wi-fi,InSecurity

Now we are really secure….

That is a good idea, take your source code and give it to some guy bent on getting all your secrets to increase the security of your data:

Security Nightmare: Chinese Government Has Microsoft Windows Source Codes.

The world is REALLY in the hands of crazy people

Dont tell me you didn’t knew

Most people in Canada don’t trust them.

Maybe something I said.

Update:

On the other hand, it is a good tool to reach out to people you otherwise can’t talk to directly

The Random Matchmaker : Phone Company’s new by product.

A network glitch(?) that logs AT&T users into other people facebook accounts at random was reported today.

Who knows, in the future many kids could attribute their existence to a programming error. If so should we call it the Destiny_2.0 bug?

del.icio.us Tags: Facebook,authentication,security,networks,wi-fi

A 200 year old cipher recently broken

This Excellent article in the WSJ described the recently broken Patterson’s Cipher. Dr. Smithline from the the Center for Communications Research in Princeton, N.J., got the cipher from a neighbour working on a school project about Thomas Jefferson. Make sure to check the interactive tab on the article for a very well done graphical description of the cipher.

h/t Paul

del.icio.us Tags: Cryptography,Cryptanalysis,in the news,cryptoblog,ciphers

That good old hacking.

After the Conficker April fool’s day scare fizzled, they try to scare us saying that utilities can be hacked through the internet …

Wait!, they already were hacked !

 

del.icio.us Tags: insecurity,internet,hacking,conficker,in the news