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

The ‘Enigma’ of the broken GSM phones Encryption

Although it has been known for a few years, the weakness of encryption schemes for GSM phones is in the spotlight again. This time thanks to a group of hackers that made the whole business of listening in, easy and cheap.

GSM has been known to be hackable for years, but the problem is not being fixed as proactively as it should.

Could be drawn with the situation of the Enigma machines being sold around the world after WWII?

 

 

del.icio.us Tags: enigma,encryption,security,GSM,hacking

Hackers expose slew of Hotmail acount passwords

Again,

Hackers expose slew of Hotmail acount passwords

Social Engineering and phishing really work.

See what I wrote on Passwords

Alan Turing

---

He deserved much better

National Post
14 Sep 2009

In the very distant future, the name of Alan Turing (1912-1954) will be among the very few for which the 20th century is remembered, long after most of the politicians, artists and celebrities have receded into confusion and oblivion. His stature is…read more…

Tech Tags: National Post newspaper EDITORIALS

Your tax Pounds at work – UK government to make ID thieves lives easier

Having all your personal information in one ID is not a very good idea, even if protected by a good encryption scheme. Having all your information in a card protected with a bad encryption scheme is definitely a bad idea.

That seems to be the case with the ID cards issued by the Home Office to foreign nationals working in the UK. As described in a news article, it looks that a cell phone fitted with an RFID scanner and a laptop is all the hardware you need to clone one of these cards and even change the information on it.

Embedded inside the card for foreigners is a microchip with the details of its bearer held in electronic form: name, date of birth, physical characteristics, fingerprints and so on, together with other information such as immigration status and whether the holder is entitled to State benefits.

This chip is the vital security measure that, so the Government believes, will make identity cards ‘unforgeable’.

But as I watch, Laurie picks up a mobile phone and, using just the handset and a laptop computer, electronically copies the ID card microchip and all its information in a matter of minutes.

He then creates a cloned card, and with a little help from another technology expert, he changes all the information the card contains – the physical details of the bearer, name, fingerprints and so on. And he doesn’t stop there.

[Read the whole Mail-Online article]

These cards use the same technology as the ID card for British citizens unveiled last week by Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary. ID thieves must be anxiously waiting for the introduction of government ID cards, which will facilitate their daily jobs.  

 

del.icio.us Tags: cryptoblog,id-theft,RFID,secutity,biometrics

Social Networks and Social Security Numbers

The latest edition of Ouch! Newsletter issued an article on the risks of trusting too much personal information to social networks.  The article include a list of tips to avoid getting in trouble, most of them an exercise in applying common sense.

ID theft is a constant threat as thing can get really serious out there. Alessandro Acquisti team of Carnegie-Mellon University conducted a study in which they were able to guess Social Security Numbers using information commonly available.

Acquisti and Ralph Gross report in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they were able to make the predictions using data available in public records as well as information such as birthdates cheerfully provided on social networks such as Facebook.

For people born after 1988 _ when the government began issuing numbers at birth _ the researchers were able to identify, in a single attempt, the first five Social Security digits for 44 percent of individuals. And they got all nine digits for 8.5 percent of those people in fewer than 1,000 attempts

Social networking is here to stay and , if you do it, make sure to practice ‘safe networking’.

Update
Ditto:

…..

Social networks are exploding in popularity. Forty-three percent of the online community now uses social networking sites, including Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. This is up from 27 percent a year ago, reports The Conference Board and TNS.

…..

The top concerns of social networking members — expressed by about 50 percent — are viruses/malware, exposure of information to strangers and lack of privacy. Women tend to be moderately more concerned than men. Only 14 percent claim they have no concerns, compared to 22 percent of men.

From a recent Conference Board Report.

del.icio.us Tags: cryptoblog,id theft,security,Insecurity

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

ENIGMA encryption cracker Heroes

ENIGMA crackers reunite at Bletchley Park

I had the honour to meet one of them, now an emeritus math professor.

Check this article for pictures of the Turing Bombe the electronic-mechanical code-breaking machine used by the British to crack 3,000 Enigma messages a day during the Second World War.

Cryptool ver 1.4 has a very well done simulator of the ENIGMA machine encryption.

 

 

del.icio.us Tags: ENIGMA,encryption,Cryptoblog,cryptography,Information Theory,cracking,in the news

Medical Identity Theft

If you are already scared of ID thieves getting your financial information,  prepare to panic about this:

Medical identity theft is a growing issue in North America and growing even larger in a recession where pinching pennies can mean pinching someone else’s identity to get access to health care services, prescription drugs, elective surgery and dental care.

“Stolen patient identities not only create a financial problem for the victim; the corruption of the individual’s medical history could prove lethal in a medical emergency,” says Darin Johnson, vice-president of marketing for HealthCare Insight, based in South Jordan, Utah.

Read the whole article here.

Also: A crime that does pay, Better safeguards in the cards

del.icio.us Tags: ID theft,biometrics,insecurity

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