Why Does My Car Have Its Own Smartphone?
Posted on 28 August 2011.
You would be surprised at the number of places you can find a GSM SIM card. Outside of your mobile phone, they can be found in power meters, water meters, vending machines, etc. These SIM cards (virtually identical to the one in your mobile phone) are used for machine-to-machine communication. Essentially all of these devices need [...]
Posted in Encryption, Firewall, Hacking, Internet Security, Malware0 Comments
No Holidays for Hackers in France
Posted on 27 August 2011.
In France, July and August are the holiday season. Like my compatriots, I abandoned my workplace for several weeks in the southern sun. But I have to confess it was not an absolute desertion. From time to time, I had a quick look into French hacktivist activities. To demonstrate that hackers and hacktivists never stop, [...]
Posted in Encryption, Firewall, Hacking, Internet Security, Malware0 Comments
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Fishing in Ulleungdo, Korea
Posted on 26 August 2011.
The industry is in decline: A generation ago, most of the island’s 10,000 residents worked in the squid industry, either as sellers like Kim or as farmer-fishermen who toiled in the fields each winter and went to sea during summer. Ulleungdo developed a reputation for large, tasty squid that were once exported to the mainland [...]
Posted in Firewall, Internet Security, Malware0 Comments
Preventing the Theft of Wire Cutters
Posted on 26 August 2011.
This is a picture of a pair of wire cutters secured to a table with a wire. Someone isn’t thinking this through….
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The Problem with Using the Cold War Metaphor to Describe Cyberspace Risks
Posted on 26 August 2011.
Nice essay on the problems with talking about cyberspace risks using “Cold War” metaphors: The problem with threat inflation and misapplied history is that there are extremely serious risks, but also manageable responses, from which they steer us away. Massive, simultaneous, all-encompassing cyberattacks on the power grid, the banking system, transportation networks, etc. along the [...]
Posted in Firewall, Internet Security, Malware0 Comments
Terrorism in the U.S. Since 9/11
Posted on 26 August 2011.
John Mueller and his students analyze the 33 cases of attempted [EDITED TO ADD: Islamic extremist] terrorism in the U.S. since 9/11. So few of them are actually real, and so many of them were created or otherwise facilitated by law enforcement. The death toll of all these is fourteen: thirteen at Ft. Hood and [...]
Posted in Firewall, Internet Security, Malware0 Comments
Funniest Joke at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Posted on 26 August 2011.
Nick Helm won an award for the funniest joke at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival: Nick Helm: “I needed a password with eight characters so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” Note that two other jokes were about security: Tim Vine: “Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels.” [...]
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Monitoring SSL Connections with Bro: Quickstart
Posted on 26 August 2011.
Introduction Bro (www.bro-ids.org) is an amazing suite of software which can do things that no other IDS on the planet can come close to. In this post, I want to cover one such feature: SSL monitoring. Bro has a true understanding of the SSL being used on your network and will efficiently process certificates on [...]
Posted in Firewall, Hacking, Internet Security0 Comments
The Security Risks of Not Teaching Malware
Posted on 25 August 2011.
Essay by George Ledin on the security risks of not teaching students malware.
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Stealing ATM PINs with a Thermal Camera
Posted on 25 August 2011.
It’s easy: Researchers from UCSD pointed thermal cameras towards plastic ATM PIN pads and metal ATM PIN pads to test how effective they were at stealing PIN numbers. The thermal cams didn’t work against metal pads but on plastic pads the success rate of detecting all the digits was 80% after 10 seconds and 60% [...]
Posted in Firewall, Internet Security, Malware0 Comments
