Topic: SECURITY - on October 10, 2008 at 11:56:00 AM CEST
Freedom Not Fear 2008
On 11 October 2008 we call for an international action day in as many European capital cities as possible and elsewhere around the world to demonstrate against the total retention of telecommunication data and other instruments of surveillance. We would like to recall the remembrance of the historical achievement of civil rights and liberties as a heritage of the Age of Enlightenment and to support the trust in security in our free society.
humanrights21.org vorratsdatenspeicherung.de freiheit-statt-angst.org Berlin
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Topic: SECURITY - on October 9, 2008 at 3:25:00 PM CEST
Cisco ships Mexican drug runner music on VPN CD
Instead of the intended software, some CDs shipped to Cisco customers featured 12 tracks of Mexican music, including Narco Corridos tunes from Diego 'El Compa' Rivas. Narco Corridos songs often celebrate drug running, and are popular in northern Mexico but derided by some as a "cancer that is killing Mexican music".
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Topic: SECURITY - on October 3, 2008 at 11:16:00 AM CEST
California outlaws RFID tag skimming
California governor Schwarzenegger has signed a law making the illegitimate reading of RFID tags illegal, but blocked a measure making the unauthorised tracking of kids equally so.
RFID Journal reports that anyone skimming an RFID tag issued by a government agency, health insurance company, employer or library could find themselves in prison for up to a year, or facing a $1,500 fine, though you're OK if you read it by accident, for a medical emergency or if you're a law-enforcement official.
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Topic: SECURITY - on October 2, 2008 at 12:57:00 PM CEST
Kevin Mitnick detained, released after Colombia trip
After landing at the Atlanta airport for a security conference, Mitnick was detained for four hours for reasons still not fully explained. To make matters worse, while customs officials in Atlanta were busy inspecting his cell phone, laptop, and luggage, police in Bogota were ripping open a package he had mailed to his U.S. address on suspicion that it contained cocaine.
The simultaneous incidents gave Mitnick deja vu of his days as a fugitive pursued by the FBI for breaking into computer networks, only this time, he hadn't broken any laws.
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Topic: SECURITY - on October 1, 2008 at 11:40:00 AM CEST
Counting Every Vote
California's secretary of state says open-source software is needed to safeguard electronic voting systems.
California's secretary of state, Debra Bowen, believes that open-source software should be used in elections involving electronic voting machines, to protect against error and fraud.
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Topic: SECURITY - on October 1, 2008 at 11:34:00 AM CEST
Elvis has left the border: ePassport faking guide unleashed
The Hacker's Choice (THC) has released details of a procedure that allows you to "create a backup of your own passport chip(s)" - or, if you were that way inclined, use a modified chip to build a fake ePassport that will not be detected by at least some passport readers.
THC offers a video of "Elvis's" passport being approved by a reader at Amsterdam airport. Note that the reader is a public verification terminal, not one at a border check, so there's no illegal act being committed, nor does the video prove that a fake ePassport could get through a border.
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Topic: SECURITY - on October 1, 2008 at 11:32:00 AM CEST
‘Fakeproof’ e-passport is cloned in minutes
New microchipped passports designed to be foolproof against identity theft can be cloned and manipulated in minutes and accepted as genuine by the computer software recommended for use at international airports.
Tests for The Times exposed security flaws in the microchips introduced to protect against terrorism and organised crime. The flaws also undermine claims that 3,000 blank passports stolen last week were worthless because they could not be forged.
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Topic: SECURITY - on September 27, 2008 at 11:51:00 AM CEST
Give Away Your Identity Faster Than Ever, in a Single Swipe
Homeland Security loves Windows Mobile and so should you. What? Aren't you used to the Man telling you what to do and what to like by now?
With the help of 3M's new Mobile ID Reader, prepare to expect more hard 'encouragement' from the authorities at event checkpoints from now on. They'll likely be using the new security reader from 3M, which is a rugged, portable device with an OCR swipe that reads MRZ and RF chip data from passports and Visas.
The Reader quickly verifies data against local or international watch lists, through wireless networks.
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Topic: SECURITY - on September 24, 2008 at 3:20:00 PM CEST
US responsible for the majority of cyber attacks
SecureWorks published the locations of the computers, from which the greatest number of cyber attacks were attempted against its clients in 2008. The United States topped the list with 20.6 million attempted attacks originating from computers within the country and China ran second with 7.7 million attempted attacks emanating from computers within its borders.
This was followed by Brazil with over 166,987 attempted attacks, South Korea with 162,289, Poland with 153,205, Japan with 142,346, Russia with 130,572, Taiwan with 124,997, Germany with 110,493, and Canada with 107,483.
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Topic: SECURITY - on September 24, 2008 at 3:10:00 PM CEST
Homeland Security Department Testing "Pre-Crime" Detector
New Scientist reports that the Department of Homeland Security recently tested something called Future Attribute Screening Technologies (FAST) — a battery of sensors that determine whether someone is a security threat from a distance. Sensors look at facial expressions, body heat and can measure pulse and breathing rate from a distance. In trials using 140 volunteers those told to act suspicious were detected with 'about 78% accuracy on mal-intent detection, and 80% on deception,' says a DHS spokesman.
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Topic: SECURITY - on September 24, 2008 at 3:07:00 PM CEST
Video: Solar Sunrise, the Best FBI-Produced Hacker Flick Ever
With Ehud "The Analyzer" Tenenbaum back in legal hot water, what better time to revisit the 1998 Pentagon computer intrusions that made Tenenbaum famous? So I descended into the Threat Level media vault and retrieved this aging VHS copy of Solar Sunrise: Dawn of a New Threat, an 18-minute FBI training video that dramatizes the first -- though not the last -- recreational hacker attack to send the U.S. government into a tizzy.
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Topic: SECURITY - on September 17, 2008 at 10:43:00 AM CEST
Pentagon Researcher Conjures Warcraft Terror Plot
The American military and intelligence communities are increasingly worried that would-be bin Ladens might gather in a virtual world, to plan a real-life attack. But the spies haven't given many details, about how it might be done. Now, a Pentagon researcher has laid out how such a terror plot might unfold. The planning ground is World of Warcraft. The main target of this possibly nuclear strike: the White House.
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