http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/09/flame-coders-left-fingerprints/
Archive for 2012/09/17
Dutch Police Develops ‘LinkedIn’ Type Of Environment To Allow Cyber Volunteers To Contribute Their Knowledge And Expertise To The Fight Against Cyber Crime
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, New Business Models, Public Policy, Stats / reportsIt allows the police to quickly find the skills it needs for particular tasks.
Dutch language news article:
http://www.security.nl/artikel/43109/1/Politie_start_proef_met_cybervrijwilligers.html
Dutch Police Arrests iPad Thief Within 24 Hours Thanks To Built-in Tracking And Tracing Application
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, New Business Models, Public Policy, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionThe rightful owner was able to track and trace his stolen device and make pictures of the thief and the place he was staying at. The Dutch police was able to recognize the proper apartment by looking at the window curtains on the pictures the iPad had taken.
Dutch language news article:
http://www.security.nl/artikel/43118/1/Politie_arresteert_iPad-dief_via_ingebouwd_volgsysteem.html
Musicmetric Reveals Top 10 UK Cities and Countries for Internet Music Piracy
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Education / Awareness, File Sharing, Illegal File Sharing, Stats / reportsMusicmetric has released its first Digital Music Index (DMI), which used 18 million observations of P2P activity on BitTorrent file sharing networks to identify that the majority of albums listed are not legal (internet piracy). It also found that people in Manchester (UK) were the biggest downloaders of “illegal” music and that attempts by ISPs to block piracy websites haven’t worked.
The study, which could be used by Rights Holders to fuel calls for an even more aggressive crackdown on internet access and personal privacy, found that 43 million album and single releases were “downloaded” over BitTorrent during the first half of 2012 (both legal and illegal).
The Federal Reserve’s decision to announce “infinite” quantitative easing has now put us all on the path of infinite money creation
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Public Policy, Stats / reportsWith up to $85 billion in monthly money creation — including $40 billion a month in purchases of mortgage-backed securities — the Fed is now wholly committed to the creation of new fake money to cover old fake debts. Mathematically, this financial death spiral can only end in sheer catastrophe.
Developers Suspect the New Kindle Fires Will Be Hack-Resistant
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Network Security, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reportsThe new devices will come with more sophisticated protection, including locked bootloaders and “high security” features offered by Texas Instrument processors.
More:
http://gizmodo.com/5943788/developers-suspect-the-new-kindle-fires-will-be-hack+resistant
Facebook’s Richest Employees Have a Secret Rich People Fun Club
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reportsWhile the rest of America grapples with an 8 percent unemployment rate and a generally MySpace economy, the New York Times reports Facebook’s top 250 richest staffers gather to talk boats, art, and generally being unimaginably rich. Sounds fun!
The Times’ claim undergirds an important aspect of Facebook’s IPO disaster: you can be insanely rich, lose a ton of money, and still be insanely rich.. Particularly if you’re one of Facebook’s first 250 employees, who share a spot on what’s called the TNR (The Nouveau Riche) 250, an illustrious group of rich people who talk about rich people things. You know, rare paintings and stuff, says NYT’s Nick Bilton: “They discuss things they plan to buy when they sell their hundreds of millions of dollars in stock: boats, planes, artwork, even an island. (To be fair, philanthropy is also discussed.)”
More:
http://gizmodo.com/5943808/facebooks-richest-employees-have-a-secret-rich-people-fun-club
Previously:
The graffiti theme continued inside the warehouse where soaring Rye Bar cocktail stands and bars teemed with every top-shelf tipple imaginable. All the better to pair with the bounteous McCall Associates buffet stands groaning beneath sushi and lobster bars, spit-roasted suckling pigs, pounds of fresh-sliced proscuitto and Parker’s personal favorite, Mac & Cheese copiously sprinkled with just-shaved truffles, six pounds of the pungent tuber which McCall Executive Chefs Lucas Schoemaker and Josip Martinovic had flown in from France
Among the revelers: Angel investor Ron Conway; Parker’s fiance, singer-songwriter Alexandra Lenas; Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning; CODE Advisors co-founder Fred Davis; author and music lyricist Danielle Steel; Playfish founder Sebastien de Halleux; Driverside.com co-founder Trevor Traina and his wife, Swanson Vineyards Creative Director Alexis Traina; Eminem manager Paul Rosenberg; Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, making a fly-by following his own F8 post-party.
Shazam: it’s not just for music anymore
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionAccording to Shazam’s Chief Revenue Officer Doug Garland, the app’s functionality is expanding to include the ability to identify not just audio, but video as well. In a brief interview with TechCrunch, Garland notes that current versions of Shazam actually already have this stealth feature enabled, and that the company has waited until recently to announce it. Shazam can tag TV shows and tell you what you’re watching—by itself not all that useful, since you usually know the name of the show you’re staring at, but it can also provide “cast information, trivia, celebrity buzz, live Twitter feeds,” and info on music featured in the show.
This is actually useful. It’s just not an evening at the Hutchinson household if my wife and I aren’t getting into a spirited discussion of who the guest actor of the week is on whatever show we’re watching and what else that actor has been in; this usually culminates in both of us whipping out our phones and trying to be the first to locate the show’s IMDB page, and then find the cast list, and then frantically scroll through headshots until we find the right person. A single-click method of quickly displaying cast information will cut down on a lot of extraneous clicking and searching.
More:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/09/shazam-its-not-just-for-music-anymore/
Washington Times: Pedophilia should be a zero-tolerance crime. Secretary general of Dutch Ministry of Justice deserves jail
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Organized Crime, Public Policy, Stats / reports
The only difference between the Secretary General of the Dutch Ministry of Justice Joris Demmink and Jerry Sandusky of Penn State is that Demmink is free and Sandusky is in jail. The case of the Secretary General of the Dutch Ministry of Justice Joris Demmink is too much like the case of Jerry Sandusky of Penn State to be ignored. Both men have long histories of sexually abusing young boys. Both men held positions of authority in the institutions they worked for and both men were highly respected by their peers and communities. What allowed for their crimes to be covered-up is the belief that the victims are not telling the truth or seeking personal gain coupled with the failure of a few good men to do the right thing.
Demmink is expected to retire from his post in September and leave Holland. Thus, it is critical that Turkey make the announcement that it will fully and expeditiously investigate the allegations against Demmink before he flees. His generous retirement funds currently held in New York City allow the Secretary General to travel the world free to prey on little boys without any accountability.
Much more:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/14/fosu-pedophilia-should-be-zero-tolerance-crime/
Previously:
http://vrritti.com/?s=demmink&submit=Search
iPhone 5 Pre-Orders Top Two Million in First 24 Hours
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reportsApple today announced pre-orders of its iPhone 5 topped two million in just 24 hours, more than double the previous record of one million held by iPhone 4S. Demand for iPhone 5 exceeds the initial supply and while the majority of pre-orders will be delivered to customers on September 21, many are scheduled to be delivered in October.
More:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/09/17iPhone-5-Pre-Orders-Top-Two-Million-in-First-24-Hours.html
A new report reveals that when it comes to worldwide unauthorized BitTorrent downloads, users in the United States are the most prolific
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Education / Awareness, Illegal File Sharing, New Business Models, Stats / reports…followed by those in the UK, Italy and Canada. When zooming in on the UK, citizens from Manchester download the most per head, with those from the capital beaten into a lowly 20th place. Interestingly the world’s most downloaded artist is very happy with his record, as is the UK’s number one, who’s filling venues despite 80% of his fans paying nothing for his music.
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/top-bittorrent-countries-in-the-world-top-torrent-towns-in-the-uk-120917/
Gottfrid Svartholm Warg has been officially detained under suspicion of hacking into a Swedish IT company connected to the country’s tax authorities (Pirate Bay)
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Public Policy, Stats / reportsAgreeing with the prosecutor’s request the Nacka District Court said Friday that the Pirate Bay co-founder should be detained for another two weeks to enable a thorough investigation to take place. Gottfrid denies all charges.
Vytas Simanavicius, president of Lithuanian anti-piracy outfit LANVA, is suspected of drug trading or unlawful possession of illegal narcotic substances in high quantities
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Organized Crime, Public Policy, Stats / reportsDetails on the investigation were made public by the police this week with local news sources identifying the LANVA boss as the suspect. Simanavicius, who earlier partnered with Microsoft to sue a prominent BitTorrent tracker, faces up to eight years in prison.
Much more:
http://torrentfreak.com/prominent-anti-piracy-chief-suspected-of-drug-crime-120916/
Top commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned Sunday that “nothing will remain” of Israel if his country is attacked
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Stats / reports“Our response to Israel is clear: I think nothing will remain of Israel (should it attack Iran). Given Israel’s small land area and its vulnerability to a massive volume of Iran’s missiles, I don’t think any spot in Israel will remain safe,” said Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafar.
He also said Iran would close down the Strait of Hormuz, strike U.S. bases in the Middle East, and withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“The US military bases sprawled around Iran are considered a big vulnerability. Even the missile shields that they have set up, based on information we have, could only work for a few missiles but when exposed to a massive volume of missiles, the shields will lose their efficiency and will not work,” he explained.
More:
http://www.infowars.com/iran-responds-to-massive-u-s-armada-gathering-in-the-persian-gulf/
Google identifies The Verge as malware host
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Filtering, Google, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reportsSome Chrome users trying to visit the tech news site see a notice that it contains malware, but the site’s editor in chief insists his site is safe
More:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57513822-83/google-identifies-the-verge-as-malware-host/
Computer scientists are a rare breed in lawyer-dominated Washington, DC, and Felten said it was sometimes a challenge helping policymakers understand the nature and limits of technology
Posted: 2012/09/17 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionFelten found that he could usually dispel these misconceptions once he got to know an individual policymaker. Especially within the FTC, once he “developed a relationship where they trusted me,” he had an easier time persuading them.
Indeed, he said that the importance of relationships to policymaking is one of the key things about Washington that’s not widely understood in the technology world. To effectively influence public policy, it’s essential to know who the key decision-makers are, and what their idiosyncratic concerns are.
“I’ve thought about how other disciplines have managed to integrate themselves into the process,” he said. “Economists are a good example. They’ve been very effective in convincing policymakers that their expertise is important.”
It would obviously be foolish for senior government officials to make economic policy without seeking input from trained economists. Perhaps someday, it will be seen as equally foolish to make technology policy without a computer scientist in the room.
More:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/geeks-are-from-mars-wonks-are-from-venus/
