whitesea - Slashdot User

Submission + - Real and fictional MITM attacks

Submitted by whitesea on Sunday September 04, 2011 @06:30PM

whitesea writes: I recently read "The Loves Of Alonzo Fitz Clarence And Rosannah Ethelton", because a Slashdot reader claimed it described a Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attack. I discovered that the commenter made a common mistake: mixed up an impersonation and a MITM attack.
I started thinking, "What MITM attacks do I know in fiction or in history?" It turns out that most attacks I could think of were actually impersonation attacks, when Alice thought she was talking to Bob, but in reality, she was talking to Ike. In history, probably the Mary Queen of Scots is the best example, where Elisabeth I was not only reading letters going in both directions, but also made at least one alteration. In literature, I can only think of "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", by the famous Russian poet Pushkin.
There, when the queen sent good news to the king about the birth of a wonderful heir, her envious sisters kidnapped the original messenger and replaced him with another one, who brought the king fake, very upsetting, news. When the king decided to postpone his decision until coming back home, the evil women got the messenger drunk and replaced a reasonable message from the king by one that required execution of his wife and a child. (See details here: http://www.englishforkids.ru/Pushkin2.shtml).

Do you know any other cases of full-fledged MITM attacks, either in fiction or history?

If your examples are not in English, please try to find and post a translation.

I wonder if we can get even 10 examples, that are not just simple impersonation?

Submission + - Math curriculum to understand General Relativity 3

Submitted by

sjwaste

on Sunday August 28, 2011 @09:42AM

sjwaste writes: "Slashdot posts a fair number of physics stories. Many of us, myself included, don't have the background to understand them. So I'd like to ask the Slashdot math/physics community to construct a curriculum that gets me, an average college grad with two semesters of chemistry, one of calculus, and maybe 2-3 applied statistics courses all the way to understanding the mathematics of general relativity. What would I need to learn, in what order, and what texts should I use? Before I get killed here, I know this isn't a weekend project, but it seems like it could be fun to do in my spare time for the next... decade."

Submission + - Guitar Makers and Owners Under The Gun. (wsj.com)

Submitted by tetrahedrassface on Sunday August 28, 2011 @09:16AM

tetrahedrassface writes: According to the Wall Street Journal, Federal agents again raided guitar maker Gibson this past week seizing several pallets of wood and computer documents. At heart of the issue is the wood that is being used in guitars and whether or not it comes from sustainable sources. The company insists it is being harassed and made to 'cry uncle' to the governments enforcement laws. While, as the article notes, wonderful woods like Madagascar Ebony, Brazilian Rosewood and other fret and tone woods are protected in order to prevent the equivalent of 'blood diamond like trade' in sought after tone woods, the ramafications now extend to guitar sowners. Owners and players are next in sights of this enforcement. If you play a vintage guitar, or a hand built guitar made of old stock woods that were legally obtained years ago, but only recently crafted into an ax, you best not fly with it. John Thomas, a law professor at Quinnipiac University and a blues and ragtime guitarist, says "there's a lot of anxiety, and it's well justified." Once upon a time, he would have taken one of his vintage guitars on his travels. Now, "I don't go out of the country with a wooden guitar." That's right. Recent revisions to various laws and the Lacey Act mean if you carry your guitar across the border and don't have your paperwork and certification in hand, they will seize the guitar and fine you 250.00. So if your planning that dream vacation to France and want to play your acoustic in the air of France (or anywhere else) be forewarned. They are gunning for you.

Submission + - First Amendment Right to Record Cops (theagitator.com)

Submitted by xerio on Saturday August 27, 2011 @09:10PM

xerio writes: It appears a court in Massachusetts has finally made the right decision concerning recording the cops.

Submission + - 99% of Android phones leak secret account credenti (packetstormsecurity.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08, 2011 @06:06PM

An anonymous reader writes: The vast majority of devices running Google's Android operating system are vulnerable to attacks that allow adversaries to steal the digital credentials used to access calendars, contacts, and other sensitive data stored on the search giant's servers, university researchers have warned.

Submission + - why is critical infrastructure online? 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @07:08PM

An anonymous reader writes: For a while now, I've been trying to understand why Critical Infrastructure (CI), or more specifically, control of CI networks. One main reasons why the "internet kill switch" is being considered is to give someone the power to shut off the internet in case CI networks are under attack. Why not spend the time and energy and money on isolating the command and control functions of these CI networks? Is there a good reason why they must be accessible to the world of the interweb?

Submission + - Fair use wins this round (eff.org)

Submitted by whitesea on Monday March 28, 2011 @06:58PM

whitesea writes: Finally! A judge who actually understands where the copyright comes from. This judge in the Nevada federal district court based his decision on whether use of the copyright by a notorious copyright Righthaven follows the intention of Constitution Article 8. Article 8 lists the powers of Congress and, in particular, states"The Congress shall have Power ...
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."
The judge concluded that the Righthaven's use of copyright does nothing to encourage and protect creativity and, actually, has a chilling effect. Then, taking into account the way the non-profit used the article and other circumstances, the judge concluded that in this case the fair use exception did apply and found for the non-profit. We need more such judges, with a brain and capable of reading and understanding classical texts. Go read the detals at https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/03/fair-use-win-righthaven-case and enjoy your day.

Submission + - How can we raise the social status of teachers? (nytimes.com)

Submitted by

techfun

on Monday March 28, 2011 @06:03PM

techfun writes: "Looking at countries that do a good job educating their young and consistently take the lead globally, studies show that the social status of teachers plays an important role. Looking at the recent attacks on teach unions, one must wonder exactly where teachers in the US feel they are in the pecking order."

Submission + - McAfee's website full of security holes (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by

Julie188

on Monday March 28, 2011 @03:08PM

Julie188 writes: "The McAfee.com website is full of security mistakes that could lead to cross-site scripting and other attacks, researchers said in a post on the Full Disclosure site on Monday. The holes with the site were found by the YGN Ethical Hacker Group, and reported to McAfee on Feb. 10, YGN says, before they were publicly disclosed to the security/hacking mailing list. Embarrassing? Yes, especially given that the company aggressively markets its own McAfee Secure service that is supposed to assure consumers that McAfee has scanned a website and found it to be safe."

Submission + - Should smartphones be allowed in court? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie on Monday March 28, 2011 @01:31PM

coondoggie writes: Federal courts have been debating about how much freedom users of smartphones and portable wireless devices in general, should have in a federal courthouse. Some say they should be banned outright while others say they should be allowed in but their use curtailed. Unregulated use of smartphones has resulted in mistrials, exclusion of jurors and fines in some case.

Submission + - mysql.com hacked with sql injection (thehackernews.com)

Submitted by iceco2 on Sunday March 27, 2011 @04:30PM

iceco2 writes: mysql.com and associated sites, was hacked today. Among other items some simple passwords were recovered and private emails were revealed. Ironicly the attack was performed using a blind sql injection attack. more details: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=BayvYdcP

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How do you choose a Windows laptop? 7

Submitted by

jfruhlinger

on Sunday March 27, 2011 @12:15PM

jfruhlinger writes: "I'm a Mac guy. When our 2004-era Windows XP laptop, which was used primarily by my wife, died last summer, I got myself a new MacBook Pro and she inherited my still servicable 2008 MacBook. But after about six months, she hasn't gotten used to it, and wants a Windows machine. I don't have an ideological problem with this — it'd be her computer, and we've got a bit of money stashed away to pay for it. But trying to pick one out is my job, and I find the the whole process bewildering. Apple's product differentiation is great at defeating the paradox of choice — you have a few base models, the difference between which is quite obvious, and you can customize each. The Windows world seems totally different. Even once I've settled on a vendor for a Windows laptop (something I haven't done yet), each seems to have a bewildering array of product lines with similar specs. Often models that you find in electronics or office supply stores that seem promising in terms of form factor are exclusive to those stores and can't be found online. Obviously people do navigate this process, but I'm just feeling out of my depth. How would Slashdotters go about picking a solid, basic laptop for Web surfing and document editing that won't be obsolete in two years?"

Comment Re:illegal why? (Score 1) 267

by whitesea on Sunday March 20, 2011 @09:07AM (#35549548) Attached to: Facebook Wedding Photos Result In Polygamy Arrest In Michigan

And polygamy is illegal why, exactly? (assuming that all involved are ok with it)

Oh yes, because it's written in that holy book from an ancient goat-herders culture that we somehow think still applies to live in a world that is so radically different.

No it is not. Two words: Leah and Rachel.

Comment Re:messed it up (Score 1) 267

by whitesea on Sunday March 20, 2011 @09:04AM (#35549528) Attached to: Facebook Wedding Photos Result In Polygamy Arrest In Michigan

No, it's multiple mother-in-laws.

Not necessarily. If you marry sisters, you may have just one mother-in-law. And if your wives are orphans, you may have zero mothers-in-law. It pays to learn about your fiancees' ancestry before getting married.

Submission + - Facebook Randomly Publicizing Data Again (facebook.com)

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Monday March 14, 2011 @11:32PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Facebook is starting to randomly turn items on people's accounts from "Friends only" to "Everyone". It doesn't appear to be the same for each user as to what is altered. Go go privacy violations.
https://www.facebook.com/help/?question=1065860
"Things have moved around on your new profile, so please take a second to understand who can see your stuff. Currently some of your XYZ are visible to Everyone. Remember, you can always change your settings.""

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