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Sniffing and Tracking Wearable Tech and Smartphones 56

An anonymous reader writes: Senior researcher Scott Lester at Context Information Security has shown how someone can easily monitor and record Bluetooth Low Energy signals transmitted by many mobile phones, fitness monitors, and iBeacons. The findings have raised concerns about the privacy and confidentiality wearable devices may provide. “Many people wearing fitness devices don’t realize that they are broadcasting constantly and that these broadcasts can often be attributed to a unique device,” said Scott says. “Using cheap hardware or a smartphone, it could be possible to identify and locate a particular device – that may belong to a celebrity, politician or senior business executive – within 100 meters in the open air. This information could be used for social engineering as part of a planned cyber attack or for physical crime by knowing peoples’ movements.” The researchers have even developed an Android app that scans, detects and logs wearable devices.

Comment Re:Who cares if it kills companies? (Score 1, Informative) 109

Where are you that you are still in a pension plan which you don't control? I'd think most /. users have 401(k) which they have at least a bit of control over. Too bad that doesn't stop a common mistake, though - someone betting everything on the company they work for, salary, stock/options, and 401(k) investments.

Comment Re:TIL about wiretapping without wires (Score 5, Informative) 104

Note that Stingrays aren't just radio receivers. They mimic cell towers, and are also transmitters. They transmit on spectrum which belongs to the cell carriers, and they do so without a license or warrant. That's illegal.

Also, cell frequencies aren't "readily accessible to the general public" - Congress has passed laws which specifically prohibit the public from accessing those frequencies and prohibits the manufacture of general purpose radios (scanners) which can receive them.

Comment Re:Apple ][ was a great product (Score 4, Informative) 74

No seals on any Macs, at least up until the candy colored ones, either. You needed a hard to find long T-15 screwdriver (and a special case separator, if you didn't want to do cosmetic damage) to open them, though. But the RAM was soldered in, so it wouldn't have been a Mac that needed its RAM reseated.

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