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Comment Smudge style attacks around since dawn of time (Score 1) 185

by myshadows (#33214496) Attached to: Touchscreens Open To Smudge Attacks
This is a classic and not new. I have seen the use of gummy bears to beat fingerprint readers etc, which are all smudge style attacks. The problem with their paper is, it is not practical. If the touchscreens have smudges, they are going to have a lot of them! The problem with their experiment is that they do not take into account the amount of use and abuse the touchscreens get. They only have 'holding the phone up to face' action. So, if somebody ONLY uses their touchscreen Android phone for only unlocking their phone and holding it up to their face, they deserve to have their unlock pattern stolen...
Google

Touchscreens Open To Smudge Attacks 185

Posted by CmdrTaco from the windex-security dept.
nk497 writes "The smudges left behind on touchscreen devices could be used to decipher passwords to gain access, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. The report tested the idea out (PDF) on Android phones, which use a graphical pattern that the user traces to unlock the handset. The researchers took photos of the smudge trails left on the screen and bumped up the contrast, finding they could unlock the phone 92% of the time. While they noted Android 2.2 also offers an alphanumeric password option, the researchers claimed such a smudge attack could be used against other touchscreen interfaces, including bank machines and voting machines. 'In future work, we intend to investigate other devices that may be susceptible, and varied smudge attack styles, such as heat trails caused by the heat transfer of a finger touching a screen,' they said."

Comment Re:Software oscilloscope on PC (Score 1) 337

by myshadows (#33137568) Attached to: Oscilloscopes For Modern Engineers?

I would recommend the software oscilloscope if the experiments you are doing mostly are related to the digital circuits with low voltages etc. The following book has components that you need to make your own oscilloscope using your laptop or PC serial port along with software. HTH. Lab-in-a-Box: Introductory Experiments in Electric Circuits by Robert W. Hendricks, Kathleen Meehan

Correction: It uses the on board sound card and not the PC serial port.

Botnet

Large Zeus Botnet Used For Financial Fraud 68

Posted by CmdrTaco from the zeus-shorts-out-his-enemies dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A large Zeus version 2 botnet is being used to conduct financial fraud in the UK and is operated from Eastern Europe. The botnet appears to be controlling more than 100,000 infected computers. The criminals have been harvesting all manner of potentially lucrative and revenue-producing credentials — including online account IDs plus login information to banks, credit and debit card numbers, account types plus balances, bank statements, browser cookies, client side certificates, login information for email accounts and social networks, and even FTP passwords."

Comment Software oscilloscope on PC (Score 1) 337

by myshadows (#33136862) Attached to: Oscilloscopes For Modern Engineers?
I would recommend the software oscilloscope if the experiments you are doing mostly are related to the digital circuits with low voltages etc. The following book has components that you need to make your own oscilloscope using your laptop or PC serial port along with software. HTH. Lab-in-a-Box: Introductory Experiments in Electric Circuits by Robert W. Hendricks, Kathleen Meehan

Submission + - Feeling the heat in games (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by myshadows
myshadows writes: Tech Review has an interesting article on how Tokyo Metropolitan University researchers have been able to give a sensory addition to gaming peripherals... namely temperature.

"As the range of interactions with digital environments expands, it's logical to ask what's next: Smell-o-vision has been on the horizon for something like 50 years, but there's a dark horse stalking this race: thermoelectrics. Based on the Peltier effect, these solid-state devices are easy to incorporate into objects of reasonable size, i.e. video game controllers. In this configuration, just announced at the 2010 SIGGRAPH conference, a pair of thermoelectric surfaces on either side of a controller rapidly heat up or cool down in order to simulate appropriate conditions in a virtual environment."
The Internet

Submission + - Just 2 Chinese ISPs Serve 20% of World Broadband U (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Just 2 Chinese ISPs Serve 20% of World Broadband Users

If you need a reminder of just how big China is—and just how important the Internet has become there—consider this stat: between them, two Chinese ISPs serve 20 percent of all broadband subscribers in the entire world and both companies continue to grow, even as growth slows significantly in more developed markets.

Every other ISP trails dramatically. Japan's NTT comes in third with 17 million subscribers, and all US providers are smaller still.

"The gap between the top two operators and the world’s remaining broadband service providers will continue to grow rapidly," said TeleGeography Research Director Tania Harvey. "Aside from the two Chinese companies, all of the top ten broadband ISPs operate in mature markets, with high levels of broadband penetration and rapidly slowing subscriber growth."

ARS Technica: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/07/just-two-chinese-isps-serve-20-of-world-broadband-users.ars
Earth

Submission + - Global warming 'undeniable,' report says (www.cbc.ca) 1

Submitted by BergZ
BergZ writes: Scientists from around the world are providing even more evidence of global warming.
"A comprehensive review of key climate indicators confirms the world is warming and the past decade was the warmest on record," the annual State of the Climate report declares.
Compiled by more than 300 scientists from 48 countries, including Canada, the report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said its analysis of 10 indicators that are "clearly and directly related to surface temperatures, all tell the same story: Global warming is undeniable."

Submission + - Android data stealing App downloaded by millions (venturebeat.com)

Submitted by wisebabo
wisebabo writes: Wallpaper utility (that presents purloined copyrighted material) "quietly collects personal information such as SIM card numbers, text messages, subscriber identification, and voicemail passwords. The data is then sent to www.imnet.us, a site that hails from Shenzen, China."

Unlike some previous flame baiting stories, this one surely is "news for nerds, stuff that matters".
The Courts

Submission + - 16 Years Jail For Videotaping Police? (mclu.org)

Submitted by krou
krou writes: The ACLU of Maryland is defending Anthony Graber, who potentially faces sixteen years in prison if found guilty of violating state wiretap laws because he recorded video of an officer drawing a gun during a traffic stop. ... Once [the Maryland State Police] learned of the video on YouTube, Graber's parents house was raided, searched, and four of his computers were confiscated. Graber was arrested, booked and jailed. Their actions are a calculated method of intimidation. Another person has since been similarly charged under the same statute. The wiretap law being used to charge Anthony Graber is intended to protect private communication between two parties. According to David Rocah, the ACLU attorney handling Mr. Graber's case, "To charge Graber with violating the law, you would have to conclude that a police officer on a public road, wearing a badge and a uniform, performing his official duty, pulling someone over, somehow has a right to privacy when it comes to the conversation he has with the motorist."
Cellphones

Submission + - Cellphone interception at Defcon (tombom.co.uk)

Submitted by ChrisPaget
ChrisPaget writes: I'm planning a pretty significant demonstration of GSM insecurity at Defcon next week, where I'll intercept and record cellular calls made by my attendees, live on-stage, no user-input required. As you can imagine, intercepting cellphones is a Very Big Deal in the eyes of the law; this blog post is an attempt to reassure everyone that their privacy is being taken seriously despite the nature of the demo. I'm not just making it up either — the EFF have helped significantly with the details.
Privacy

Submission + - Facebook Adds Delete Account Option 1

Submitted by roseability
roseability writes: Facebook have quietly added the ability to delete you account. 'Deactivate Account', under Account Setting, has become 'Deactivate or Delete Account', and when checked it purports to permanently delete your account and all information you have shared. Facebook is actually willing to erase your data permanently? They must be counting on very few people doing so.
The Military

Submission + - WikiLeaks Releases 92,000 Docs on Afghanistan War (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "A six-year archive of classified military documents to be made public on Sunday offers an unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal.

The secret documents, to be released on the Internet by an organization called WikiLeaks, are a daily diary of an American-led force often starved for resources and attention as it struggled against an insurgency that grew larger, better coordinated and more deadly each year.

The New York Times, the British newspaper The Guardian and the German magazine Der Spiegel were given access to the voluminous records several weeks ago on the condition that they not report on the material before Sunday.

The documents — some 92,000 reports spanning parts of two administrations from January 2004 through December 2009 — illustrate in mosaic detail why, after the United States has spent almost $300 billion on the war in Afghanistan, the Taliban are stronger than at any time since 2001."

Comment Forget global warming (Score 1) 98

by myshadows (#33006556) Attached to: Managing the Most Remote Data Center In the World
I think just this data center and the observatory is enough to bring down the south pole ice caps... If this is taking place at the south pole, shouldn't this be concerning? Also, most of the IT staff can manage the center remotely with a minimum number of people required at base camp. With regards to power, I believe geothermal is a possibility but I don't know how that would interfere with their observations.
NASA

Submission + - Earth's upper atmosphere collapses. None know why (csmonitor.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An upper layer of Earth's atmosphere recently collapsed in an unexpectedly large contraction, the sheer size of which has scientists scratching their heads, NASA announced Thursday.
The layer of gas – called the thermosphere – is now rebounding again. This type of collapse is not rare, but its magnitude shocked scientists.

"This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years," said John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab, lead author of a paper announcing the finding in the June 19 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "It's a Space Age record."

The collapse occurred during a period of relative solar inactivity – called a solar minimum from 2008 to 2009. These minimums are known to cool and contract the thermosphere, however, the recent collapse was two to three times greater than low solar activity could explain.

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