March 2012
64 posts
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“The problem … was that the surveillance technology sold to Iran in 2008 is...”
– Rebecca MacKinnon, Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom
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“It’s time to stop debating whether the Internet is an effective tool for...”
– Rebecca MacKinnon, Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom
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Surprise: American Equipment Spies on Iranians →
Steve Stecklow, for Reuters, has an special report discussing how Chinese vendor ZTE was able to resell American network infrastructure and surveillance products to the Iranian government. The equipment sold is significant;
Mahmoud Tadjallimehr, a former telecommunications project manager in Iran who has worked for major European and Chinese equipment makers, said the ZTE system supplied to TCI...
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Huawei Blocked on National Security Grounds →
We recently learned that the Australian government had blocked Huawei from tendering contracts for Australia’s National Broadband Network. The government defended their position, stating that:
As such, and as a strategic and significant government investment, we have a responsibility to do our utmost to protect its integrity and that of the information carried on it.
Of note, internally...
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“…the Consumer Groups note Bell Canada’s somewhat thin argument on s. 36 to...”
– PIAC on Bell’s usage of deep packet inspection to throttle CAIP customers’ data throughput
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The Problems With Smartphone Password Managers →
In today’s era of hyperbolic security warnings one of the easiest things that people can do to ‘protect’ themselves online is select super hard passwords to crack, stuff them in a centralized password manager, and then only have to remember a single password to access the rest in the manager. I’ve used a password manager for some time and there are real security benefits:...
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A Pedophile Survivor on Bill C-30 →
Anne Rector gives voice to many who were systematically abused as children and who, often as a result of the abuse, are now ardent protectors of basic privacy rights. From her piece:
While I’m fairly openly about many things, my privacy has been savagely breached quite enough in this life. I should be able to preserve the tatters of personal privacy that remain, as I wish.
But this Conservative...
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Fallout from Comodo and DigiNotar Hacks Continues →
The hacking of major certificate authorities, Comodo and DigiNotar, has been somewhat addressed by certificate blacklists and revocations. Despite these measures, however, the fallout of the hacks continues. As picked up by PC Magazine,
This week Kaspersky has discovered malicious droppers - programs that install malware - bearing stolen VeriSign certificates originally issued to a Swiss company...
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Google Chrome Addons Fingerprinting →
Krzysztof Kotowicz has recently published the first part of a Chrome hacking series. In what went up mid-March, he provides the proof of concept code to ID the addons that users have installed. (The live demo - avoid if you’re particularly privacy conscious - is here.) There are various advantages to knowing what, specifically, browser users are running:
It contributes to developing unique...
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“The great evil that we as Americans face is the banal evil of second-rate minds...”
– Lawrence Lessig from Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress — and a Plan to Stop It
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“… an institution can be corrupted in the same way Yeltsin was when...”
– Larry Lessig from Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress — and a Plan to Stop It
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On Hiring Hackers →
Kevin McArthur has a response to firms who are demanding highly credentialed security staff: stop it!
Much of his argument surrounds problems with the credentialing process. He focuses on the fact that the time spent achieving an undergrad, MA, and set of professional certifications leaves prospective hires woefully out-of-date and unprepared to address existing security threats.
I recognize...
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A Populist Critique of "Ladyphones" →
Casey Johnston, over at Ars Technica, has a two-pager complaining about how tech companies design and market so-called “Ladyphones.” It’s a quick read that picks up on earlier critiques about how certain colours, and reduced technical capabilities, are associated with derogatory gender perceptions.
That said, there are at least two elements of her piece that fall short to my...
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WatchAn incredibly cheeky, and amusing, “analysis” of copyright-related economic losses.
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Gorgeous Windows 8 UI Concept →
The Verge has a terrific piece on a concept user interface for Windows 8. It’s really, really worth taking a look at: if Windows looked that good (and, *ahem*, wasn’t a pain in the ass to run over the long-haul) then I think an awful lot of people could be visually convinced to switch from OS X to Windows.
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Poison Texts Targeting Mobile Phones →
While smartphones get in the news for security reasons related to mobile malware, it’s important that we not forget about the other means of attacking mobile phones. USA Today has a piece which notes that,
One type of poison text message involves tricking people into signing up for worthless services for which they get billed $9.99 a month. Another type lures them into doing a survey to win...
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American ISPs To Become Real Copyright Cops? →
We live in a dangerous time when ISPs - largely to head off potential federal regulations - establish private arrangements with copyright holders to disrupt Internet subscribers from accessing certain content. Sandoval notes that,
Last July, Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable and other bandwidth providers announced that they had agreed to adopt policies designed to discourage...
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How Canada's Copyright Legislation Will Be Used →
In a well-timed piece that aligns with Canada’s new copyright legislation, Techdirt describes how content owners will likely use new digital locks provisions:
The real reason why they want anti-circumvention even when there’s no copyright infringement is because it gives them a veto on any new technology. All they have to do is put in some sort of weak digital lock and suddenly the...
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WatchHey, Facebook’s doin’ it, so why can’t we?
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Research In Motion to Further Improve Antennas →
From The Telecom Blog we learn that RIM has acquired Paratek Microwave Inc. Paratek is:
a company whose adaptive radio-frequency technology improves mobile-handset call quality and battery life. It’s believed that RIM may leverage this acquisition to improve the overall performance of its next generation BlackBerry smartphones.
…
General Partner of Polaris Venture Partners Alan Spoon...
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US Internet Imperialism Strikes (Again!) →
Wired has run a decent piece surrounding unilateral American seizures of domain names by acting on critical infrastructure governed by US law. A key bit from the article to get you interested:
Bodog.com was registered with aCanadian registrar, a VeriSign subcontractor, but the United States shuttered the site without any intervention from Canadian authorities or companies.
Instead, the feds...
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“In the context of big data, overconfidence can lead people with good intentions...”
– Big Data and the Stalker Economy - Forbes (via tkudo)
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Data Protection Officers Needed in the EU →
Peter Fleischer, Google Global Privacy Counsel, notes that most companies with over 250 employees will likely need a Data Protection Officer as a result of updates to European law . He rightly notes that such updates should increase basic data protection awareness in companies, though I have concerns about the effectiveness of securing privacy through data protection.
To be sure, breaches will...
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Cogeco's Meters are Still Broken →
From DSLReports we find that:
The leap year appears to be the latest thing to confuse Cogeco’s metering software, with users reporting that a bug resulted in them being informed they’d already used their monthly allotment before March even really got started. Notes one of several users:
“I got my 100% warning on March 1st. I use my router as well to watch my usage. My router...
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How Notice-and-Takedown Hurts Real People →
Under DMCA rules a copyright holder can request that content hosts, such as Flickr, take down content that is believed to infringe on the holders’ copyright. Hosts will typically take down content and subsequently notify whomever posted it. The poster can then respond (after the content is already down) to argue that they were within their rights to post the content either because (a) it was...
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“Though Silicon Valley’s newest billionaires may anoint themselves the saints of...”
– Rob Cox at Reuter. Go read his whole essay, “Silicon Valley’s underserved moral exceptionalism”
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Reasons To Not Use A Proxy Server →
Some of the reasons to be concerned about using unknown third-parties’ proxy services.
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Police Look Up Woman's License 425 Times →
We should never forget that a large number of data/privacy breeches start from within a bureaucracy/organization. When an audit was performed on the drivers license database in Minnesota, auditors found that a staggering number of officers had ‘checked up’ on a woman’s profile. From the article on this:
The numbers were astounding: One hundred and four officers in 18 different...
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Phishing on Mobile Devices →
A good paper on (you guessed it!) phishing on mobile devices. Paper is here (.pdf) and abstract is below.
We assess the risk of phishing on mobile platforms. Mobile operating systems and browsers lack secure application identity indicators, so the user cannot always identify whether a link has taken her to the expected application. We conduct a systematic analysis of ways in which mobile...
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Security Bugs In Google Chrome Extensions →
A piece that was authored last September, enumerating some of the security issues with Google Chrome Extensions. The authors:
reviewed 100 Chrome extensions and found that 27 of the 100 extensions leak all of their privileges to a web or WiFi attacker. Bugs in extensions put users at risk by leaking private information (like passwords and history) to web and WiFi attackers. Web sites may be evil...
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Internet Voting is a Bad, Bad Idea →
Last year The Star ran an article detailing the merits of online voting. You get the usual benefits: increased turnout, happier constituents, and enhanced convenience. What the article entirely misses, of course, are the security and associated legitimacy issues linked with voting online. An academic blogger, writing before the article, notes that:
‘securing’ the Internet is a Herculean task. It...
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American Link To Greek Surveillance Debacle? →
In 2004 it was discovered that parties unknown had been secretly monitoring a hundred of Greece’s top politicians and bureaucrats. An article from 2011 reveals that,
According to what sources told Kathimerini, the experts found that a mobile phone connection that had been purchased in the name of the US Embassy in Athens was used on one of these phones. Sources said that Dasoulas is...
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“Every time we come up with a technical solution that protects privacy, the...”
– Lorrie Faith Cranor, from an interview with Ars Technica
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FYI: Governments Spy On Citizens. A Lot. →
You often hear that if you’ve nothing to hide then government surveillance isn’t really something you should fear. It’s only the bad people that are targeted! Well….sorta. It is the case that (sometimes) ‘bad people’ are targeted. It’s also (often) the case that the definition of ‘bad people’ extends to ‘individuals exercising basic...
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Academics Rally to Defend Sandra Fluke →
Sandra Fluke is a Georgetown law student who has been targeted by Rush Limbaugh since giving testimony about the importance of insurance policies providing contraceptive coverage. The academic community has issued a statement in response to the misogynistic attacks that have been launched by Limbaugh and his supporters. It’s available as a .pdf (with a list of signatories) here, and the...
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WatchThis TED talk about doctors’ professional mistakes - and the shame and trauma accompanying them - is good, but it hinges on a general, pervasive, failure throughout the Canadian and American medical professions. In other countries - Brazil as an example - emergency psychotherapists are included as part of the hospital staff. Why? Because tragedies happen, and it isn’t just the patients...
