Proofpoint, Inc, a leading security-as-a-service provider, has uncovered what may be the first proven Internet of Things (IoT)-based cyberattack involving conventional household "smart" appliances
outsideperception.wordpress.com
. The global attack campaign involved more than 750,000 malicious email communications coming from more than 100,000 everyday consumer gadgets such as home-networking routers, connected multi-media centers, televisions and at least one refrigerator that had been compromised and used as a platform to launch attacks. As the number of such connected devices is expected to grow to more than four times the number of connected computers in the next few years according to media reports, proof of an IoT-based attack has significant security implications for device owners and Enterprise targets.
Is Your Refrigerator Spying on You?
And here you thought you felt guilty because of what you were eating. A press release from Proofpoint:
Children Easily Bypass UK's Internet Censorship Filters, Parents Still Incompetent
Why won't these children think of the children?! From the BBC:
Filters put in place by parents to stop children viewing inappropriate content are easily bypassed by the youngsters themselves, according to a nreport from regulator Ofcom.
It found that 18% of 12-15-year-olds know how to disable internet filters.
Almost half of children aged 12-15 know how to delete their browsing history and 29% can amend settings to mask their browser activity. Some 83% of eight to 11 year-olds said they knew how to stay safe online. . . .
According to the report, many parents feel their computing skills are far inferior to their children's. Almost half (44%) of parents with children aged between eight and 11 say their child knows more about the internet than they do. That rises to 63% for parents of 12-15-year-olds.In other words, hysterical helicopter parents and safety fetishists have succeeded only in preventing themselves and their technophobic peers from accessing "objectionable" content online.
Amazon Warehouse Workers to Vote on Unionization
From GigaOM:
A group of Amazon warehouse workers in Delaware will decide Wednesday on whether to create a union. The vote covers just a tiny sub-set of the retail giant’s workforce but has heavy symbolic significance at a time when Amazon faces ongoing criticism over its labor practices.
The vote comes after the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers filed a petition on December 6 on behalf of 30 equipment maintenance and repair technicians in Middletown, Delaware. If a majority of the workers vote in favor, it will be the first Amazon union shop in the U.S.
Firefox: Open Source Security Solutions to Internet Surveillance
From Brendan Eich, CTO of Mozilla:
Mozilla has one critical advantage over all other browser vendors. Our products are truly open source . . . As Anthony Jones from our New Zealand office pointed out the other month, security researchers can use this fact to verify the executable bits contained in the browsers Mozilla is distributing, by building Firefox from source and comparing the built bits with our official distribution . . .
To ensure that no one can inject undetected surveillance code into Firefox, security researchers and organizations should:
In the best case, we will establish such a verification system at a global scale, with participants from many different geographic regions and political and strategic interests and affiliations.
- regularly audit Mozilla source and verified builds by all effective means;
- establish automated systems to verify official Mozilla builds from source;
- raise an alert if the verified bits differ from official bits.
Security is never “done” — it is a process, not a final rest-state. No silver bullets. All methods have limits. However, open-source auditability cleanly beats the lack of ability to audit source vs. binary.
Through international collaboration of independent entities we can give users the confidence that Firefox cannot be subverted without the world noticing, and offer a browser that verifiably meets users’ privacy expectations.
The Internet Strikes Back: Protest Mass Surveillance
From The Day We Fight Back:
In January 2012 we defeated the SOPA and PIPA censorship legislation with the largest Internet protest in history. A year ago this month one of that movement's leaders, Aaron Swartz, tragically passed away.
Today we face a different threat, one that undermines the Internet, and the notion that any of us live in a genuinely free society: mass surveillance.
If Aaron were alive, he'd be on the front lines, fighting against a world in which governments observe, collect, and analyze our every digital action.
Now, on the eve of the anniversary of Aaron's passing, and in celebration of the win against SOPA and PIPA that he helped make possible, we are announcing a day of protest against mass surveillance, to take place this February 11th.Press release:
A broad coalition of activist groups, companies, and online platforms will hold a worldwide day of activism in opposition to the NSA's mass spying regime on February 11th. Dubbed "The Day We Fight Back", the day of activism was announced on the eve of the anniversary of the tragic passing of activist and technologist Aaron Swartz. The protest is both in his honor and in celebration of the victory over the Stop Online Piracy Act two years ago this month, which he helped spur.
Participants including Access, Demand Progress, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, Free Press, BoingBoing, Reddit, Mozilla, ThoughtWorks, and more to come, will join potentially millions of Internet users to pressure lawmakers to end mass surveillance -- of both Americans and the citizens of the whole world. . . .
HOW INTERNET USERS CAN HELP:
- Visit TheDayWeFightBack.org
- Sign up to indicate that you'll participate and receive updates.
- Sign up to install widgets on websites encouraging its visitors to fight back against surveillance. (These are being finalized in coming days.)
- Use the social media tools on the site to announce your participation.
- Develop memes, tools, websites, and do whatever else you can to participate -- and encourage others to do the same.
Stalkware App Can Use Facial Recognition Technology to ID Strangers
Make sure you have your masks and makeup handy if you want to keep your online profile separate from your person. From CNET:
Soon your face could be your calling card. An upcoming app for Android, iOS, and Google Glass called NameTag will allow you to photograph strangers and find out who they are -- complete with social networking and online dating profiles.
Spot someone out and about that you want to identify, and you can capture their face using your device's camera. The app will send the photo wirelessly to NameTag's server, where it will compare the photo to millions of online records and return with a name, more photos, and social-media profiles, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where the person (or their friends) might have publicly posted photos of themselves.
And, if you're interested in that person in a more-than-passing fashion, the app's creator -- FacialNetwork -- is working on technology that will allow scanning of profile pictures on online dating sites, such as Plenty of Fish, OKCupid, and Match.com.
Texas Republican Senate Candidate Accepts Bitcoin Donations
From NPR:
When Texas Rep. Steve Stockman announced recently that he'll accept donations in bitcoins, he raised some eyebrows. . . . Stockman appeared in a Dec. 31 expressing support for the virtual currency: "I really think digital money is more about freedom,Business Insider, he said his Senate campaign would show support by accepting Bitcoin donations.
Stockman visits the NYC Bitcoin Center.
" he said, adding that bitcoin is "a fixed amount of currency at a fixed rate, so very good for the markets." According to
Setting aside the question of Stockman's longshot candidacy, his announcement raised a question that has rarely been asked before: In political campaigns, what are bitcoins worth?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)