Privacy Advocates and Advertisers Spar Over Do Not Track

Microsoft's announcement earlier this year that the next version of Internet Explorer will be released with the "do not track" option turned on has upset advertising industry representatives and spurred a discussion of what it means for browsers and web sites to respect the do not track feature that would allow Web surfers to limit the use of cookies. The National Journal offers pretty good coverage of the issue, including a brief discussion of the W3C's attempts to standardize what do not track should actually mean.

Irish Regulators Satisfied with Facebook Changes

Irish regulators have announced they will not seek further legal action against Facebook for violating EU privacy laws. Facebook has an Irish headquarters, and Ireland has threatened to take action against Facebook over the last year because of Facebook's lack of privacy protections. From the Reuters article:

It was told by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner last December to overhaul privacy protection for its users outside the United States and Canada after a probe found its privacy policies were too complex and lacked transparency. 

The regulator said it was particularly encouraged by the decision to turn off a piece of facial recognition technology, the so-called "tag suggest" feature, for new users in the European Union and by next month, existing users as well.

Princeton Student Arrested for "Creepshots"

According to the Findlaw blog, a Princeton student was arrested for taking "creepshots" of another student he met during a day of outdoor concerts. Richard Charles Tuckwell is accused of taking pictures of another student who had passed out in Tuckwell's dorm room after a day of drinking. The student woke up to find Tuckwell taking pictures of him in a sexually explicit position. The photos were not shared with anyone else, but:

The crime of invasion of privacy is a part of New Jersey law that prohibits taking or distributing photographs or video of a victim whose 'intimate parts' are exposed or who is engaging in sexual conduct. Unlike the civil complaint of invasion of privacy, it only applies to sexually explicit video or pictures.

The penalty Tuckwell faces is unclear. Tyler Clementi was a Rutger's student who committed suicide after his roommate hid a web cam and took video of Clementi with another man.

Obama Considers Executive Order on Cyber-Security

Nextgov.com reports that the Obama Administration is close to finishing an Executive Order (EO) on cyber-security and information sharing between private corporations and the Executive Branch. From the blog post:

The draft order is being reviewed at the "highest levels" and some issues still need to be ironed out, she said. President Obama has yet to review it. If he decides to move forward, an executive order would likely establish a system of voluntary standards to be followed by certain critical companies, such as those that control chemical plants or power grids. 

The White House pushed Congress to give federal authorities the power to enforce mandatory, and later voluntary, standards, but Congress was unable to move forward with a bill. Now, chances of reviving the legislation appear slim, and the White House has said it is exploring what options it can take on its own.

The House passed sharing legislation this past year called CISPA, which the Obama administration threatened to veto because it didn't do enough to protect individual privacy. An Executive Order would require all executive branch offices and departments to follow the stated rules, but would not compel any other government entities to cooperate or act in a similar fashion.

CyberAttacks Can Trigger Self Defense

The State Department's Legal Advisor Harold Koh said last week that cyber-attacks on the U.S. could trigger the self-defense rule, allowing the United States to take military action against the perpetrator - assuming the perpetrator could be positively identified. From the Washington Post article:

In the United States’ view, any illegal use of force potentially triggers the right of national self-defense, Koh said. 

Cyberattacks that cause a nuclear plant meltdown, open a dam above a populated area or disable an air-traffic control system resulting in plane crashes are examples of activity that probably would constitute an illegal use of force, he said.

image: www.acus.org

Iran Behind Cyber-Attacks on U.S. Banks

According to NBC News, a U.S. National Security Official has confirmed that Iran has been behind a series of attacks against JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America, starting in January of 2011. The attacks have escalated over recent months, and the source quoted by NBC says the claim that the attacks are related to the recent anti-Islamic video are false.

Iran has improved it's cyber-attack capabilities since the Stuxnet worm damaged their nuclear program in 2010. The attacks have been mostly denial-of-service type attacks that make the banking Web sites unavailable to legitimate customers.

From NBC News:

The consumer banking website of Bank of America was unavailable to some customers on Tuesday, and JPMorgan Chase on Wednesday had the same problems, which multiple sources linked to a denial-of-service attack, in which a website is bogged down by a large number of requests. A Chase spokesman said Wednesday that the consumer site was intermittently unavailable to some customers, but did not acknowledge then that there was an attack. On Thursday, Chase said slowness continued but was resolved by late afternoon Eastern Time. Bank of America acknowledged on Tuesday that its site had experienced slowness, but would not say what caused it.

A hacking group has claimed responsibility for the attacks claiming they were motivated by the anti-Islamic video, but senior officials claim these attacks have been ongoing and include more than just banks:

The attacks on the three largest U.S. banks originated in Iran, but it is not clear if they were launched by the state, groups working on behalf of the government, or "patriotic" citizens, according to the sources, who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

The hackers also targeted other U.S. companies, the sources said, without giving specifics.



image: cbsnews.com
Article first published as Iran Behind Cyber-Attacks on U.S. Banks on Technorati.

The Internet Association - Fighting for Internet Freedom

A new lobbying group was announced on Wednesday - the Internet Association - Amazon, Google, Facebook and 11 others. Wired News says the group would have fought against SOPA, and:

the group also supports reforming the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) is proposing sweeping digital privacy protections requiring the government, for the first time, to get a probable-cause warrant to obtain e-mail and other content stored in the cloud.

other resources on the story (Internet Association doesn't appear to have a web site):

1. http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/19/dc-lobby-group-internet-association-lists-full-roster-of-tech-giants-and-outs-manifesto/ 
2. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/19/internet-association-lobbying_n_1895559.html
3. http://techpresident.com/news/22877/mashup-community-gets-voice

Danah Boyd: Three Conversations to Have With Your Kids

If you have kids and read any one post about how to help your kids understand online interactions, this one is it:
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2012/09/18/parenting-conversations.html

danah boyd is a social networking researcher who has helped us understand the benefits and appeal of social networking for young people, and she offers three pieces of advice for parents - talk to your kids about public-ness, empathy, and sex and sexuality.

Neil Young: Piracy is the New Radio

Neil Young says he doesn't mind piracy, but the quality of the files should improve to better showcase the artist. He says piracy is the new radio, that file sharing between individuals and promoting the music you are listening to by sharing it with your friends drives concert sales, which is how small to medium selling artists really make their money, and that piracy has actually improved music creation, at least according to one study.

LOL Can Put You in Jail

A Kentucky woman hit a car full of teenagers while driving drunk, left the scene. The court did not find her actions amusing and told her to shut down her Facebook account. She later posted to Facebook, "My dumb bass got a DUI and I hit a car…LOL”. The judge did not find it amusing and threw her in jail for two days. For more details: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/09/lol-facebook-post-after-dui-accident-lands-woman-in-jail/

Is Your Social Media Policy Valid?

A good article but vague advice from Findlaw about what a valid small business social media policy would look like. The National Labor Relations Board recently decided that Costco's policy was overly broad, infringing on employee's civil rights. Findlaw's advice: hire an attorney. Let me know if you have a set of criteria that might be useful for small businesses that might not be able to prioritize attorney fees for a social media policy.

Apple Map Glitches

A number of glitches have appeared with the new Apple IOS 6 map, including this relocation of Dublin Airport to a farm. Apple has switched from Google as a map provider to a home grown system, and consensus is the map is generally inaccurate, and doesn't allow for commuter and bus routes, making it useless for anyone who doesn't drive. Google's iPhone map application is still pending approval from Apple, so if you upgrade to IOS6, you lose access to accurate maps.


image: http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Senate Committee Considers Video Privacy Amendment

The House has already passed changes to the Video Privacy Protection Act to allow Netflix and Facebook to team up and let you share your video consumption habits with your friends (and the highest bidder). The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is working hard to make sure any changes to this law respect the privacy of social networking users:

The amendment would allow companies to obtain blanket consent for the use of customer information in the future, whether or not users knew who would receive the information or why it was being disclosed.

EPIC has testified before Congress to try and improve the amendment to protect privacy.

How Police Can Get Access to Your Phone

Findlaw has a great post on the current state of legally requiring a phone to be unlocked. When a suspect is stopped and their phone is confiscated, the police may not be able to compel you to give over your password - it could be considered a violation of the Fifth Amendment. The FBI asked  Google to unlock a smartphone back in March, but Google refused. The owner of the phone claimed she had forgotten the password, and she was threatened with prison until she remembered it. She remembered at the last minute.

The Findlaw post points out that Apple will unlock a phone if faced with a search warrant, but they will not offer a users password even if compelled by a warrant. Apparently Google won't help at all, at least until there is case law that makes the requirements more clear.

Always interesting to know how and whether your privacy is protected. Of course, if you don't lock your phone with a password, your information is fair game.

image: http://www.thelifefiles.com

Facebook App Makes Your Friends Think You Were Hacked

320 students participated in a student run, 48 hour "hackathon" called PenApps and one of the results was an application that allows Facebook users to trick their friends into thinking they were hacked. From the NextWeb article:

Here’s how it works: you log into your Facebook account and choose from several fake status updates from these categories: Go Romney!, Go Obama!, Valentine’s Day, Sports Traitor, Stupid Lyrics, It’s Your Birthday, Drop Out, It’s A Girl. Don’t worry, the messages don’t include swearing, racist language, or sexual references. Once you’re happy with your choices, you let the site post to your Facebook Timeline, and watch as your friends freak out.

When you are tired of the app, you can turn it off and your timeline returns to normal. The app is called "Hack My Facebook." While this particular app isn't for everyone, the fact that hundreds of student programmers get together and come up with ideas like this is fantastic.

France Convicts First Person in Three Strikes Law

France's controversial three strikes law has had its first test in court - 40 year old Alain Prevost has been ordered to pay close to $200 because he received three warnings and supposedly failed to act. Prevost maintains he did not secure his wifi because he did not know how, and took all of his own devices off the Internet when he received his second warning. Ars Technica reports:

A 40-year-old Frenchman living in rural eastern France has become the first person ordered to pay a fine under France’s controversial anti-piracy three-strikes law known as Hadopi. 

On Thursday, a judge ruled that Alain Prevost (Google Translate) must pay €150 ($194) for failing to secure his Internet (presumably WiFi) connection and for ignoring the three warnings sent by the Hadopi agency. He has become the first person to be convicted under Hadopi; his is the first of 14 cases brought against French Internet users who reach the third strike.

Turns out Prevost was in the middle of a divorce, and the third notice went to his wife.

Internet Archive Launches TV News Archive

The Internet Archive, famous for the Way Back Machine that lets you look at archived versions of Web sites, has announced a new service called "TV News Search and Borrow." This service is a searchable online archive of television news video clips from 2009 on, with new clips added within 24 hours of the time the clip airs. From the PCMag article:

The database contains roughly 350,000 television news video clips and transcripts starting from 2009, with new clips and transcripts added every 24 hours, after the clip's original broadcast. The video is culled from U.S. national news networks and local stations in Washington D.C. and San Francisco.

The new service allows you to search and view the clips online or to "borrow" the clips for up to thirty days. The current price is pretty outrageous - $50 per clip, not including shipping and handling etc. But that might come down if the service gets more use. Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive, says the service is based on the Vanderbilt Television News archive, which has been making television news broadcasts available since 1968.

This service is not only good for journalists and news junkies, but for researchers that are interested in analyzing trends in news reports and speeches by government officials. Public information like this made available for future generations is an important step forward in democracy, transparency, and accountability.

image: http://www.geekosystem.com
Article first published as Internet Archive Launches TV News Archive on Technorati.

New Chinese Computers Infected with Malware

Microsoft investigators have found that new computers - purchased in China - were infected with malware. Microsoft has tracked down the owner of a domain that MS investigators believe is the hub for malware that these computers report into. Microsoft has filed suit, and the AP reports that MS is concerned that consumers believe Windows is causing the problems. From the Findlaw blog:

Documents unsealed in federal court Thursday allege the domain, 3322.org, is the hub for hundreds of malicious software programs used by online crime groups for looting bank accounts, stealing identities and launching attacks against other computers. Microsoft says its brand is damaged because people harmed by the malware incorrectly believe its Windows operating system is responsible for the problems.

New Wikileaks Emails Show DEA Told to Backoff in Afghanistan

Wikileaks has released 2,694 emails that were stolen from the security firm Stratfor by the hacking group Anonymous in winter of last year. Business Insider reports that one of thesereleased emails shows the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was asked to back off of an investigation that the DEA said would tie drugs to terrorism.The subject of the email is "RE: Humint - Afghanistan - Karzai (Strictly Protect - Confidential)" and says:

The brother of President Karzai of Afghanistan is under investigation by DEA as a major narcotics trafficker. For political reasons, DEA has been told to backoff by the White House and CIA. DEA is seeing a direct nexus between terrorism and narcotics in Afghanistan with narcotics sales being used to fund jihadist operations.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, was apparently the center of the investigation. The emails that were released date from 2004 to 2011. The emails were part of what Wikileaks calls the "Global Intelligence Files," and says the files show:

the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

From the Business Insider blog:

The crackdown on narcotics in Afghanistan has not yet occurred as opium production rose by about 61 percent from 2010 to 2011 and continued to rise in 2012 as U.S. troops have patrolled the poppy fields during this time.

Wikileaks released the first set of documents in February of this year.
Article first published as New Wikileaks Emails Show DEA Told to Backoff in Afghanistan on Technorati.

Intel Pushes Palm Biometric Technology

Intel is highlighting efforts to use bio-metric technology to recognize the vein patterns in a computer users palm. The idea is being touted as part of a trusted computing platform, which would allow a computer user to wave their palm over the sensor and then use a single sign-on type of approach to sensitive computing like banking. From the Bloomberg article:

While other so-called biometric identification devices are already in common use, Intel’s system goes further, he said. Once the machine has identified a user, embedded hardware and software connects with all the other protected services -- say, online banking -- that person would normally access. 

For added protection, the machines will contain additional sensors that detect when a user has stepped away and will automatically lock down access to all connected machines and sites, he said. 

Rattner also took pains to reassure people who may be concerned that miscreants might resort to violence to gain access to a person’s palm. 

“Severed hands won’t work because you have to have blood flow,” he said.

The severed hand concern is dramatic - but the privacy implications of eliminating anonymity aren't mentioned at all.

California Court to Hear Challenge to DNA Collection Law

The ninth circuit court of appeals in California will hear a challenge to California law 69 passed in 2004 and implemented in 2009. The law requires police officers to collect DNA from everyone arrested for a felony crime. From FindLaw:

The collection effort is meant to help solve so-called cold cases. The California Attorney General says the state's DNA database spits out some 425 hits per month. 

The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of three people arrested for felonies who were later cleared of felony charges. The lawsuit claims the law is an unconstitutional "search and seizure" of people who are presumed innocent.

GoDaddy Hacked, or Just a Technical Glitch?

The huge domain and web hosting service GoDaddy.com was down intermittently for most of the day on Monday. These outages left thousands of web sites offline - not just sites hosted by GoDaddy, but sites that had their domain names registered through GoDaddy as well.

GoDaddy announced today that the outage was not due to a hack, but "a series of internal network events that corrupted router data tables"according to Engadget

Despite the assertion that the outage was a technical problem, a hacker that is apparently affiliated with Anonymous has claimed responsibility for the outage, but GoDaddy has not confirmed the problems are due to hacking activity. The hacker calls himself Anonymous Own3r, and has posted some details to his twitter account @AnonymousOwn3r, including the screenshot below.

CNN reports that most web sites were back online by Monday night. Wired News reports that GoDaddy has moved their DNS operations to Verisign, their biggest competitor, in order to get their customers back online as soon as possible. From the Wired article:

According to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer with antivirus company F-Secure, the move to VeriSign has a simple explanation: “They are moving to name servers which are not under attack,” he said via direct message.

If the outage was due to a technical glitch, this will be the second time in a week that Anonymous has made false claims. Last week Anonymous claimed to have stolen records from an FBI agent that indicate the FBI was tracking Iphones illegally, only to have a small application development firm in Florida assert those records were stolen from them.


Article first published as GoDaddy Hacked, or Just a Technical Glitch? on Technorati.

App Publisher, Not FBI, Hacked by Anonymous

A small digital publisher called BlueToad, not the FBI, was hacked by Anonymous last week. According to CNN the claims made by Anonymous that the FBI was tracking Apple UDID's was false, and the subsequent FBI denial that any hack had taken place was in fact the case. From the CNN article:

[BlueToad CEO] DeHart said after several BlueToad identifiers came up in the data that hackers posted online, the company determined that it was the source of the hack. 

"Once we realized we were responsible, it was the right thing to do to come forward," DeHart said. "We felt it was important for people to understand that there might be a more legitimate source for that information getting out."

The hacked file apparently contained "only" 2 million, not 12 million as Anti-Sec originally claimed. BlueToad says it has stopped using UDID's.

Apple Granted Patent to Disable Photo and Video

An article on Mashable discusses a patent awarded to Apple that would allow mobile photo and video capabilities to be disabled in a specific geographic area. There are many sides to this proposed technology - it is great in things like school bathrooms and movie theaters, but raises human rights concerns when governments or companies use the tech on San Francisco subways, Syrian,  or New York streets ( just some random examples...) And of course, anytime a technology is introduced to shut down devices, it will be hackable and circumventable. I could imagine a scenario where a hacker will release your device for a fee, or a venue owner will allow access for a fee - think $5 water bottles in airports.

Video from the site:

Hackers Steal Romney's Tax Returns?

An anonymous hacking group claims to have stolen Mitt Romney's tax returns from financial services firmPricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). PWC denies that there has been any unauthorized access to Mitt Romney or wife Ann's tax information and that any of their systems have been breached.

The hacking group sent thumb drives that supposedly contained copies of the returns to the Democratic and Republican county offices in Nashville Tennessee, as well as PWC. The Nashville city paper was among the first to report on the hacking incident.

The group announced their demands on Pastebin, a tool that is used by coders to share code, and has been used by hacking groups in the past to announce hacking "projects." The group demanded one million dollars in Bitcoins, a digital currency that has little government oversight and allows for some level of anonymity.

Both PWC and the Republican county office say they are working with the Secret Service to discover who is behind the extortion attempt. The Secret Service has not commented on whether the tax return documents are legitimate. PWC did prepare Romney's taxes in 2010, but there is no indication of whether they had prepared previous years returns, or whether those returns would be vulnerable to a remote computer attack.

Romney has released his 2010 and 2011 tax returns. It is possible that this is an attempt at what is known as "predictable response" - the attackers are hoping the recipients of the thumb drive will plug the drive into their computer to see if the files are legitimate. A trojan is then downloaded, giving the attackers full access to the recipients hard drive. Both the Republican and Democratic county offices claim they did not open the files.



image: Gage Skidmore Article first published as Hackers Steal Romney's Tax Returns? on Technorati.

Free InfoGraphic Creation Tools That Respect Your Privacy

I was looking for some free info graphic generating tools that I could use for one of my classes when I came across 9 Powerful Awesome Free Infographic Tools. I wanted a tool that was easy to use and respected a subscribers privacy, at least during the registration process.

Visually

I started with Visual.ly, but stopped when I got to the Facebook integration permission screen. The app asked for permission to access the following:

THIS APP WILL RECEIVE:

• Your basic info
• Your profile info: description, birthday, groups, hometown, likes, location and relationship status
• Your stories: events, photos and status updates
• Friends' profile info: hometowns, locations and relationship statuses
• Photos shared with you
• Status updates shared with you

I could see sharing basic info, but other than that I'm not sure why this app would need access to my Friends' profile info!

Easel.ly

Easel.ly seemed like a particularly easy to use interface, and it required only a username, password, and email address to sign up.

Piktochart

Next was Piktochart. The app asked for an email address and password. Nice. The terms and conditions discuss ownership of the file created using the app, but nothing surprising or privacy related. Seems like a great free tool, and pretty easy to use. You can upgrade to a pro account for more options, but for a basic info graphic Piktochart works great.

Infogram

Another easy to use free tool, Infogr.am one has a good interface and walks you through the creation of an info graphic step by step. Pretty flexible and simple tool, and the sign-up process required only a username, password, and email address.

The other 6 recommendations from that blog post weren't really info graphic tools, but the Icon Archive was a resource I wasn't aware of. It is a site that offers downloads of "free" icons, and gives you the opportunity to donate to the artist that created them.

As an example of a good info graphic, I have included Mashable's infographic about creating an infographic.

Week in Review

A roundup of important stories from the week of 9/3/12. It has been awhile, so I'm going back more than a week ;)

Gadgets

1. Fly a helicopter with your mind, but watch out, the same tech might be used to "hack your brain"

Hacking

1. Hackers claim to have stolen Romney's tax returns
2. Anti-Sec claims to have hacked FBI 
3. FBI denies hacking claims

Policy

1. GOP adopts "Internet Freedom" plank

Privacy/Surveillance

1. Judge Upholds $675k File Sharing Penalty

Software

1. Apple wins $1 billion settlement, and why this is a problem for consumers

Social Media

1. Facebook plans to buy back shares.

Facebook Plans to Buy Back Shares

Facebook announced plans this week to buy back their own shares in order to stabilize share prices. After a disappointing IPO and continued downslide, the company is taking steps to reassure investors and minimize volatility, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Hackers Say They Have Stolen Romney's Tax Returns

An anonymous group of hackers (with a lowercase a) claims to have stolen Romney's tax returns and will ransom them for $1 million. Sounds like a hoax, but according to various reports, the FBI, CIA, and Secret Service are all interested in finding the people making the claim.

Some sources:

1. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/hackers-say-theyve-stolen-romneys-tax-returns-and-are-demanding-1m-but-have-they-really/
2. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2409319,00.asp
3. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57506843-83/feds-probe-alleged-hacking-theft-of-romneys-tax-returns/
4. http://mashable.com/2012/09/05/hacker-ransom-romney-tax-returns/

Image: http://www.cbsnews.com

Collection of Social Networking Visualizations

I'm talking about social networking visualization in an upcoming class so I started a Pinterest board of interesting visualizations:
http://pinterest.com/cblaha/social-network-visualizations/

I think visualizations allow us to understand data in a different way than statistical analysis, and a good visualization can lead to some really interesting questions.

I'll add more information about tools and processes related to visualization in the coming months.

FBI Denies Agent was Hacked by AntiSec

The FBI has released a short statement denying that an FBI agent was the source of the one million UDID's released earlier this week by hacker group Anti-Sec. Computer World reports the FBI's National Press Office denies the data were the property of the FBI, and that the FBI does not have a secret UDID surveillance program in place, "At this time, there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data."

The group known as AntiSec came into being when the hacking group Anonymous teamed up with the hacking group Lulzsec for "operation anti-security." ABC digital radio, out of Australia, reported on the announcement of the operation back in July of 2011.

This new operation asks people to hack government information and deface internet enemies with the word Antisec. The group also asks for support for several hacktivist websites.
The group says, "Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments."

The one-million UDID records released earlier this week caused speculation as to whether the FBI had a secret tracking program in place, or whether a developer had released information related to their own tracking program, as one blogger claimed.

Unless more information becomes available, we are each left to decide whether we believe the claims of AntiSec or the claims of the FBI.
Article first published as FBI Denies Agent was Hacked by AntiSec on Technorati.

BitCoin Exhange Hacked

Gizmodo Australia reports that a leading Bitcoin exchange, Bitfloor, has been hacked, resulting in a loss of $250,000 worth of currency. Apparently encryption keys were stored in the clear, making it easy for hackers to compromise 25,000 coins. The site has been shut completely. From the founders open letter:

Last night, a few of our servers were compromised. As a result, the attacker gained accesses to an unencrypted backup of the wallet keys (the actual keys live in an encrypted area). Using these keys they were able to transfer the coins. This attack took the vast majority of the coins BitFloor was holding on hand. As a result, I have paused all exchange operations. Even tho [sic] only a small majority of the coins are ever in use at any time, I felt it inappropriate to continue operating not having the capability to cover all account balances for BTC at the time.

image: bitcoin.org

AntiSec Claims FBI is Tracking Apple Users

SlashGear reports hacking group AntiSec has used the latest Java vulnerability to hack into a laptop used by "Supervisor Special Agent Christopher K. Stangl from FBI Regional Cyber Action Team and New York FBI Office Evidence Response Team." Acording to the claim posted byAntiSec to pastebin, one of the files recovered from the laptop was called “NCFTA_iOS_devices_intel.csv” and contained 12 million "Unique Device Identifiers (UDID), user names, name of device, type of device, Apple Push Notification Service tokens, zipcodes, cellphone numbers, addresses, etc."

AntiSec released a one-million entry sample of UDID's, cleaned of the personal information related to the UDID's. The group claims there were no other records explaining whether the records were being used for surveillance purposes or how those records were obtained. Slashgear speculates that the NCFTA refers to

the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance, an organization which “functions as a conduit between private industry and law enforcement with a core mission to identify, mitigate and neutralize cyber crime” and which “manages the collection and sharing of intelligence” between those groups.

The NextWeb has a tool that allows you to check and see if your UDID was among those released by the group.



image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_AntiSec



Article first published as AntiSec Claims FBI is Tracking Apple Users on Technorati.

Fly a Helicopter With Your Mind

Researchers from China’s Zhejiang University have made it possible to use an EEG headset to fly a quad rotor using just brain waves. Last week we learned this technology can be used to hack your brain.