Thanksgiving is not simply a ritual of coming together at grandma’s house for a meal, but of also fixing the grandparents electronic equipment. In the past, it meant fixing the blinking 12:00 time on the VCR, either by setting the time, or more often putting a piece of tape over it.
These days, it’s more complex. If you are like me, when they turn on the TV and start watching a standard definition TV (480i), you get a little annoyed. Why aren’t they watching the same channel in high definition (720p or 1080i)?
The solution to this problem is easy: parental controls. Simply use the parentl control feature to lock your parents out of the standard definition channels, forcing them to watch the same channels in high definition. Just sneak out quietly between the turkey and the pumpkin pie. After dinner, when the family convenes to watch a “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving”, you’ll be able to watch the show in its high def glory.
PS: While fiddling with the TV, you might want to disable South Park too. It’s not age appropriate for anybody over 60.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Climategate hack used open proxies
More details are emerging about the "Climategate" hack. It appears that the hacker used an "open proxy" in order to hide the origin of the attack. However, the hacker may have made a mistake, and a review of the logs at RealClimate and ClimateAudit may reveal his/her identity.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Hacker exposes global warming researcher (Climategate)
Hackers broke in and revealed the private e-mails of Phil Jones (NYTimes, BBC ), a famous climatologist. This is going to be one of the most politically relevant hacks of the last few years. When hackers broke into Sarah Palin's e-mails during the presidential campaign, they failed to find any interesting dirt. Phil Jones' e-mails, though, are full of dirt. There's no proof of a "conspiracy" or "cover-up", but a lot of the e-mails look bad for Jones and some of his fellow researchers.
As a cybersecurity expert and a climate skeptic, I thought I'd give some background on what happened.
10 Facebook Don'ts
Facebook is more popular than ever. The site frequently goes through
changes, but how many people use the same schedule of improvements on
their own profile? The new features added to Facebook are opening new
windows for vulnerability. A compromised account is a backdoor to more
serious attacks on email or banking.
Today I will show you 10 things
you should stop doing on Facebook in order to take back your security
and close the open door.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Law & Tech Geek Alert: Future of Software and Technology Patents in Supreme Court's Hands
by Elizabeth Wharton **
The future of thousands of technology patents is playing out in front of the Supreme Court today. At stake are patent protections, possible infringement lawsuits, and millions of dollars of profits to inventors. The Bilski case asks the Supreme Court to determine whether business-methods (those that are more of a mental-process as opposed to those tied to manufacturing or a tangible product) may be patented. Starting with the State Street Bank decision in 1998, the Federal Circuit recognized that software programs that transform data, but do not physically transform an article or create a machine, are patentable. Thousands of patents were issued to technology companies, researchers and innovators based on this decision.
When Bernard Bilski’s and Rand Warsaw’s patent application for a unique set of mathematical formulas to crunch numbers and manage risks associated with weather patterns and utilities was rejected 13 years ago, a landmark patent case was born. The patent office determined that their process dealt with solving a purely mathematical problem and rejected their application. Mr. Bilski and Mr. Warsaw fought for their patent all the way through the court system. In October 2008, the Federal Circuit upheld the patent office decision, reigning in their earlier State Street Bank decision, and determined that an application must meet a machine or transformation test in order to be patentable.
The Federal Circuit's Bilski decision marked a dramatic shift from the past ten plus years and sparked a controversy in the current technology innovation era - not only for software companies but also biomedical and technology companies. Over 67 amicus briefs were filed in connection with the Bilski case. Among those filing briefs in support of one side or the other in Bilski are the likes of computer and technology giants IBM, Novartis, Microsoft, Google, Symantec Corp., and others such as Bank of America and clothier L.L. Bean. At risk are software, technology, and biomedical patents held by such companies as IBM, Nortel, Medtronics, and many others. As pointed out by Judge Newman in her dissent, many technology innovations and inventions today are novel ways to approach data and information.
Narrowing technology patents to exclude processes that produce a “useful, concrete, and tangible result”, per the State Street Bank decision, will stifle technology innovation and product development. More and more users will listen to a presentation, take out the original and unique content, and ultimately circumvent the inventor. The inventor of this content will not have the patent protections for their unique solutions and ideas. Part of the inventor’s incentive in working to develop the solution has been stripped away.
The amicus briefs and legal arguments today are just the start of the Supreme Court’s review of the case. Legal geeks and technology geeks, along with thousands of patent holders, will be anxiously watching and waiting for the Supreme Court’s final decision in the months to come.
(For more in-depth discussions about this case and intellectual property law, I recommend the following websites - Law.com and IPwatchdog.com.)
** Reminder, these are just my thoughts and are not intended to provide advice, legal or otherwise. While I am a lawyer, I am not your lawyer.
The future of thousands of technology patents is playing out in front of the Supreme Court today. At stake are patent protections, possible infringement lawsuits, and millions of dollars of profits to inventors. The Bilski case asks the Supreme Court to determine whether business-methods (those that are more of a mental-process as opposed to those tied to manufacturing or a tangible product) may be patented. Starting with the State Street Bank decision in 1998, the Federal Circuit recognized that software programs that transform data, but do not physically transform an article or create a machine, are patentable. Thousands of patents were issued to technology companies, researchers and innovators based on this decision.
When Bernard Bilski’s and Rand Warsaw’s patent application for a unique set of mathematical formulas to crunch numbers and manage risks associated with weather patterns and utilities was rejected 13 years ago, a landmark patent case was born. The patent office determined that their process dealt with solving a purely mathematical problem and rejected their application. Mr. Bilski and Mr. Warsaw fought for their patent all the way through the court system. In October 2008, the Federal Circuit upheld the patent office decision, reigning in their earlier State Street Bank decision, and determined that an application must meet a machine or transformation test in order to be patentable.
The Federal Circuit's Bilski decision marked a dramatic shift from the past ten plus years and sparked a controversy in the current technology innovation era - not only for software companies but also biomedical and technology companies. Over 67 amicus briefs were filed in connection with the Bilski case. Among those filing briefs in support of one side or the other in Bilski are the likes of computer and technology giants IBM, Novartis, Microsoft, Google, Symantec Corp., and others such as Bank of America and clothier L.L. Bean. At risk are software, technology, and biomedical patents held by such companies as IBM, Nortel, Medtronics, and many others. As pointed out by Judge Newman in her dissent, many technology innovations and inventions today are novel ways to approach data and information.
Narrowing technology patents to exclude processes that produce a “useful, concrete, and tangible result”, per the State Street Bank decision, will stifle technology innovation and product development. More and more users will listen to a presentation, take out the original and unique content, and ultimately circumvent the inventor. The inventor of this content will not have the patent protections for their unique solutions and ideas. Part of the inventor’s incentive in working to develop the solution has been stripped away.
The amicus briefs and legal arguments today are just the start of the Supreme Court’s review of the case. Legal geeks and technology geeks, along with thousands of patent holders, will be anxiously watching and waiting for the Supreme Court’s final decision in the months to come.
(For more in-depth discussions about this case and intellectual property law, I recommend the following websites - Law.com and IPwatchdog.com.)
** Reminder, these are just my thoughts and are not intended to provide advice, legal or otherwise. While I am a lawyer, I am not your lawyer.
How to change iPhone passwd
Jailbreaking an iPhone installs SSH with a default password of "alpine". Most people don't change the password. Thus, some hacker has written a worm (called "Ikee") that travels via SSH from iPhone to iPhone using that password.
This happens because your iPhone will try to reconnect to WiFi in the background. The scenario is that you get on an airplane to go somewhere. While on the airplane, your phone STILL IN YOUR LUGGAGE tries to connect to "gogoinflight" airplane WiFi service. Some other phone, also in its owner's luggage, likewise connects to the hotspot. That phone is infected with the worm. The worm will search out all iPhones, finds yours, connects using the password "alpine", and infects your phone. When you land and look at your phone, it has a background picture of Rich Astley.
Preventing infection is easy. The way I did it was to use the SSH client "Putty" on my Windows machine. I connected to the iPhone, and used the 'passwd' command-line program to change the default. You have to change the password for two accounts: "root" and "mobile".
Below is a screenshot of me changing the password. The screen doesn't show the passwords, but I've typed in "alpine" for the initial logon, and then when it asked me to choose a new password, I typed "letmein".**
** Of course that's not my password, but I'm not going to tell everyone my real password, am I?
** The new worm changes the password to "ohshit".
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Brazil outage NOT caused by hackers
I just got through watching the CBS 60 Minutes special on cyberhackers, where they claim that major power outages in Brazil (in 2005 and 2007) were caused by hackers. This is unlikely to be true.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Windows 7 includes soft-ap
Follow @ErrataRob
All Windows 7 machines can become a wifi access-point, routing the connections over Ethernet or even over a client station connection on the same wifi adapter. This Slashdot article mentions this, but gets the facts slightly wrong (claiming that it's incomplete and that you need extra software). Instructions for doing this are below.
This is going to be bad, causing rogue access-points to proliferate in companies.
CONTEXT
Technically, this isn't really new. You could always setup ad-hoc wifi and connection-sharing, which is almost he same thing. Also, it's already possible on Mac OS X, Linux, Windows Mobile, and iPhones.
Yet, a full "access-point" sucks less than "ad-hoc" networking. Also, it can work over the same WiFi adapter. Thus, while you are connected to "gogoinflight" on the airplane, your friend can log onto your "buddy" access-point on your computer and share your connection.
And there is increasing reason to do this. On my last flight, I wanted to sync both my iPhone and use my notebook. I only had to pay "gogoinflight" once, but I had to keep logging in again each time I switched from one device to the other. I totally would've just enabled this feature on my notebook and synced my iPhone through a virtual access-point instead.
Note: It only supports WPA, therefore you can't make "evil twin" access-points out of this (although I bet there is a way to hack it to turn WPA off).
HOW IT WORKS
Windows 7 can create "virtual" wifi adapters based on the real adapters, with a unique MAC address and everything. This is similar to VAPs on Linux, which allows you to create one virtual adapter for logging onto an access-point, and another for running a soft-ap. The difference with Windows 7 is that it creates only a single virtual adapter for "hosted" mode -- no matter how many actual adapters you have in the system. It's called "Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter", with the same MAC address decremented by one.
Making it work is simply a matter of (1) configuring the SSID and WPA password, (2) configuring Internet Connection Sharing to bridge it with the network, and (3) turning it on.
WHY IT WORKS
Zune, and stuff like it.
Microsoft wants you to be able to transfer music/video from your computer to your Zune easily. This makes it easier.
It's not just soft-ap. Windows 7 allows a lot of other low-level functionality. For example, you can write applications that add custom "information elements" to the beacon and association packets sent when new wifi connection is setup. Thus, your desktop becomes not simply an "access-point", but a "media access-point".
Finally, by mandating this low-level functionality in wifi hardware drivers now, it means Windows 7 should seamlessly work with "Wi-Fi Direct" bluetooth-like functionality whenever that standard becomes solidified.
INSTRUCTIONS
STEP 0: Open a command-prompt with administrator privileges.
Click on Start menu, All Programs, Accessories, right-click on Command Prompt, select "Run as administrator"). Type in:
STEP 1: Configure the "hosted" interface:
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=Test key=letmein9
This example creates an access-point with an SSID of "Test", with a WPA password of "letmein9".
STEP 2: Configure Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
Open up the networking control panel. Select the interface that currently has Internet connection (like your Ethernet or normal wifi), enable "Sharing", and then select the special "hosted" interface.
STEP 3: Start it
netsh wlan start hostednetwork
STEP 4: Enjoy
On your other devices (say, iPhone), connect to "Test" and give the WPA password of "letmein9".
Links:
All Windows 7 machines can become a wifi access-point, routing the connections over Ethernet or even over a client station connection on the same wifi adapter. This Slashdot article mentions this, but gets the facts slightly wrong (claiming that it's incomplete and that you need extra software). Instructions for doing this are below.
This is going to be bad, causing rogue access-points to proliferate in companies.
CONTEXT
Technically, this isn't really new. You could always setup ad-hoc wifi and connection-sharing, which is almost he same thing. Also, it's already possible on Mac OS X, Linux, Windows Mobile, and iPhones.
Yet, a full "access-point" sucks less than "ad-hoc" networking. Also, it can work over the same WiFi adapter. Thus, while you are connected to "gogoinflight" on the airplane, your friend can log onto your "buddy" access-point on your computer and share your connection.
And there is increasing reason to do this. On my last flight, I wanted to sync both my iPhone and use my notebook. I only had to pay "gogoinflight" once, but I had to keep logging in again each time I switched from one device to the other. I totally would've just enabled this feature on my notebook and synced my iPhone through a virtual access-point instead.
Note: It only supports WPA, therefore you can't make "evil twin" access-points out of this (although I bet there is a way to hack it to turn WPA off).
HOW IT WORKS
Windows 7 can create "virtual" wifi adapters based on the real adapters, with a unique MAC address and everything. This is similar to VAPs on Linux, which allows you to create one virtual adapter for logging onto an access-point, and another for running a soft-ap. The difference with Windows 7 is that it creates only a single virtual adapter for "hosted" mode -- no matter how many actual adapters you have in the system. It's called "Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter", with the same MAC address decremented by one.Making it work is simply a matter of (1) configuring the SSID and WPA password, (2) configuring Internet Connection Sharing to bridge it with the network, and (3) turning it on.
WHY IT WORKS
Zune, and stuff like it.
Microsoft wants you to be able to transfer music/video from your computer to your Zune easily. This makes it easier.
It's not just soft-ap. Windows 7 allows a lot of other low-level functionality. For example, you can write applications that add custom "information elements" to the beacon and association packets sent when new wifi connection is setup. Thus, your desktop becomes not simply an "access-point", but a "media access-point".
Finally, by mandating this low-level functionality in wifi hardware drivers now, it means Windows 7 should seamlessly work with "Wi-Fi Direct" bluetooth-like functionality whenever that standard becomes solidified.
INSTRUCTIONS
STEP 0: Open a command-prompt with administrator privileges.
Click on Start menu, All Programs, Accessories, right-click on Command Prompt, select "Run as administrator"). Type in:
STEP 1: Configure the "hosted" interface:
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=Test key=letmein9
This example creates an access-point with an SSID of "Test", with a WPA password of "letmein9".
STEP 2: Configure Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
Open up the networking control panel. Select the interface that currently has Internet connection (like your Ethernet or normal wifi), enable "Sharing", and then select the special "hosted" interface.
STEP 3: Start it
netsh wlan start hostednetwork
STEP 4: Enjoy
On your other devices (say, iPhone), connect to "Test" and give the WPA password of "letmein9".
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