Steve Jobs Is Watching You: Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware
August 24th, 2010Via: Electronic Frontier Foundation:
It looks like Apple, Inc., is exploring a new business opportunity: spyware and what we’re calling “traitorware.” While users were celebrating the new jailbreaking and unlocking exemptions, Apple was quietly preparing to apply for a patent on technology that, among other things, would allow Apple to identify and punish users who take advantage of those exemptions or otherwise tinker with their devices. This patent application does nothing short of providing a roadmap for how Apple can — and presumably will — spy on its customers and control the way its customers use Apple products. As Sony-BMG learned, spying on your customers is bad for business. And the kind of spying enabled here is especially creepy — it’s not just spyware, it’s “traitorware,” since it is designed to allow Apple to retaliate against you if you do something Apple doesn’t like.
…
Here’s a sample of the kinds of information Apple plans to collect:
* The system can take a picture of the user’s face, “without a flash, any noise, or any indication that a picture is being taken to prevent the current user from knowing he is being photographed”;
* The system can record the user’s voice, whether or not a phone call is even being made;
* The system can determine the user’s unique individual heartbeat “signature”;
* To determine if the device has been hacked, the device can watch for “a sudden increase in memory usage of the electronic device”;
* The user’s “Internet activity can be monitored or any communication packets that are served to the electronic device can be recorded”; and
* The device can take a photograph of the surrounding location to determine where it is being used.
In other words, Apple will know who you are, where you are, and what you are doing and saying and even how fast your heart is beating. In some embodiments of Apple’s “invention,” this information “can be gathered every time the electronic device is turned on, unlocked, or used.” When an “unauthorized use” is detected, Apple can contact a “responsible party.” A “responsible party” may be the device’s owner, it may also be “proper authorities or the police.”
Home Sales Plunge 27 Percent to Lowest in 15 Years; Largest Monthly Drop on Record
August 24th, 2010HAHA. The recovery is obviously accelerating!
*splat*
Via: AP:
Sales of previously occupied homes fell to the lowest level in 15 years last month as the economy weakened.
The National Association of Realtors says July’s sales fell by more than 27 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million. It was the largest monthly drop on records dating back to 1968. June’s sales pace was revised downward to 5.26 million.
Malware Implicated in Fatal Spanair Plane Crash
August 24th, 2010Update: Maybe Not
Via: ZDnet:
The actual cause is far more prosaic: the pilots missed a crucial item on their checklist and took off with the flaps in the wrong position:
The investigation has determined that the takeoff was attempted while in an inappropriate and unapproved configuration, since the flaps and slats were fully retracted. The system outfitted on the airplane to warn of an inadequate takeoff configuration (TOWS) also failed to activate.
Was there a problem with the computer on the plane? Not according to the CIAIAC:
[T]he information stored on the computers for the enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGWPS), the advanced flight management (AFMC), central air data (CADC), digital flight guidance (DFGC) and the optical inertial reference units (IRU) has been extracted. The results from the analysis of the data recovered from the ground proximity warning system computer are available and consistent with the data found on the flight data recorder (DFDR) and from the two air data computers, which indicate that both units were functioning normally on the previous flights and at the time of the accident.
In fact, as airline-safety experts noted, the aircraft in question, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82 (MD-82), is not computerized (its design dates back to 1979 and the last delivery was in 1997). The exact same type of aircraft was involved in the eerily similar fatal crash of Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in Detroit in 1987. The investigators in that crash concluded that the cause was pilot error.
—End Update—
Via: MSNBC:
Authorities investigating the 2008 crash of Spanair flight 5022 have discovered a central computer system used to monitor technical problems in the aircraft was infected with malware.
An internal report issued by the airline revealed the infected computer failed to detect three technical problems with the aircraft, which if detected, may have prevented the plane from taking off, according to reports in the Spanish newspaper, El Pais.
Flight 5022 crashed just after takeoff from Madrid-Barajas International Airport two years ago today, killing 154 and leaving only 18 survivors.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board reported in a preliminary investigation that the plane had taken off with its flaps and slats retracted — and that no audible alarm had been heard to warn of this because the systems delivering power to the take-off warning system failed. Two earlier events had not been reported by the automated system.
The malware on the Spanair computer has been identified as a type of Trojan horse. It could have entered the airline’s system in a number of ways, according to Jamz Yaneeza, head threat researcher at Trend Micro.
India: Police Arrest Researcher Who Showed E-Voting Machines Are Not Secure
August 24th, 2010Via: Freedom to Tinker:
About four months ago, Ed Felten blogged about a research paper in which Hari Prasad, Rop Gonggrijp, and I detailed serious security flaws in India’s electronic voting machines. Indian election authorities have repeatedly claimed that the machines are “tamperproof,” but we demonstrated important vulnerabilities by studying a machine provided by an anonymous source.
The story took a disturbing turn a little over 24 hours ago, when my coauthor Hari Prasad was arrested by Indian authorities demanding to know the identity of that source.
At 5:30 Saturday morning, about ten police officers arrived at Hari’s home in Hyderabad. They questioned him about where he got the machine we studied, and at around 8 a.m. they placed him under arrest and proceeded to drive him to Mumbai, a 14 hour journey.
The police did not state a specific charge at the time of the arrest, but it appears to be a politically motivated attempt to uncover our anonymous source. The arresting officers told Hari that they were under “pressure [from] the top,” and that he would be left alone if he would reveal the source’s identity.
A Retired FBI Agent Tells Ohio Reporter Lee Harvey Oswald Did Not Kill JFK
August 23rd, 2010Via: ClipSyndicate:
Republican Candidate for New York Governor: Turn Prisons Into “Dormitories” for Welfare Recipients
August 23rd, 2010Via: AP:
Republican candidate for governor Carl Paladino said he would transform some New York prisons into dormitories for welfare recipients, where they could work in state-sponsored jobs, get employment training and take lessons in “personal hygiene.”
Paladino, a wealthy Buffalo real estate developer popular with many tea party activists, isn’t saying the state should jail poor people: The program would be voluntary.
Research Credit: MorichesDaily
Japanese Firm Builds Small Machine that Converts Plastic Back Into Oil
August 23rd, 2010If there’s electricity around…
I know!
How about converting U.S. aircraft carriers into massive trash barges to clean up the Pacific Trash Vortex. Those aircraft carriers run on nuclear power so there should be plenty of juice on board for turning that stuff back into oil.
Just a bit more comedy on Cryptogon this morning… *sigh*
Via: United Nations University:
Philadelphia Requires Bloggers to Pay $300 for Business License (Not The Onion)
August 23rd, 2010Via: NBC:
Taking a step closer to an eerie Orwellian state where creativity is crushed in the name of “the greater good,” the city of Philadelphia is demanding that bloggers pay $300 for the privilege of writing on the Internet.
This $300 “business privilege license” is for all local bloggers – even the ones that make no money off their words.
The city doesn’t stop there. In addition to the $300 for the license to write on the World Wide Web, bloggers must pay city wage taxes, business privilege taxes and taxes on any net profits — on top of state and federal taxes — even if the blogger only made $11 over two years, reports the City Paper.
Blogger Marilyn Bess, whose Ms. Philly Organic Blog has made her a whopping $50 over the past few years, went to the city’s tax amnesty program to explain that she makes pennies on her hobby. They told her to hire an accountant, she told the City Paper.
Tony Robbins Issues Financial Collapse Warning
August 23rd, 2010Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Update: My Commentary Is Off Topic
I don’t know what came over me with the commentary below about my absurd attempt to make it as a real estate agent. Robbins’ voice is powerfully associated with my grim End Day experience in that real estate office and when I heard him all of that just came out.
Since I’ve spent the time to write it, I’ll leave it there for its possible comedic value. Definitely feel free to skip down and just listen to the material.
—
Around 2002 to 2003 I tried to force myself to become a real estate agent. I got the license and went through an extensive sales training program with a large broker. I just held my nose through most of it, and kept trying to convince myself that, “I can do this.”
During one of the classes, the instructor tried a role playing scenario with me.
“Kevin, I want to help you make a decision, I’m not trying to sell you anything.”
I said, “Well, you just lied to me, so I don’t think that I can trust you to ‘help’ me do anything.”
The reaction around the room ranged from stunned silence to laughter.
Larry, the instructor, said, “Come on, work with me here. It’s a good script.”
I said that I’d never be able to deliver such a ridiculous line as, “I’m not trying to sell you anything,” when the whole point of all this nonsense was to sell houses to people (and get listings). I pretty much loathe slimy salespeople and this class was trying to turn all of us into slimy salespeople.
(I feel ill just thinking about this.)
So, I managed to finish the class and wound up in one of the firm’s busiest offices (Irvine, CA). Within about two weeks of actually being in that office, I was having severe difficulties maintaining appearances.
And then, one morning, a “trainer” from the Tony Robbins organization came to the office. She brought balloons.
“Oh no,” I said to myself. I’m sure my face must have looked ashen. I remember the sickening feeling of bile climbing up my throat. I pretended that I was busy doing a deal when the manager asked me to go join the meeting.
Think, Kevin, think. There has to be a way to maintain appearances, even to do just one deal to get back the money you’ve sunk into this boondoggle.
The Tony Robbins trainer person had also brought a portable stereo system that was now blasting some hideous music and the voice of Robbins himself. The alcoholics / real estate sales people in their 40s and 50s started swaying and convulsing like a pack of zombies. They thrust their arms up into the air and yelled some crazy shit that I—thankfully—can’t remember now. It was like those Pentecostal revivals on YouTube. Some of the younger people gave themselves over to the total ecstasy of the motivational revelation. Others looked… not so motivated.
I was shaking.
The last several months of dealing with, what I came to refer to as, “Cadillac and cuff link people,” in that racket flashed in front of my eyes.
Then, in crystal clarity, without any doubt at all, the wholeness of my being cried out to me, “Go. Go now!”
I packed up all of my stuff, walked out of there and never went back.
So, that’s the sum of my experience with Tony Robbins and the real estate sales industrial complex.
With that as a lengthy disclaimer, I have to admit that I pretty much agree with what he says below.
Commander’s Guide to Money as a Weapons System
August 23rd, 2010In short, get the target population hooked on money by associating the basics of human existence (which we have destroyed) with money.
Sound familiar?
Via: U.S. Army Combined Arms Center – Center for Army Lessons Learned / Hosted at Cryptome:
Warfighters at brigade, battalion, and company level in a counterinsurgency (COIN) environment employ money as a weapons system to win the hearts and minds of the indigenous population to facilitate defeating the insurgents. Money is one of the primary weapons used by warfighters to achieve successful mission results in COIN and humanitarian operations.
