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.
Germany to Roll Out ID cards with Embedded RFID; They Will Also Be Used for Establishing Identity Online
August 23rd, 2010Via: International Business Times:
The production of the RFID chips, an integral element of the new generation of German identity cards, has started after the government gave a 10 year contract to the chipmaker NXP in the Netherlands. Citizens will receive the mandatory new ID cards from the first of November.
The new ID card will contain all personal data on the security chip that can be accessed over a wireless connection.
The new card allows German authorities to identify people with speed and accuracy, the government said. These authorities include the police, customs and tax authorities and of course the local registration and passport granting authorities.
German companies like Infineon and the Dutch NXP, which operates a large scale development and manufacturing base in Hamburg, Germany are global leaders in making RFID security chips. The new electronic ID card, which will gradually replace the old mandatory German ID cards, is one of the largest scale roll-outs of RFID cards with extended official and identification functionality.
The card will also have extended functionality, including the ability to enable citizens to identify themselves in the internet by using the ID card with a reading device at home. After registering an online account bonded to the ID card, are able to do secure online shopping, downloading music and most importantly interact with government authorities online, for example.
Raytheon’s Directed Energy Pain Weapon Mounted from Ceiling in California Prison
August 23rd, 2010Here’s another one for your bulging Land-O-The-Free file folder.
Via: The Signal:
The reporters standing in front of me in line shouted in agony and crumpled in pain as the laser cannon zapped them.
With each agonizing shriek I heard, my time in front of the laser cannon grew closer until finally I stepped onto the firing line.
Would I pop like a popcorn kernel? I didn’t know.
I had a date with the Assault Intervention Device on Friday. And yes, the device is as horrifying as it sounds.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department tested its latest non-lethal weapon at the Pitchess Detention Center on hapless members of the news media.
The device looks like a robotic laser gun and shoots an invisible “millimeter wave” from up to 85 feet at rowdy inmates causing them to feel like they’re burning. It’s intended to break up fighting inmates and prison riots.
“Jails are prone to acts of violence,” said Commander Bob Osborne after a press conference in the North County Correctional Facility.
“We a have a lot of violent people with anger issues.”
