Every Bit You Make http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/ en Copyright 2006 Wed, 10 May 2006 13:56:52 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Minotaur Project
The Minotaur Project is now ready for public consumption. The Minotaur Project protects your privacy while searching Google by distributing your search among the other Minotaur hosts, so that your search is safely anonymous in the crowd of searches. For instance, if you search for "illicit material," what Google sees is dozens of searches coming from all the Minotaur hosts for "illicit material." You can't be identified except as being part of that crowd, and Google has no way of knowing which person in the crowd was the one who really wanted the information.

Hosting a Minotaur on your server is a 2-minute process and only requires that your web server run Python.

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/05/minotaur_projec.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/05/minotaur_projec.html Wed, 10 May 2006 13:56:52 -0500 white hat, gray hat, black hat http://www.fcw.com/article90994-10-03-05-Print

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/05/white_hat_gray.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/05/white_hat_gray.html Hacktivism Thu, 04 May 2006 03:37:47 -0500 27B Stroke 6

New blog from wired written by Ryan Singel and Kevin Poulsen.

"Investigative reporter Ryan Singel and senior editor Kevin Poulsen scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, in a daily briefing on security, freedom and privacy in the wired world."
]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/27b_stroke_6.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/27b_stroke_6.html governments / politics Sat, 29 Apr 2006 14:52:01 -0500 Virtual Dead Drop The Madrid bombing suspects didn'r email each other about their plans but wrote messages and saved them as drafts on the the shared email account to which they all knew the login and password.

"Hassan had given me an address on the Internet the day that I left," Turk said. "I was to check the Internet address in question every day and to go to the draft menu to check for messages." "The only way to get in touch with him was through the e-mail address Babana12002 with password Wahd11," the man said. "Hassan told me that the address worked in Yahoo or in Hotmail." Spanish investigators contend that by saving the messages as drafts, the men did not leave the digital traces that are normally created when e-mail messages are sent. But Jordán, of the University of Granada, said he was skeptical that intelligence services were as unable as they claimed to track unmailed messages. "There is still communication between the computer and the server," he said. "I wouldn't be surprised if the intelligence services have a way of monitoring that." ..... One of the leading figures indicted in the March 11, 2004, train bombings in Madrid used a simple trick that allowed him to communicate with his confederates on ordinary e- mail accounts but avoided government detection, according to the judge investigating the case. Instead of sending the messages, the suspect, Hassan El Haski, saved them as drafts on accounts he shared with other radicals, according to papers issued by the judge, Juan del Olmo. They all knew the password and so they could access the accounts to read his comments and post replies, according to the judge ........ In his indictment, the judge said that Haski had been a habitual user of the Internet who would communicate through e-mail accounts on Yahoo or Hotmail. ....... "Hassan had given me an address on the Internet the day that I left," Turk said. "I was to check the Internet address in question every day and to go to the draft menu to check for messages." "The only way to get in touch with him was through the e-mail address Babana12002 with password Wahd11," the man said. "Hassan told me that the address worked in Yahoo or in Hotmail." Spanish investigators contend that by saving the messages as drafts, the men did not leave the digital traces that are normally created when e-mail messages are sent.
]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/virtual_dead_dr.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/virtual_dead_dr.html Fri, 28 Apr 2006 23:16:41 -0500 Telephony Phishing Via Slashdot. Apparently some phishing emails now direct users to call a number that takes them to a voicemail system set up to sound exactly like the actual vmail system of their bank.

Read the full article.

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/telephony_phish.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/telephony_phish.html VoIP Fri, 28 Apr 2006 19:00:19 -0500 zaba search You may have already heard of this search engine, but I tried it again recently and now brings up my NY address and month/year of birth. It also pulls up a history of past addresses and phone numbers. I first heard about this tool as a way to track down where celebrities live.

ZabaSearch - The #1 Free People Search and Public Information Search Engine

You can also ask for your location and it will return your IP address, lat/long, a Google map and ISP with the following message:

This information is available to any web site visited. We provide this as a public service to allow web users to find out what specific information they broadcast while surfing the Net.

ADDED BONUS - you can get the American Idol voting results and direct links to the contestants' info.

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/zaba_search.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/zaba_search.html search engines Fri, 28 Apr 2006 03:03:34 -0500 More Surveillance Cameras Deployed in New York "Along a gritty stretch of street in Brooklyn, police this month quietly launched an ambitious plan to combat street crime and terrorism. But instead of cops on the beat, wireless video cameras peer down from lamp posts about 30 feet above the sidewalk. They were the first installment of a program to place 500 cameras throughout the city at a cost of $9 million. Hundreds of additional cameras could follow if the city receives $81.5 million in federal grants it has requested to safeguard Lower Manhattan and parts of midtown with a surveillance "ring of steel" modeled after security measures in London's financial district."

NYPD turns on surveillance cameras, Associated Press, April 17, 2006.

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/more_surveillan_1.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/more_surveillan_1.html governments / politics Thu, 27 Apr 2006 04:41:07 -0500 Digital Camera Fingerprinting New Scientist Tech - Breaking News - Digital cameras leave 'fingerprints' on their snaps

What other 'digital' systems have fingerprintable glitches?

But these individual sensors do not capture light with uniform efficiency and leave a subtle pattern of variation, or "noise", on each digital image. Fridrich's team developed an algorithm that identifies the noise produced by a particular camera's sensor by analysing scores of images taken using it. "No two CCD sensors are alike," Fridrich told New Scientist. "It's basically a digital fingerprint."
]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/digital_camera.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/digital_camera.html Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:02:48 -0500 Hacking with a Pringles tube it's not recent news but....
read

pringles.jpg

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/hacking_with_a.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/hacking_with_a.html Sun, 23 Apr 2006 19:39:04 -0500 Internet Issues L.A. Times pulls columnist's blog over fake names
"The Los Angeles Times has suspended the blog of a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist who posed as an Internet reader to defend his column and attack his conservative foes."
... read more

apple VS blogger
"A California court in San Jose on Thursday is scheduled to hear a case brought by Apple Computer that eventually could answer an unsettled legal question: Should online journalists receive the same rights as traditional reporters?"
... read more

Is Don'tDateHimGirl.Com Legal?
"The Site Where Women Post Photos and Information About Men They Claim Cheated on Them"
The article on FindLaw.com
The article on The New York Times
dontdatehimgirl.com

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/internet_and_pr.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/internet_and_pr.html Sun, 23 Apr 2006 19:11:04 -0500 Data from Japanese army leaked onto Net "TOKYO A list of what appears to be permits given to contractors to access Misawa Air Base, Japan, has been leaked onto the Internet via the file-sharing software Winny, a Japanese newspaper reported Thursday."
...read more

Winny ?

Also, recently the buffer over flow problem is discoverd. Because the development is stopped for suspected conspiracy to commit copyright violation by the High-tech Crime Taskforce of the Kyoto Prefectural Police, the developper can't update the software.
http://www.eeye.com/html/research/advisories/AD20060421.htm

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/data_from_japan_1.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/data_from_japan_1.html Sun, 23 Apr 2006 18:57:33 -0500 Oyster cards sound jam "Arphield recordings is a project documenting sound performed with RFID (arphid) technology, the radio frequency identification system used for access control and surveillance. The microchip inside each Oyster card tracks your journeys, beeping every time you enter or exit the tube. Join the mob at the Stockwell tube station for an impromptu sound jam/memorial using your oyster cards. 10 June 2006 at 14pm."

http://www.turbulence.org/blog/archives/002325.html

The sound of the metro entrance is very usual thing. But like my previous post indicates, it can be a good signal to notice something unaware.

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/oyster_cards_so_1.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/oyster_cards_so_1.html RFID Sun, 23 Apr 2006 18:54:27 -0500 Shared secrets: intelligence and collective security Dr Simon Chesterman

Summary
In a new Lowy Institute Paper, Dr Simon Chesterman of New York University writes on the relationship between intelligence and collective security. Is collective security possible when the evaluation of and response to threats depend on access to intelligence that cannot be shared openly? Shared Secrets: Intelligence and Collective Security examines the role national intelligence does and could play in addressing threats to international peace and security, with particular reference to the contemporary threats of terrorism and proliferation of WMD.

Chesterman argues it is neither feasible nor desirable for the United Nations or other international organisations to develop an independent capacity to collect secret intelligence; however, they should be able to receive, access and use sensitive information.

Download text

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/shared_secrets.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/shared_secrets.html governments / politics Sat, 22 Apr 2006 20:57:40 -0500 French road-test cashless technology The tourist city of Caen in France's Normandy region is hosting a major trial of so-called near field communication--a mobile technology that can be used for anything from paying for groceries to finding out about one's hometown.

Near field communication (NFC) is already being used extensively across London, although people may not know it: The Oyster card carried by millions of commuters every day is based on the contactless technology.

By placing an NFC chip near a card reader, up to a distance of a centimeter or two away, data can be transmitted to and from the chip. In the case of the Oyster card, permission to go through a barrier can be granted and a fee for traveling on the underground deducted.

But the Caen project has a more far-reaching use in mind for NFC, with residents now packing NFC-enabled mobile phones to see if using the technology could catch on beyond public transportation.
read more

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/french_roadtest.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/french_roadtest.html governments / politics Sat, 22 Apr 2006 20:54:27 -0500 The Silencer - Death to Cellphone Use in Library - Literally By Scott McLemee

The decline of Western civilization proceeds apace. One shudders to imagine life in decades hence. A case in point: People now use cell phones in research libraries.

Wandering the stacks, they babble away in a blithe and full-throated manner -– conversing, not with their imaginary friends (as did the occasional library-haunting weirdo of yesteryear) but rather with someone who is evidently named “Dude,” and who might, for all one knows, be roaming elsewhere in the building: an audible menace to all serious thought and scholarly endeavor.

This situation is intolerable. It must not continue. I have given this matter long consideration, and can offer a simple and elegant solution: These people ought to be shot.
read more
Make sure to read the responses at the end of the article

]]> http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/the_silencer_de.html http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog/archives/2006/04/the_silencer_de.html Sat, 22 Apr 2006 20:33:31 -0500