Battle of the Shadow Phones
IEEE is running a fascinating article on a discovered intrusion into major Greek cellular networks for the purpose of engaging in unauthorized eavesdropping of prominent officials including the Prime Minister and his wife. In a world where credit card thieves and low-level hackers get all the headlines, security professionals should make special note of the sophistication of this attack.
On 9 March 2005, a 38-year-old Greek electrical engineer named Costas Tsalikidis was found hanged in his Athens loft apartment, an apparent suicide. It would prove to be merely the first public news of a scandal that would roil Greece for months.
The next day, the prime minister of Greece was told that his cellphone was being bugged, as were those of the mayor of Athens and at least 100 other high-ranking dignitaries, including an employee of the U.S. embassy. [See sidebar "CEOs, MPs, & a PM."]
The victims were customers of Athens-based Vodafone-Panafon, generally known as Vodafone Greece, the country's largest cellular service provider; Tsalikidis was in charge of network planning at the company. A connection seemed obvious. Given the list of people and their positions at the time of the tapping, we can only imagine the sensitive political and diplomatic discussions, high-stakes business deals, or even marital indiscretions that may have been routinely overheard and, quite possibly, recorded.
Even before Tsalikidis's death, investigators had found rogue software installed on the Vodafone Greece phone network by parties unknown. Some extraordinarily knowledgeable people either penetrated the network from outside or subverted it from within, aided by an agent or mole. In either case, the software at the heart of the phone system, investigators later discovered, was reprogrammed with a finesse and sophistication rarely seen before or since. Link --->
Ubuntu Impressions
Last night was my first foray into the Ubuntu distribution and I must admit to being surprisingly impressed. I've installed various versions of Linux with varying degrees of success since their was a "Linux". My most recent distro of choice was Open Suse, but while it was fun to explore and learn on, it was definitely not polished enough to recommend for the generic consumer desktop. Ubuntu represents the first distro that I could seriously recommend to the average user as a Linux solution that just works. Here's why....
1) Installation was a breeze. If you can install Windows or Mac OS X you can install Ubuntu. Linux distros have come a long way in recent years with regards to installability, but Ubuntu is the cleanest experience yet.
2) Common problems in other distros were absent in Ubuntu when installing on the same hardware. When I installed Open Suse on the same laptop I had a few plaguing issues I had to seek help on; a) the display resolution did not set correctly resulting in black bars on each side of the LCD; b) the wireless network card would not work. Both issues were eventually sorted out on Suse, but not without some work and outside help. On Ubuntu, neither was an issue and I got a fully functional machine right out the gate.
3) Common applications just worked and plugins were automated and fully functional in minutes. All the common consumer apps are there and easily accessible. Browsing, email, opening office docs, playing music and movies. When I first encountered a flash site I was prompted to install Flash and the experience was similar to what one would get on Windows or OS X. When I tried to play my Internet radio stream, I was prompted to install the codec and then it just worked. All hardware seems to be recognized and audio/video playback works like a charm.
4) The graphical user interface is both pleasing and intuitive.
The installation on Ubuntu on this Sony Vaio laptop has breathed new life into this machine and given me a very powerful and extremely portable Linux box to travel with. If I had my druthers, I'd load Mac OS X on it, but installing Ubuntu is the next best thing.
Good Article by John Sullivan
Countering the reach of the global jihad within networked diasporas is a global security priority. Police and intelligence services worldwide—especially in “Global Cities” with international political and economic importance and transnational connections—must develop relationships with diaspora communities. These efforts must build upon community policing and develop the cultural understanding and community trust required to recognize the emergence of extremist cells, radicalization, efforts to recruit terrorists, and efforts to exploit criminal enterprises or gangs to further terrorist activities. These efforts need to be linked to develop the intelligence needed to combat a global networked threat. This requires more than “information-sharing” and co-operation, it requires a multi-lateral framework for the “co-production” of intelligence so police and intelligence services can recognize global interactions with local impact and local activity with global reach. Link--->
Google buys GrandCentral
I am a big fan of GrandCentral.com and today the prospects for using the service just got a lot better. GrandCentral provides a unified number that can be used to consolidate all your phone numbers. For example, so you have a home office and cell phone and your cell phone doesn't get coverage in the home office. With GrandCentral, you can have both numbers ring at the same time or specify specific rules for when the numbers ring. You can also create web applets to allow people to call you without giving them your phone number (they fill in their phone number in a web form and GrandCentral calls them and you at the same time) and they even have a mobile application that allows you to call a contact where GrandCentral calls your cell phone, then connects you with the contact (great if you have free incoming minutes). This is a great service for those that might migrate a number (buy and iPhone and get a new cell number, just program it in GrandCentral), have multiple numbers, or are just looking for a good feature rich way to integrate voice communications.
Based on the quality of features and service I was ready to put my GrandCentral number on my business cards, but I had one concern....they were an unknown startup and I couldn't ensure their viability over the long term. I also had some concern about their price model as it really wasn't clearly articulated. The Google acquisition certainly solves the first problem and likely solves the second one as well. It also reinforces the potential for a Google cell phone as I can imagine a carrier service based on GrandCentral's rich feature set that also includes custom ringtones, call lists, solicitor blocking, etc. If you haven't checked out GrandCentral it is worth your time to give it a spin and it won't cost you a dime.
For the record, I have no financial stake in GrandCentral. I'm just an advocate of their service because it works on so many levels.
Posting from iPhone over EDGE
EDGE network seems fine for posting, browsing and email. Have had no problems and I am still in the suburbs, not the city.
Still More iPhone thoughts
Unlike a few other bloggers, I'm still infatuated with my iPhone. This is one cool device and I'm using it more as time goes on. A few more thoughts:
1) Devices the iPhone replaces me for me - Nokia N95, Blackberry 8800, Nokia N800, and 8G iPod Nano. Not a bad score on the convergence front.
2) There are claims that push email works from Yahoo, so I set up a Yahoo account to test. However, it doesn't appear that my iPhone (with its built in Yahoo mail configuration tool) is even able to get to my Yahoo account. It tries to authenticate to an apple.mac.yahoo.com server which keeps bouncing my credentials. Will have to look into that more and see if push mail is a reality.
3) In the meantime, I do have mail fully working exactly as I want it on the device and with about 10 minutes of work with Eric, we got the IMAP folders working no problem. I now have access to five years of email from the iPhone if I want it. I like the way folders are implemented in the client because it works for me to only have the folder checked for new mail if I click on it. I only care about six folders any given day, but it is nice to know I can drill down if I want. I have my mail set to check for new mail every 15 minutes.
4) Battery life - I used the phone yesterday pretty heavily on wifi until midnight including watching a lot of uTube stuff late last night. I left it checking email all night half expecting that would have killed my remaining battery, but when I woke up this morning, I still had about 25% charge left. It looks like the battery will be sufficient for my use. I'll likely carry a battery backup (that I had for my old iPod) in my gear back just in case.
5) uTube on the iPhone is lots of fun and well implemented. I found a lot of stuff to watch last night. With this phone in tow, you will never truly be bored.
6) I am still having those same 11 files resync every time I connect. Very annoying, but manageable.
7) I've crashed the phone a few times mostly browsing sites that push the browsers limitations.
8) Typing. I'm "using the force" and typing as fast as I can on a Pearl, but not quite up to regular Blackberry keyboard speeds yet.
9) Double clicking on websites is very cool! I just discovered it last night. It auto zooms to display just the content you are clicking on. Apple must do some analysis of the page and determine what is associated with where you are clicking. It works great and is supported in the mail application too! This makes viewing full size websites like CNN very cool.
There are a few features that Apple really needs to add to this phone.
1) Landscape mail, SMS and document viewing. Each of these apps really needs a landscape mode on the iPhone.
2) A way to disable inline html images in mail from external sites. This is a security issue for me as it validates that my email works for a spammer. I need a way to disable them and only load them on a case by case basis.
3) I need a quick "go to url" style button in Safari. I don't like scrolling to the bottom of a page only to have to scroll all the way up to open a new site. I get around it by launching a new tab, but that is not efficient.
4) I really want iChat support. More than any other feature, I'd love to see iChat support on this device. Right now I am using SMS for a few folks and it works great, but iChat it is not.
5) Visual voicemail is not working for me. In fact, I get no voicemail notification at all, yet when I called my own number and accessed voicemail that way, there was some waiting for me! I am hoping this is just a matter of servers being overwhelmed.
6) I have a hunch that visual voicemail works by having the voicemail downloaded to your phone into a voicemail application. If that is the case, it needs to support wifi and not just Edge. The missing piece for me could be I haven't been on a strong edge network for any length of time. Regardless this needs sorting out in a hurry and I will call tech support on it if it isn't working by Monday morning.
7) Still impressed with call quality, though I would like more call volume. It could be I just haven't found the sweet spot of where to hold the phone against my ear, but in a crowded room I was having a tough time hearing the other party yesterday. Granted, there was a lot of background noise.
8) SMS messages need to queue. Right now, if you key one up and are outside of network coverage, it does not send if you go into a coverage area unless you go back into the SMS app and hit "send" again. I'd like these to queue and send automatically when I get back in coverage area.
9) I want bluetooth keyboard support.
More iPhone thoughts
Here are a few more thoughts regarding the iPhone
1) After successfully syncing my two IMAP accounts via iTunes I decided to add one of my Gmail ones (my domain mail hosted via Google Apps). That seemed to cause the syncing to hang. I've disabled syncing mail accounts for now and it works fine.
2) For some reason, iTunes always needs to sync 11 of my songs everytime I connect. Maybe those are 11 I played and it is syncing the last played and other meta info? Not sure if it is doing that or syning those 11 songs again with the device for some reason.
3) The lack of customization is a real downer. The last 10 phones I've owned, I've sent the CTU ringtone via bluetooth and used that as my ringtone. No ringtone customization allowed on the iPhone. I hope they change that or I won't recognize my own phone ringing.
4) Same issue for wallpaper. The only way I can see to send a new wallpaper for the phone is to a) take the picture from the phone, or b) sync it from iPhoto. I really don't want to store photos on this phone, so I have iPhoto sync disabled. Even if I send the photo to myself in email, the phone offers no way to save it.
5) This over simplified interface and lack of customization is going to really frustrate the high end users that like to tweak things. I am sure it will keep the phone very stable, but there will certainly be very few ways to make your phone "unique".
6) SMS messaging works like a charm. Like using iChat
7) After just a few hours of typing, I am willing to declare that if I can get IMAP folder support working, I will get rid of my blackberry.
Things I miss about the N95?
1) Customization!
2) Streaming audio. I love streaming the BBC over wifi on this device.
3) The camera. The N95 camera is far superior to the iPhone.
4) SIP VOIP calls. Nice option when you are on wifi.
Of course, I still own and will use the N95 in some capacity.
iPhone Initial Reactions
After the trauma of waiting in-line at the AT&T store, I was finally able to get my hands on an iPhone at the Apple store 15 miles away. First reactions:
1) The screen is breathtaking. I've never seen a screen like it on a mobile device.
2) Interface is everything I expected. Apple has rewritten interface design with the engineering in the iPhone. They haven't complete solved the mobile phone interface problem, but they've come close.
3) Touch typing. No issue for me. Not as natural as a tactile keyboard like a blackberry, but it works well enough for me. Keep in mind I use a zero-touch keyboard interface as my primary keyboard, so I am more comfortable with that aspect than the average user.
4) iPod interface is beautiful. Basically, everything you see on the commercials is real. The screen rotates smoothly when you hold it in landscape mode. Coverflow and scrolling are smooth and very nicely done.
5) Email - One of my mail accounts is working perfectly. The other (with a lot of IMAP sub mailboxes) is not working as my subfolders are not showing up on the phone. To my surprise syncing your mail settings is an option in iTunes, so it pulled mail the minute I unplugged it. I will continue to work on the IMAP issue and am hopeful there is a mail prefix setting or something I can change to get it working. Deleting an email has the coolest visual effect I've seen on a phone.
6) Web - Very nice. Real web sites display well. Lack of flash is understandable. Lack of Java is annoying as it renders useless several sites for me. I'd like to see both get added in a software update.
7) Maps - Pretty cool, but not a feature I expect to use a lot.
8) Video - works perfectly.
9) uTube - nicely implemented.
10) Visual voicemail - requires blowing your current voicemail box away (no big deal for me). Interestingly, your personal greeting is recorded on the phone and then uploaded to the server. The greeting recorder application makes me think Apple could easily add a voice memo recorder to this device, something I would welcome. Also, the AT&T visual voicemail server seemed to be very overwhelmed for the first 30 minutes I tried and could not successfully connect.
11) Quirks? My music/iPod application stopped playing (and appeared to crash in the background) twice while browsing the web. Something that definitely needs to be fixed if that is a bug.
12) Interface - I've got to plug the interface again. What a great user experience. Application presentation (mail, web, etc) seems almost perfect.
That's it for now. More later as I play with the device more.