CIA worried about overseas cyberattacks
January 18, 2008
SANS FLASH CIA Confirms Cyber Attack Caused Multi-City Power Outage On Wednesday, in New Orleans, US Central Intelligence Agency senior analyst Tom Donohue told a gathering of 300 US, UK, Swedish, and Dutch government officials and engineers and security managers from electric, water, oil & gas and other critical industry asset owners from all across North America, that "We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands. We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of these attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge. We have information that cyber attacks have been used to disrupt power equipment in several regions outside the United States. In at least…
What the Jihadist web does when they think no one is watching
January 9, 2008
Fascinating post. No way to determine accuracy, but it jives with informal comments I've heard about the contents of confinscated laptops. But it's Islambase's Hamza who shows himself to be the least likely pure Islamist. He is the most regular poster on Islambase and when he's not glorifying terror or insulting Jews, Hindus, Kafir and everyone else on the face of the planet, he's posting Global News stories, designed not to pierce the Islambase bubble - nice stories about how well Al Qaeda is actually doing (really...promise!) and how corrupt the West is (his favourite posts are about paedophiles and men having sex with bicycles). Hamza requires a psychiatrist but none advertise themselves on Islambase. Luton-based Hamza uses a network…
Film highlights impact of cybercrime
January 9, 2008
I was featured in this film. Uncertain if I will attend the New York event or not. Update: I will be at the NY event. If you want to meet-up let me know. Enterprise application security solutions provider Fortify Software will present the world premiere of a new documentary, The New Face of Cybercrime in private screenings at three cities — San Francisco, New York, and London — this month. An expert panel discussion about cybercrime and a reception will follow each screening. This film by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Frederic Golding highlights the impact cybercrime has on consumers and businesses. When sensitive or private data gets into the wrong hands, the loss is tallied not only in billions of dollars, but in consumer trust…
RIP – Mark Fleshner
January 8, 2008
It seems that early January is again a time of sorrow. Almost a year after losing my good friend Robert Garigue, I am saddened to report on the passing of my friend Mark Fleshner. Mark was a brilliant lawyer and scientist holding both a Ph.D and J.D. as well as several other degrees. He is the author of patents I can't claim to understand and co-founded two very successful intellectual law practices in the Northern Virginia area. Mark was a good friend and neighbor and I enjoyed my time with him as we developed a special kinship based on our shared eccentricity, insomnia, and love of music. While one might find me DJing in my basement on a given weekend night, Mark would set up a full fledged band or just jam on the guitar in his…
Trending towards simulation
January 4, 2008
Another scientist is proposing that our universe is one big virtual reality simulation. [Link--->]
State of the world – 2008
January 3, 2008
It is my favorite time of year over the online community Well.com right now as famous cyberpunk author/futurist Bruce Sterling is hosting his 9th annual State of the World forum. Up for discussion so far - the role of cities in destabilizing nation states, the status of al Qaeda, globalization, natural tendencies to resist a green future, the false utopia of global government, William Gibson's new book resembling Soviet dissident fiction, and conspiracy theories and we've just gotten started. Mozy on over to State of the World thread.
More Apple frustrations and Nokia smooth sailing
December 19, 2007
I don't like the way this is going...the most recent posts on this blog about Apple technology have been negative, but I feel obligated to discuss the problems I am having. I am on my second iPod Classic 160 and the second one is plagued with problems as well. My first one would not update and would not sync. I thought I had a bad device, but I am faced with the same problem with the replacement (though it currently still syncs with issues). I am thinking it is something in my library, but what? I have 140GB of content, so how do I identify a problem file? In addition, while this one still syncs, it is losing its sync database frequently and tries to sync songs it already has. Also, in addition to telling it that it should not sync…
Welcome Tanzania!!
December 18, 2007
Nothing unites the world like Jack Bauer. Since releasing the CTU ringtone for the iPhone, I've had over 10,000 visitors from 85 different countries. It has now topped my SpamHaus post as the top visited blog post of all time. Given that the magazine 24 once referred to my company as the "Real CTU" (see image), it seems appropriate that this blog serve as ringtone central.... (Update Dec 20, 2007 - Now up to 15,000 visitors from 106 countries)
24 CTU Ringtone for Apple iPhone
December 16, 2007
My gift to all...Merry Christmas. Just download the file and copy it to your iTunes ringtone directory. Enjoy! [RIGHT CLICK HERE (and select SAVE AS) TO DOWNLOAD THE RINGTONE] By special request, here is the ringtone from the TV series The UNIT [The Unit - iPhone optimized ringtone (Right click and select Save As)] Learn more about my current projects at DEV Group or Follow me on Twitter.
The future has arrived…
December 13, 2007
Haft of the Spear found this gem. Which is only funny in the context of this paper "Information Terrorism: Can You Trust Your Toaster?" Can you imagine a toaster hacking a computer? That’s true. In fact any kitchen appliance can be used for attacking your computer system, said Dror Shalev, a hacker from Israel, during the international convention of hackers ‘Clubhack 2007’ held recently. In his demonstration at the convention, Shalev left the audience amazed by actually hacking a computer with a toaster. Shalev, who is a security expert at Check Point Software Technologies in Israel, was one of the foreign speakers at the international convention. He said that any home device could be connected with a software prototype to hack a…
Death of a Kindle (is the Kindle Krap?)
December 6, 2007
Having just written a glowing review of the Kindle which I was going to post on the blog and on Amazon when I landed, I decided to relax and read for a little while. I was five pages into my book when I noticed that in the upper left hand corner of the page several words seemed to be "printed" on top of each other. Hitting the next page button crashed the reader and has since rendered it useless. I can browse the device and select a book or newspaper, but trying to read it brings up a dialog box that says "Unexpected Error" and a close button. I can still see my newspaper subscriptions showing up in the directory (including a note from the San Francisco Chronicle about being late today), but nothing can be read. An email to the Kindle…
Apple frustrations…
December 3, 2007
I am a huge Apple fan and am typically pretty forgiving of their shortcomings, however, I must admit to being very frustrated by the Apple brand recently. First, Leopard is not stable. I've had more issues with one month of leopard than the last year of Tiger. Funky wifi, lots of gray screens of death and it still isn't able to authenticate to network attached storage devices (the same devices worked brilliantly with Tiger). Second, I just bought a new iPod classic. Aside from initially hooking it up to my mac, the iPod is unused. Tonight, I am trying to prep it for a plane ride to the west coast and it won't sync. It won't update. It won't restore. I've tried with different cables and different USB ports. I restarted iTunes and…
From Obscurity to Mainstream in One Click
November 24, 2007
This is a great example of individual empowerment and how the Internet can drive success... Nick Haley took just 30 minutes to pluck the Brazilian band CSS from obscurity and hurl it into the national spotlight. In September, Haley paired the band's dance-pop song "Music is My Hot, Hot Sex" with his 30-second amateur video, displaying the capabilities of Apple's new iPod Touch. The video ends with the lyrics, "My music is where I'd like you to touch." "I was like, 'This song is too perfect,' " said Haley, 18, by phone from the University of Leeds in England, where he studies politics. "It's punchy, loud, fast and naughty." Marketers at Apple headquarters in Cupertino were so impressed with the song selection and YouTube video, they…
Skype encryption stumps police
November 23, 2007
Interesting...German police want to trojan suspect machines in order to engage in surveillance... German police are unable to decipher the encryption used in the internet telephone software Skype to monitor calls by suspected criminals and terrorists, Germany's top police officer said. Skype allows users to make telephone calls over the internet from their computer to other Skype users free of charge. Law enforcement agencies and intelligence services have used wiretaps since the telephone was invented, but implementing them is much more complex in the modern telecommunications market where the providers are often foreign companies. [Link--->]