security Archive

  • Fake security camera moves, pretends to keep you safe

    Fake security camera moves, pretends to keep you safe

    So you want your neighbors to think that your house is an impenetrable fortress, but you don't really feel like shelling out the hundreds of dollars needed to buy actual security cameras? Maybe you're seen those other fake surveillance cameras in stores, but you want something that moves, damnit. Well here you go: the Hammacher Schlemmer panning Faux Security camera set.

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  • France and Germany agree: Don’t use Internet Explorer if you want to be safe online

    France and Germany agree: Don’t use Internet Explorer if you want to be safe online

    In the intricacies of high-level European diplomacy, there's two things Paris and Berlin can agree on: Conan is better, and you'd better not be using Internet Explorer. A French government agency is now advising citizens of the French Republic not to use Internet Explorer because of security concerns. It's 2010, and we're still writing "IE isn't secure!" stories. Amazing.

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  • Camcorder stuffed into ID card

    Camcorder stuffed into ID card

    “Hey guys, what’s going on? Talking about secret company stuff? Cool. Don’t mind me. Just gonna heat up these SpaghettiOs real quick. Anyone do anything illegal lately?” For $100, now YOU can be the creepy tattle tale at your workplace.

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  • Prepare yourself for more and more full body scanners at airports, America

    Prepare yourself for more and more full body scanners at airports, America

    There's more fallout from that botched Christmas Day terror plot, and it's something regular readers will be familiar with. It looks like the man who tried to blow up that airplane had explosives stitched into his underpants. The result? A push for more widespread use of those full body scanners we've been talking about for some time now.

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  • McAfee: Boogada boogada! HTML5 and Chrome OS will steal your preciouses!

    McAfee: Boogada boogada! HTML5 and Chrome OS will steal your preciouses!

    This doesn’t look dangerous As more people move away from lucrative Windows desktops (OK, more is a relative term, but it’s definitely a countable number) folks like McAfee have to find new threats for us to fear in order to ensure that we purchase their products. The latest scare? McAffee is warning us that HTML5 in Chrome [...]

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  • GSM call encryption code cracked, published for the whole world to see

    GSM call encryption code cracked, published for the whole world to see

    var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/security/GSM_call_encryption_code_cracked_published_for_the_world'; Did you know that the vast majority of calls carried out on the 3.5 billion GSM connections in the world today are protected by a 21-year old 64-bit encryption algorithm? You should now, given that the A5/1 privacy algorithm, devised in 1988, has been deciphered by German computer engineer Karsten Nohl and published as a torrent for fellow code cracking enthusiasts and less benevolent forces to exploit. Worryingly, Karsten and his crew of merry men obtained the binary codes by simple brute force -- they fed enough random strings of numbers in to effectively guess the password. The GSM Association -- which has had a 128-bit A5/3 key available since 2007, but found little takeup from operators -- has responded by having a whinge about Mr. Nohl's intentions and stating that operators could just modify the existing code to re-secure their networks. Right, only a modified 64-bit code is just as vulnerable to cracking as the one that just got cracked. It's important to note that simply having the code is not in itself enough to eavesdrop on a call, as the cracker would be faced with just a vast stream of digital communications -- but Karsten comes back to reassure us that intercepting software is already available in customizable open source varieties. So don't be like Tiger, keep your truly private conversations off the airwaves, at least for a while.

    GSM call encryption code cracked, published for the whole world to see originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • On Mr. Sizzly Pants, terrorism, and airline safety

    On Mr. Sizzly Pants, terrorism, and airline safety

    I’m safely ensconced in a ski hut in Austria but I’ll be traveling back to the US of A shortly and I look forward to not being able to use electronic items in the last hour of my nine hour flight. After all, that is the magic hour, the hour during which most intercontinental planes [...]

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  • Australian firm developing Doom-like 3D surveillance system

    Australian firm developing Doom-like 3D surveillance system

    Pretty fascinating story coming out of Australia this fine day. (Well yesterday. Or time zones. I don't know.) A research outfit there has won a AUS$1.01 million grant from the government to develop a 3D surveillance system that has been described as “Doom-like.” Someone call Anthony Cumia, he could use something like that.

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  • DECAF, the anti-Microsoft COFEE, now available

    DECAF, the anti-Microsoft COFEE, now available

    You sorta knew this was going to happen. Microsoft COFEE, a highly secretive forensics tool used by law enforcement, leaked onto the Internet several weeks ago. People far smarter than I got a hold of it, and have created what has been dubbed DECAF, an anti-COFEE set of tools that you can install to block the effects of COFEE.

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  • Why are people falling victim to Facebook scams?

    Why are people falling victim to Facebook scams?

    The beauty of essentially quitting social networking, as I have, is that I don't have to worry about all of the associated nonsense. “Facebook's new privacy settings cause uproar.” Really? Not if you quit the site it doesn't. “Malicious programs causing social network malaise.” Again, not an issue if you're not all-consumed with tweeting every 10 seconds about what you're eating for breakfast.

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  • Facial recognition door locks keep you pad safe from undesireables

    Facial recognition door locks keep you pad safe from undesireables

    Security technology has been really moving forward lately for both home and commercial use. A prime example of this is the Face Recognition Door lock. While this is designed more for the commercial market, it could be adapted to home use fairly easily.

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  • Good job, government: TSA manual leaked online, de-redacted very easily

    Good job, government: TSA manual leaked online, de-redacted very easily

    Your friendly neighborhood CrunchGear writers have spent the past several minutes rifling through a de-redacted (un-redacted?) TSA handbook; Matt is going to print our hard copies and hand them out at his local farmer's market. It was leaked somehow, and can be found all over the place. (I first found it on Cryptome, which is the go-to place for anything security-related.) Naturally, the authorities are freaking out, so get it while you can.

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