Do not understand all that is involved, but it sure seems right for Apple to refuse to provide the government a backdoor. This case is only hard because the villains are so evil. Here is a learned discussion.
Tag Archives: security
Hacking into a Jeep
Watch the video in this Wired article “Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway—With Me in It.” Two security researchers tap into a Jeep via the Internet. From a house miles away from the Jeep (which means anywhere) they disable the Jeep’s engine, as well as control various other functions. This is scary.
We are not ready for the Internet of Things.
Harvard student loses Facebook internship after pointing out privacy flaws
From Boston.com:
Three months ago, Harvard student Aran Khanna was preparing to start a coveted internship at Facebook when he launched a browser application from his dorm room that angered the social media behemoth.
Khanna exposed a frightening lack of security. Facebook messages contain geolocation data. Facebook Messenger has been out since 2011 and they only now told users and provided a way to turn it off. This is an appalling lack of concern for users’ privacy and security.
His firing seems petty and vindictive. But Khanna has a good perspective. He accepted a different internship and said he learned a lot from the Facebook experience. I think we all did.
Lenovo preloaded laptops with reformat-resistant perpetual crapware
From boingboing:
[Lenovo] abused the Windows installer’s anti-theft mechanism, which reads the firmware for executables at install-time, embedding a ton of crappy, insecure shovelware that would be added to your computer every time you reinstalled the OS.
Don’t buy Lenovo; don’t use Windows.
Improve your commute by hacking traffic lights
This paper presents an opportunity for a killer app.
I am leery of the Internet of Things because (a) security is hard and (b) too little time is given to it. The latter is an over-generalization. But most solutions are delivered incomplete because too few resources are available or allocated. The result is essentially all software is vulnerable to attack.
This is the primary reason I am nervous about the Internet of Things.