Monthly Archives: March 2008
Current Events: British Police Want DNA of Children
From The Guardian, and on Slashdot. Police in the United Kingdom may soon be be able to collect DNA samples from children if they exhibit behaviors that suggest they may commit crimes later in life, at least if Scotland Yard … Continue reading
Water: Essential for Life
Summary: As humans we are cursed by the need for a number of basic necessities. Among these include nutritious food, clean air, and of course water. In this brief post I will focus on the later of these. While the … Continue reading
Security Review: Car GPS Navigation Systems
Summary Car GPS navigation systems are handy tool for finding one’s way on the road. With features like local points of interest, address book and SD card backup it would not be surprising if becomes a common everyday item soon. … Continue reading
Security Review – GSM Cellphones
I’ve seen a few people on this blog cover various aspects of cellphone security, including the new iphone 3rd party support and GPS tracking, however I haven’t seen anything covering the most basic of cellphone features, voice communication. It seems … Continue reading
Security Review: ‘taspo’ RFID cards for cigarette vending machines
Being a frequent visitor to Japan and thus knowing its people and culture fairly well, I thought it’d be appropriate for me to conduct a review on the new ‘taspo’ RFID cards which Yoshi also mentioned a while back. The ‘taspo’ … Continue reading
Security Review: Costco
Summary: In order to shop at Costco, one must have a membership and proof of that membership. When an individual purchases a membership at Costco, they and their spouse may use the membership at any Costco. Otherwise, no one else … Continue reading
Apple’s Hymn/FairPlay DRM
Summary FairPlay is an encryption scheme (DRM) developed by Apple to prevent users from further distributing playable content to other users. It has been cracked numerous times in different ways to create unrestricted/unencrypted versions of the content. The technology has … Continue reading
Current Events: No need for jello, fingerprint USB sticks are easy to crack.
No need to go to great lengths to try to spoof finger print scanners on USB sticks. You can just tell the device that the data is public. Researches discovered this vulnerability in models from 9pay and A-Data fingerprint USB … Continue reading
Hundreds of Thousands of Web Pages Hijacked
McAfee noticed Wednesday an ongoing attack that modifies web pages to redirect traffic to another site in China. This site then infects PC’s with a Trojan to steal personal information, including usernames/passwords for online banking. According to McAfee, “one gang” … Continue reading
Security Review: Husky Cards with Smart Card Technology
Summary The Husky Card is a University of Washington student’s lifeline. It provides student identification, building access, public transportation, and access to monetary funds for use on and around campus. Starting in 2009, the Husky Card will get an upgrade … Continue reading