Category Archives: Current Events
Moving to a Forum
For CSE 484 this year, we have switched from the blog format to the forum format. The course website is online at http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/484/10wi/. This year’s forum is online at https://catalysttools.washington.edu/gopost/board/kohno/14597/. We switched from the blog format to the forum format … Continue reading
Current Event – A Broader Look on Wireless Access Point Vulnerabilities
Wireless access points are a great technology – allowing a user the convenience of accessing the same wired network without wires. But the vulnerabilites and weak points that they produce can often be overlooked. Most people install these devices to … Continue reading
Security Review: New Weapons in the Fight Against Doping
The use of performance enhancing drugs and medical techniques is a serious problem in every sport, but no sport is as notorious for doping scandals as is professional cycling. While Olympic athletes, baseball players, and body builders are often caught … Continue reading
Current Events: One more botnet-related legal fray
As part of an “expose’” on cyber crime, BBC’s “Click” team took it upon themselves to hire a botnet. With the stated goal of demonstrating the power of “cyber criminals” in today’s world, the journalists purchased the use of ~22,000 … Continue reading
Current Event: California Politician Wants All Satellite Imagery of Schools, Churches, and Government Buildings to Be ‘Blurred’
A politician in California, Assemblyman Joel Anderson, has just proposed legislation to be drafted that would require Google’s map application to blur satellite imagery of all schools, churches, and government buildings. The Assemblyman’s proposal would require not just Google, but … Continue reading
Cryptography towards a new kind of election?
Computer scientists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences recently deployed the first “practical, Web-based, secure, verifiable voting system.” After testing through 2008 and early 2009, the system, dubbed “Helios,” was used for the university presidential elections at … Continue reading
Linux Desktop Security Vulnerabilities
A common method for infection of many operating systems is a malicious executable file–either sent in an email or downloaded otherwise–that the user simply double clicks without thinking. Linux .desktop files allow arbitrary code execution without the need for an executable bit set on the file. Continue reading
Current Event: iTunes Gift Voucher Hacked?
Many online news agencies are reporting that a Chinese group of hackers have broken Apple’s iTunes Gift Voucher code generator. The original story seems to come from Outdustry, a Chinese music industry website, and tells of $200 gift certificates being … Continue reading
Security Review: Google Voice
Apologies for reviewing the same technology. The other Google Voice review just appeared for me, which was after I wrote my own. I did check prior to starting this review, and it wasn’t up then. Summary: ComputerWorld had an article … Continue reading