Friday, February 29, 2008

Can you hear me now? Yes, yes I can. (GSM hacked for cheap)

The 64-bit encryption method used by GSM networks (AT&T/TMobile/etc), known as A5/1 has been theoretically crackable for 10 years now, but it was very expensive to do so. At Black Hat D.C. 2008 however, a $1,000 solution was unveiled that claims to crack it in 30 minutes, or for $100,000 it can be cracked in 30 seconds.

read more

Make Sure You Know When Someone Hacks Your Email

If someone has cracked your email password, it may not be apparent to you. A snooper can easily read an email then mark it as unread again. So the best thing to do would be to set up an “electronic tripwire” so if someone breaks into your account, you’ll know about it.

read more

How Internet Censorship Works

One of the early nicknames for the Internet was the "information superhighway" because it was supposed to provide the average person with fast access to a practically limitless amount of data. For many users, that's exactly what accessing the Internet is like. For others, it's as if the information superhighway has some major roadblocks in the form

read more

Is it time to consider PDF a threat?

The 8.12 patch for Adobe Reader that Adobe released last week fixed a number of security holes—but not before malware capable of exploiting them had been on the market for weeks. The end result is tough questions on whether it is time to consider PDF a security threat.

read more

Confessions of a Caller-ID spoofer

He spoofed the HR director's work phone number, then the number of that guy's boss, before moving up to a vice president, and finally, the CEO. Says he had no choice. He also says "this thing that I did is bad and should be outlawed." He even spoofed a White House number. Fascinating full interview.

read more

Huge Leak: Database of 8,700+ stolen cooperate FTP accounts

The stolen credentials belong to companies from around the world and include more than 2500 North American companies, some of which are the world's top 100 domains, according to security company Finjan. The ISP hosting the db has been notified but they still have not removed it. Finjan says companies can email them to check if their info was stolen

read more