. . . just links from HayYoo.com and DanKostecki.com
Very informative article for Android owners –
Android is under constant attack and older versions are far more vulnerable than new ones. Way too many smartphone vendors still don’t issue Google’s monthly Android security patches in a timely fashion, or at all. And, zero-day attacks still pop up. So, what can you do to protect yourself? A lot actually.
At a conference in Hamburg Germany this weekend, biometrics researcher Jan Krisller demonstrated how he spoofed a politician’s fingerprint using photos taken by a “standard photo camera.” Krissler speculated that politicians might even want to “wear gloves when talking in public.”
A credit card with an LCD display and built-in keyboard has been launched in Singapore by Mastercard. The card has touch-sensitive buttons and the ability to create a “one-time password” – doing away with the need for a separate device sometimes needed to log in to online banking. Future versions of the card could display added information such as the remaining balance. The card will be available from January before being rolled out globally.
Two British software developers discovered a disturbing feature built into Apple’s iPhones and iPads. Not only do both devices track the user’s location, they record that location data into an unencrypted file on the device.
Apple iPhone users’ movements are being tracked and stored without their knowledge in a file that could easily be accessed by a snooping employer or jealous spouse, security researchers have found. The continually-updated log is held on both the iPhone and the computer it connects to and contains a list of coordinates, and associated timestamps. The records go back to the release of the fourth iteration of the iOS operating system in June last year. The true contents of the enigmatically-named file “consolidated.db” were discovered by two British software developers who were working on ways of visualising location data for websites. “At first we weren’t sure how much data was there, but after we dug further and visualised the extracted data, it became clear that there was a scary amount of detail on our movements,” said Alisdair Allan and Pete Warden. Mr Warden previously worked for Apple in an unrelated area. Mobile network operators keep records of users’ movements based on which masts they are connected to, which police and intelligence agencies can access legally. The data stored by the iPhone could however be accessed by anyone with access to it or the computer it connects to, and is not protected by a password or encryption.
Apple’s reason for recording the data is unclear and its spokesmen did not return calls requesting comment.
ZDnet posted this very scary article. The gist of it is that the author was able to find other people’s tax documents online. Those documents were posted online by the owners themselves. Obviously, the solution is simple – DO NOT STORE PRIVATE INFORMATION ONLINE! That’s about as cut-and-dry as it gets.
As one who keeps up with the cutting edge of search engines and advanced search querying, it is with much reservation and disbelief that I bring you the results of my latest online investigative research. As of 4/10/2011, I have discovered in excess of 50 tax documents containing any given combination of Social Security numbers, credit card information, names, addresses, tax IDs, and phone numbers being made available online. However, unlike recent leaks of email addresses and password hashes being made available due to hackers compromising systems, these documents are being unknowingly made freely available to prying eyes by the very owners of said information.
Sounds unbelievable, right? It gets worse.
To clarify, these are tax documents as they have been/will be submitted to State and Federal government: Names, addresses, income, phone numbers, credit card numbers (stored from e-filing), and worse of all, Social Security numbers. The latter is the most detrimental of all not just because of the individual filing their taxes having their identity potentially stolen, but because of individuals who have children that they use for tax credits. As any parent knows, you must include certain information about your children when using them for tax breaks; namely, their names and Social Security numbers. That takes identity theft into a completely different atmosphere since a child having their identity stolen most likely will not find out until years down the road long after the damage has been done and the perpetrator has vanished. The potential consequences of such ignorance are far-reaching.
An American family posts their Christmas card photo on Facebook. Later, a friend of the family finds the photo being used to advertise a company in the Czech Republic. Just bizarre –
DUMMR.com 