EMOK

WPA2 is cracked!

Liam — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:25:17 +0000

Perhaps it was only a matter of time. However, wireless security researchers say they have uncovered a vulnerability in the WPA2 security protocol, which is the strongest form of Wi-Fi encryption and authentication currently standardised and available.

Malicious insiders can exploit the vulnerability, named “Hole 196″ by the researcher who discovered it at wireless security company AirTight Networks. The moniker refers to the page of the IEEE 802.11 Standard (Revision, 2007) on which the vulnerability is buried.

Hole 196 lends itself to man-in-the-middle-style exploits, whereby an internal, authorised Wi-Fi user can decrypt, over the air, the private data of others, inject malicious traffic into the network and compromise other authorized devices using open source software, according to AirTight. Good news is they have to be on your network in the first place. So be careful on public access points!

The researcher who discovered Hole 196, Md Sohail Ahmad, AirTight technology manager, intends to demonstrate it at two conferences taking place in Las Vegas next week: Black Hat Arsenal and DEF CON 18.

The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) derivative on which WPA2 is based has not been cracked and no brute force is required to exploit the vulnerability, Ahmad says. Rather, a stipulation in the standard that allows all clients to receive broadcast traffic from an access point (AP) using a common shared key creates the vulnerability when an authorized user uses the common key in reverse and sends spoofed packets encrypted using the shared group key. If it’s not one problem they find it’s another.

All in all your safe unless your on a publicly accessible Wi-Fi hotspot!

Zuckerberg states he owns Facebook…still!

Liam — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:46:19 +0000

After Zuckerberg’s laywer admitted Mark done work for Paul Ceglia, Zuckerberg himself addressed the million dollar question (literally)! Who owns Facebook? Does Zuckerberg owe 84 per cent of Facebook to a New York firewood salesman?

His comments in a TV interview followed an American federal court hearing on Tuesday, in which a Facebook lawyer said she was “unsure” whether Zuckerberg had signed a contract in 2003. Funny enough it’s this contract which Paul Ceglia claims entitles him to a majority large share of the world’s most dominant social network.

“If we said that we were unsure I think that was likely taken out of context, because I think we are quite sure that we did not sign a contract that says that they have any right to ownership over Facebook,” Zuckerberg informed ABC News.

Of course, when he says “we”, he really means “I”. The dispute stems from when a student Zuckerberg was independently touting his services as a coder for hire.

Note that the 26-year-old CEO isn’t saying he didn’t sign any contract with Ceglia. We already know he did! His lawyers said he did! He is however “quite sure” that what he did sign doesn’t grant equity in Facebook. Ceglia’s lawyers say different, and that he invested $1,000 in what became Facebook, after employing Zuckerberg to work on a separate project.

I reckon this will be an interesting one…technically it seems like Zuckerberg code stole from a different project. Although he wrote the code if he was “hired’ he is unlikely to own it. It depends really that what of that code is used today and was ever used.

A court could make Zuckerberg pay royalties for using code copyrighted to Ceglia. Alternatively they could rule either way!

Mobiles cause tinnitus, apparently!

Liam — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:08:52 +0000

A study published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine in America has made a claim that their is evidence that mobile phones cause tinnitus, persistent ringing in the ears.

Their premise is that microwave radiation (or “radio waves” as we sometimes call them) cause a calcium imbalance, or something crazy like that – the study however, doesn’t present evidence of the process, but it does find 33 out of 100 people who got tinnitus on the same side of their head as they used a mobile phone. So what about the other 67? The new study of 100 tinnitus sufferers also found 25 people who got tinnitus in the opposite ear.

A statistical analysis comparing the sample to 100 random outpatients would seem to indicate that those who used a mobile phone for more than four years did have a significantly increased chance of developing the condition.

The sample size is extremely small of course, and even the study’s authors admit that the increasing rate of tinnitus could be down to better diagnosis, or (much more worryingly) that those who use mobile phones a lot could also be MP3 player users. We’d speculate that they might be frequent flyers too – air travel always seeming to make the ears suffer.

That leaves aside the increased tension of being on the phone all the time, not to mention the flattened ear and constantly cocked head (though the study does mention “cranio-cervical manipulations of the head, neck or extremities” as a possible cause).

Either way, this tiny study does throw up evidence of a small increase in risk even if the suggested explanation is little more than speculation. That’s not enough to stop anyone using a mobile phone, but it should be enough to prompt further research. The further reach might stop people using a mobile, or maybe doom everyone to texting!

Antennagate: iPhone 4!

Liam — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:43:48 +0000

The question is: When you hold the iPhone 4, does the signal fade more than it would on other popular smartphones, such as Apple’s own iPhone 3GS or Google’s Nexus One? It certainly does, according to independent tests. However those are merely the facts. The truth is that there is no Antennagate. Steve Jobs said so, therefore it must be true.

During a Friday morning press conference; Steve Jobs told the world the truth – now available online – he explained that grip-induced signal problems are apprently “not unique” to the iPhone 4. “You can go on YouTube and see videos of Nokia phones and Motorola phones and other phones doing the same thing,” he said, before showing separate videos from Apple testers in which signal bars disappear when hands grip various handsets, including the BlackBerry Bold 9700, the Samsung Omnia II, and the HTC Droid Eris.

“Pretty much identical to the videos on the web about the iPhone [4],” Jobs explained as the Blackberry’s bars vanished. “Most smartphones behave exactly the same way … This is life in the smartphone world. Phones aren’t perfect. It’s a challenge for the whole industry and we’re all doing the best we can, but every phone has weaknesses.”

Jobs didn’t provide data comparing the iPhone 4 to other phones – just pictures of disappearing bars. He said he was providing data. Before the videos appeared, he put up a large sign that read “Data”. “Let’s go right to the data,” he said, knowing that providing the data isn’t necessary. The truth has nothing to do with data.

RIM, maker of the BlackBerry Bold, says that Steve Jobs’ words were “deliberate attempts to distort” the issue. In a statement released after the Jobs press conference, RIM alluded to the fact that unlike other smartphones, the iPhone uses an antenna that snakes around the outside of its metal bezel – and that Apple is giving away rubber bumpers in order to mitigate signal attenuation.

“RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage,” RIM said. “One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity.”

As you can see RIM are purely digging and twisting the knife!

However, this is merely the truth according to RIM. The truth according to Steve Jobs is more truthful. He doesn’t speak in public much, so when he does speak in public, it means a lot. You can’t come to his press conference unless you write what he wants you to write. He also gets really angry if you suggest he’s wrong. The of course doesn’t forget people think he’s a genius. Therefore surely he must be! Then again…more likely not!

He is however genius – when it comes to PR. That is clearly apparent with this latest stunt!

Last week, Consumer Reports announced that it could no longer recommend the iPhone 4, after its tests showed that the iPhone 4′s antenna problems aren’t present on previous iPhones or other handsets from AT&T. The truth is that Consumer Reports has judged the iPhone 4 “the number one smartphone”. Jobs said that too.

“It’s been judged the number one smartphone in a variety of publications. These are just a few: Wired, enGadget, PC World, Consumer Reports,” he said, as he put up a large sign that said the same thing. “So people seem to like it.” He said the Consumer Reports bit with a slight chuckle. He knows the facts shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Did Apple’s senior antenna expert warn Jobs that the iPhone’s exterior antenna might hurt reception? Of course he did. No senior antenna expert worthy of the name would stop at anything less.

On June 10, fourteen days before the launch on the iPhone 4, a Danish boffin – professor Gert Frølund Pedersen from Aalborg University’s Department of Electronic Systems – looked at the handset’s antenna design and said it might might cause signal problems. “[The antenna design] means that the user cannot avoid interfering [with the] antenna system with [his] touch,” he told a blog, according to Google Translate.

“The human tissue will in any event have an inhibitory effect on the antenna. Touch means that a larger portion of the antenna energy turns into heat and [is] lost. This makes the antenna less efficient to send and receive radio signals.”

However the truth is that the story about Apple’s senior antenna expert is apprently “total bullshit” – and that the iPhone 4′s antenna is “a more advanced antenna than has ever shipped on a smartphone”. According to Anandtech and Consumer Reports, the iPhone 4 antenna needs a little help from some tape or a rubber bumper. However, that’s just another fact. Steve Jobs thinks it needs a bumper too. He’s giving them out for free then we forget, even his own facts have nothing to do with the truth.

Jobs admits that his truth is the work of the imagination. “There is no reality,” he said. “So some guy says his iPhone 4 is having reception issues. I say there is no reception issue. Now it’s his reality against my reality. Which one of us is living in the real reality?

“There’s a two-part answer: 1, there is no real reality, and 2, it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is which reality our customers will choose to adopt as their own. Of course and how much profit Apple makes! Well, that’s all Jobs cares about!

“Of course, most people would rather live in a reality where everything works and there are no problems. And now, thanks to me, that reality exists. Because I’ve created that reality for them.”

It wasn’t the real Steve Jobs who said this. It was the Fake Steve Jobs. However, those are merely the facts. The truth is quite another thing.

Android increases smartphone market share

Liam — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:30:07 +0000

Android’s share of the US smartphone market surged 4 per cent between February and May, according to research outfit comScore, putting Google on the verge of overtaking Microsoft (what a shame!) for the number three spot behind RIM (the BlackBerry manufacturer) and Apple. Go Google!

comScore’s latest numbers give Android 13 per cent of the smartphone market, just behind Microsoft’s 13.2. Whereas Google’s share increased by 4 per cent between February and May, Microsoft (so unfortunately) fell 1.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, RIM and Apple also saw their shares shrink as well. According to comScore, RIM’s share fell 0.4 per cent, while Apple’s dropped one per cent. This however is before Apple launched the now somewhat troubled iPhone 4, which didn’t happen until June. However the sales have been good for the new iPhone!

comScore says that 49.1 million Americans owned smartphones during the three months ending in May. That’s up 8.1 percent from the three months ending in February. It stills lists RIM as the market leader at 41.7 per cent, with Apple well behind at 24.4 per cent. Palm completes the top five with 4.8 percent.

Though all the big players are losing share to Android, comScore says, they continue to gain subscribers as the overall market continues to grow. As not everyone has a smartphone yet there is still more customers to catch!

In December, Android’s market share sat at a mere 5 per cent. At this rate, Android will shame Steve Jobs and Apple in much the same way the Cupertino cult was shamed by Microsoft Windows two decades ago. However we wont wind up the fan bois too much!

Blizzard kill privacy

Liam — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:02:38 +0000

World of Warcraft forums are according to Blizzard (publisher of World of Warcraft) “where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild”. The pubisher thinks it knows how to get everyone to behave much more nicely. However they might be quite worng and become the new Facebook!

With the next iteration of the Battle.net forum, Blizzard intend to publish users’ real names in full on the official forums. According to the publisher removing anonymity will “contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before”. As expected users didn’t exactly react positively!

Current posts are not affected, however many World of Warcraft (WoW) subscribers are concerned about the privacy implications of the change (theres a huge surprise).

As one reader of the register has said: ” So every man, woman and child who plays World of Warcraft or the upcoming Starcraft 2 will only be able to post on their forums if they’re perfectly happy for anyone who may want to know what their name is. The mind boggles at the security implications from social engineering passwords, email addresses and account names or even safety if people have ex partners or stalkers etc. And then there’s the idiots who you meet in the games themselves who can now take their abuse to real life with just a little googling and rare name or background info.”

No doubt, Blizzard has carefully considered this and is willing to wave goodbye to anonymous forum participants: damn the traffic – or dam the traffic? It simply wants people to behave themselves, to create a new and different kind of online gaming environment – one that’s highly social, and which provides an ideal place for gamers to form long-lasting, meaningful relationships. ”

Bless.

However will their community of gamers agree? Maybe not!

Flash on the iPad!

Liam — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:39:09 +0000

Software hobbyists have defied Apple and indeed Steve Jobs by finding a way to get flash to run on an iPad! They have created a hack that allows Flash to run, albeit with a few limitations.

Comex (the hacker responsible for the iPad “Spirit” jailbreak) has achieved the work-around by coding an iPad port of Adobe’s Flash runtime for Android.

The so-called “Frash” is supposedly capable of rendering most Flash-based programs in Safari. Comex plans to apply the same approach to other mobile devices in time; of course including the iPhone just to rub Steve’s nose in it!

The technology uses features similar to those found in Chrome to make sure a device keeps running even if the application crashes. Frash is however limited by lack of video and keyboard input support.

Comex is confident of adding keyboard support, but video input is a far trickier proposition that is likely to require reverse engineering, according to the developer. Either way Job’s probably has his team working on an update to squash this newly developed work-around as we speak!

Apple discovers reason for iPhone 4 signal issues!

Liam — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:10:59 +0000

Apple denies that the recently released iPhone 4 has antenna issues, as reported by many disgruntled customers of the new phone.

Instead Apple has a very different story (surprisingly where it does admit some fault) by admitting to a glitch with how the signal bars are shown on the newest iPhone handset.

Apple claims it will send out a software update soon. I sure the “fan bois” will queue outside an Apple store for it!

“We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it’s both simple and surprising,” Apple stated in a “letter” on its own website.

The Cupertino-based company admits in the letter it is shocked by the recent discovery:

“Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.

For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.”

Apple said it will release a software update for the device – this will incorporate the new and correct formula – at some point during the next few weeks. It said the technical blunder was also an issue in firm’s previous iPhone handsets (3GS and 3G), and therefore a fix will be provided for these as well. However no one complained about the issue it the older units – so is there another issue with the newest iPhone? Well, time will tell, and this may not be the end of the roller-coaster yet!

Hackers hit Microsoft Windows XP support system

Liam — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:06:24 +0000

Hackers are “escalating” attacks on an unpatched and well broadcasted bug in the Windows XP help and support system.

Microsoft said it had seen more than 10,000 machines hit by the same attack that, so far, it has not found a fix for.

Windows PCs falling victim will have control of that machine handed over to attackers. Microsoft said the attacks had gone from theoretical to real very quickly and urged users to take steps to protect themselves.

Microsoft revealed the upturn in attacks in a blog post saying that it had been monitoring activity around the loophole since it was first revealed on 10 June. The loophole was found by Google engineer Travis Ormandy. It revolves around the Help and Support system built into XP. Mr Ormandy found that it was possible to exploit its ability to give remote aid and apply fixes to failing machines. Gaining access to this system renders control to the attacker.

Initially, said Microsoft, it only saw “innocuous” attacks by researchers attempting to replicate what Mr Ormandy had found.

Real exploits turned up on the 15 June. These exploits have been enthusiastically adopted by hi-tech criminals. Writing on the Microsoft Security Centre blog, Holly Stewart said it had started seeing “seemingly-automated, randomly-generated” web pages that host the exploit.

A variety of trojans, spam tools and viruses are being downloaded to compromised machines, she said.

Rik Ferguson, senior security researcher employed by Trend Micro, stated: “It’s certainly very serious and is now being actively exploited by what appears to be several different groups as you can see form the multiple payloads being delivered.”

Carole Thierault, senior security consultant with Sophos, said attacks like this were a “nightmare” to defend against if people did not regularly update or use anti-virus.

It is advised that users update both their firewall and anti-virus on a regular basis.

Statistics gathered by Microsoft suggest Portugal was taking the brunt of the attacks but users in Russia and Croatia were also being hit. More than 10,000 machines had been hit at least once by the attack, it found.

To avoid falling victim, Microsoft advised users to turn off the part of the Help and Support system that is vulnerable. It has produced an automated tool that can do this for users. Just make sure it is the official one your downloading, as hackers often replicate the look and feel of these in an attempt to hit more machines.

Mr Ferguson from Trend Micro said there were other steps users could take to keep their systems safe.

“It is important to ensure that your security software is capable of identifying and blocking malicious websites,” he said, “as you can be sure that the criminals behind this will be constantly updating their malicious files to try and avoid traditional security.”

Microsoft said it was working on a lasting fix for the loophole.

Broadband is my right!

Liam — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:32:09 +0000

Finland has become the first country in the world to make broadband a legal right for every citizen. No surprises then if all the techies of the world decide to move (or push the UK government to do the same)

From today every Finn will have the fundamental right to access to a 1Mbps (megabit per second) broadband connection. Their government has also vowed to connect every Finn to a 100Mbps connection by 2015. Even more reason for a techie to move!

In the meantime all the UK government could manage was a promise of a minimum connection of at least 2Mbps to all homes by 2012. We all no what happens when they promise something…they fail! No surprise then that they stopped short of making this a right in law.

The Finnish deal means that all telecommunications operations will be obliged to provide all finnish residents with broadband connections at least capable of a minimum 1Mbps speed.

Finland’s communication minister Suvi Linden stated the thinking behind the legislation: “We considered the role of the internet in Finns everyday life. Internet services are no longer just for entertainment.

“Finland has worked hard to develop an information society and a couple of years ago we realised not everyone had access,” she said.

It is believed up to 96% of the population are already online and that only about 4,000 homes still need connecting to comply with the law. That said though would it be a choice if some Finns didn’t want to use the internet?

In the UK internet penetration stands at 73%. Maybe if we bring this up we can have a new right too!

The UK government has agreed to provide everyone with a minimum 2Mbps broadband connection by 2012 but it is a commitment rather than a legally binding ruling. Many highly doubt most ‘commitments’ the government make.

“The UK has a universal service obligation which means virtually all communities will have broadband,” said a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Making broadband a legal right could have implications for countries that plan harsh action on illegal file-sharing. Thanks Mandelson!

Both the UK and France have said they may cut off or limit the internet connections of people who persistently download copyrighted content without paying. However it is possible such things could be implanted into the law, for example you could lose your right if convicted of file sharing for the same period of time as you lose the connection for; for breaking the law.

The Finnish government has seemingly adopted a more gentle approach. Much to the appeasement of the film and music industries!

“We will have a policy where operators will send letters to illegal file-sharers but we are not planning on cutting off access,” said Ms Linden.

A poll conducted for the BBC World Service earlier this year found that almost four in five people around the world believed that access to the internet is a fundamental right; and why shouldn’t it be?