Smile
Rep. Peter King(R-NY) has proposed a new bill, H.R. 414 'Camera Phone Predator Alert Act.' He proposes in the bill that all cell phones with cameras must "...require mobile phones containing digital cameras to make a sound when a photograph is taken." This seems a little silly. If this bill is to be taken seriously it needs a better name, which then can be turned into a catchy acronym. Unlike the wildly popular TARP act, which stands for Troubled Asset Relief Program, Rep King's bill lacks any sort of bad analogy that can be turned into a buzz word for the cable news folks. Trust me, you don't want to leave it up to them.
Seriously, Mr. King? I really am glad you do not represent me.
Click here to read the bill in glorius entirety.
If your'e not doing anything illegal, why do you need immunity?
It’s been two weeks since the Senate’s cowardly vote to pass the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), caving in to the president’s demands. With this vote, Congress gave the president virtually all of the spying powers he has sought for so long, and delivered the one thing he demanded above all else: Immunity for his telecom buddies for their role in his illegal spying program.
EFF fought long and hard to prevent passage of immunity for the telecoms, and this vote was a serious setback for our case seeking to hold AT&T and the other telecoms accountable. But the fight is far from over. As we suggested in the immediate aftermath of the vote, Congress may have caved, but EFF has not. In the coming months and weeks, we will continue the fight against immunity on multiple fronts.
Click here to read the rest of the article, and please support EFF.org
Phreaking on FEMA
WASHINGTON - A hacker broke into a Homeland Security Department telephone system over the weekend and racked up about $12,000 in calls to the Middle East and Asia.
The hacker made more than 400 calls on a Federal Emergency Management Agency voicemail system in Emmitsburg, Md., on Saturday and Sunday, according to FEMA spokesman Tom Olshanski.
FEMA is part of Homeland Security, which in 2003 put out a warning about this very vulnerability.
The voicemail system is new and recently was installed. It is a Private Branch Exchange, or PBX, a traditional corporate phone network that is used in thousands of companies and government offices. Many companies are moving to a higher tech version, known as Voice Over Internet Telephony.
This type of hacking is very low-tech and "old school," said John Jackson, a St. Louis-based security consultant. It was popular 10 to 15 years ago. Telecommunications security administrators now know to configure security settings, such as having individual users create unique passwords and not continue to use the password assigned to users in the initial setup.
Read the full article at CNBC.com
Last week Russian tanks rolled into South Ossetia while Russian bombers were taking out critical communications infrastructure. But even before the first tank rolled across the disputed borders, another war was brewing in cyberspace.
Armies of hackers started attacking critical cyberinfrastructure in Georgia. A counter-offense of Georgia hackers fought back to control major routing exchanges. Then a disturbing escalation: Georgian hackers were able to take control of Russian strategic launch capabilities. The Russian defense AI was defeated and forced to begin the launch sequence of ICBMs toward strategic targets everywhere. At the last moment, a Russian teenager with top-secret network access gained over an open Wi-Fi in his high-school network was able to persuade the Russian AI to back off by showing it the futility of war through a game of tic-tac-toe. Oh, wait a second – that's a movie plot! None of this actually happened.
For all the reports of cyberwar between opposing arming of cyberwarriors, you'd think that a big part of the war was being fought in cyberspace. A few instances of denial of service (DoS) were being amplified by the media into a cyberwar. I got e-mails and calls from journalists asking me about the implications of cyberwarfare, the vulnerability of U.S. infrastructure and the potential for electronic Pearl Harbor. What a load of [redacted:TOPSECRET]!