Fergie's Tech Blog

U.S. Toll in Iraq, Afghanistan

Iraq and Afghanistan statistics via The Boston Globe (AP).

As of Friday, Oct. 10, 2008, at least 4,180 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The figure includes eight military civilians killed in action. At least 3,385 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is two fewer than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.

As of Friday, Oct. 10, 2008, at least 540 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.

Of those, the military reports 389 were killed by hostile action.

posted by Fergie @ 10/10/2008 11:41:00 PM 0 comments

NOW on PBS: Driven to Despair

Unbelievable.

In the 1940's, a holding company jointly owned by Big Oil, GM, and others who had a stake in automobiles, systematically dismantled public transportation in California, among other places.

Via PBS.org.

With gas prices spiking and home values crumbling, the American dream of commuting to work from the fringes of suburbia has become an American nightmare. Many are facing a hard choice: Paying for gas or paying the mortgage. How did it come to this? It's not just about America's financial crisis; it's also about big problems with our national infrastructure. Overstressed highways and too few public transportation options are wreaking havoc on people's lives and hitting the brakes on our already-stretched economy.

This week, NOW on PBS takes a close-up look at our inadequate transportation network and visits some people paying a high price—in both dollars and quality of life—just to get to work. Do we have the means to modernize both our infrastructure and our lifestyles?

posted by Fergie @ 10/10/2008 11:17:00 PM 0 comments

UK: Record Growth in DNA Database - Via Stealth

Nigel Morris writes on The Independent:

Britain's DNA database is being built by stealth, critics warned, as the Government admitted record numbers of profiles were added last year.

Many of the 722,464 new samples were taken by police from people who have never been convicted of – or even charged with – a criminal offence.

Britain now has a DNA database holding nearly five million samples – by far the largest in the world. Anyone picked up for an arrestable offence has to provide a DNA sample.

The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) disclosed yesterday that police took 722,464 samples in 2006-07, compared with 700,825 in 2005-06 and 520,757 in 2004-05. The total number of DNA profiles held is estimated to be about 4.8 million. Some 350,000 of those taken last year were from children aged 14 and under.

posted by Fergie @ 10/10/2008 08:54:00 PM 0 comments

UK: Chip and Pin Scam 'Has Netted Millions From British Shoppers'

Henry Samuel writes on the Telegraph.co.uk:

Dr Joel Brenner, the US National Counterintelligence Executive, warned that hundreds of chip and pin machines in stores and supermarkets across Europe have been tampered with to allow details of shoppers' credit card accounts to be relayed to overseas fraudsters.

These details are then used to make cash withdrawals or siphon off money from card holders' accounts in what is one of the largest scams of its kind.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, America's counterintelligence chief said: "Previously only a nation state's intelligence service would have been capable of pulling off this type of operation. It's scary."

An organised crime syndicate is suspected of having tampered with the chip and pin machines, either during the manufacturing process at a factory in China, or shortly after they came off the production line.

In what is known as a "supply chain attack", criminals managed to bypass security measures and doctor the devices before they were dispatched from the factories where they were made.

posted by Fergie @ 10/10/2008 07:19:00 PM 0 comments

Friday Monkey Blogging: Japanese Monkey Beer Waiters

Inspired by Bruce Schneier's regular series of "Friday Squid Blogging" posts, and my very own Monkey Theory, I've decided to start a regular Friday series of Monkey-related blog posts.

This is the very first installment. Enjoy.

Via Boing Boing.

Yat-chan and Fuku-chan are waiters at the Kaoru Otsuka sake house north of Tokyo. The two are monkeys. They bring hot towels and also serve drinks.

"We called out for more beer just then and it brought us some beer! It's amazing how it seems to understand human words," said 71-year-old retiree Miho Takikawa, who said she came to the tavern specifically to meet the monkeys.

posted by Fergie @ 10/10/2008 06:07:00 PM 0 comments

UK Hackers Use Surveillance Images For Mischief

Christopher Werth writes on Newsweek.com:

Britain has been crowned the most-watched society in the world. The country boasts 4.2 million security cameras (one for every 14 people). A typical Londoner makes an estimated 300 closed-circuit television (CCTV) appearances a day, an average easily met in the short walk between Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament. Polls seem to reflect the public's fine with it. But how useful is CCTV in stopping crime? Not very, says Scotland Yard.

At the same time, a new class of guerrilla artists and hackers are commandeering the boring, grainy images of parking lots and corridors for their own purposes. For about $80 at any electronics store and some technical know-how, it's possible to tap into London's CCTV hotspots with a simple wireless receiver. Dubbed "video sniffing," the pastime evolved out of the days before widely available broadband, when "war-chalkers" scouted the city for unsecured Wi-Fi networks and marked them with chalk. Sniffing is catching on in other parts of Europe, as well as in New York and Brazil, spread by a small but connected community of practitioners.

"It's actually a really relaxing thing to do on a Sunday," says Joao Wilbert, a master's student in interactive media, who slowly paces the streets in London like a treasure hunter, watching a tiny handheld monitor for something to flicker onto the screen. These excursions pick up obscure, random shots from restaurants and hotel lobbies, or of a young couple shopping in a housewares department. Eerily, baby cribs are the most common images. Wireless child monitors work on the same frequency as other surveillance systems.

posted by Fergie @ 10/10/2008 05:13:00 PM 0 comments

Google in Curious Alliance With Click-Fraud Detection Firm

Juan Carlos Perez writes on CIO.com:

In a development that would have seemed impossible two years ago, Google is cooperating publicly with Click Forensics, a click-fraud detection company with which it has had a rocky relationship.

Click Forensics said Thursday that Google has agreed to accept the electronically generated click-quality reports generated by the Click Forensics FACTr service. That means the process of documenting click-fraud instances and submitting reports to Google will be significantly automated and simplified for advertisers that use the FACTr service.

Google and Click Forensics make for strange bedfellows. The companies have sparred over the issue of click fraud, and the rhetoric has often approached ugly territory.

posted by Fergie @ 10/10/2008 04:50:00 PM 0 comments

Inside Operation Highlander: The NSA's Wiretapping of Americans Abroad

Kim Zetter writes on Threat Level:

A top secret NSA wiretapping facility in Georgia accused of spying on Americans illegally was hastily staffed with inexperienced reservists in the months following September 11, where they worked under conflicting orders and with little supervision, according to three former workers at the spy complex.

"Nobody knew exactly what the heck we were doing," said a former translator for the project, code named Highlander, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We were figuring out the rules as we were going along."

Former Army Reserve linguist Adrienne Kinne, who worked at the facility at Fort Gordon, won new attention this week for her year-old claim that she intercepted and transcribed satellite phone calls of American civilians in the Middle East for the National Security Agency. Senate intelligence committee chair Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) opened a probe into the alleged abuses after ABC News reported on them Thursday.

Threat Level spoke with Kinne extensively last year about the alleged systematic surveillance of Americans and others operating in the Middle East following the 9/11 attacks. She provided a number of details about some of the calls and how the operation was conducted.

posted by Fergie @ 10/10/2008 04:41:00 PM 0 comments

VeriSign and ICANN Square Off Over the DNS Root

Ryan Singel writes on Threat Level:

The internet has a huge security problem that's temporarily fixed with bent paperclips and some gaffer's tape. Without concerted effort, hackers could easily spoil what little confidence remains in the internet.

In fact, cyber-criminals are already exploiting the Domain Name System hack uncovered by security researcher Dan Kaminsky this summer -– essentially setting up fake banking websites that users reach by typing in their bank's real domain name. (That's according to research by Georgia Tech's David Dagon and Internet System Consortium's Paul Vixie.)

That's why the U.S. government finally put out a call Thursday [Actually, it was Wednesday. - ferg] for comments on whether the net as a whole should adopt new security protocols called DNSSEC, and asking who should have the privilege of controlling the master keys.

Two longstanding net infrastructure rivals -- ICANN and VeriSign -– each want the job.

Internet experts are siding overwhelmingly with ICANN, arguing that the crucial responsibility of making sure users can trust the technical equivalent of the internet's phone book belongs in the hands of the net's main oversight body.

posted by Fergie @ 10/10/2008 04:35:00 PM 0 comments

World Bank Under Cyber Siege in 'Unprecedented Crisis' - UPDATE

Via Fox News.

The World Bank Group's computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year, FOX News has learned.

It is still not known how much information was stolen. But sources inside the bank confirm that servers in the institution's highly-restricted treasury unit were deeply penetrated with spy software last April. Invaders also had full access to the rest of the bank's network for nearly a month in June and July.

In total, at least six major intrusions — two of them using the same group of IP addresses originating from China — have been detected at the World Bank since the summer of 2007, with the most recent breach occurring just last month.

In a frantic midnight e-mail [.pdf] to colleagues, the bank's senior technology manager referred to the situation as an "unprecedented crisis." In fact, it may be the worst security breach ever at a global financial institution. And it has left bank officials scrambling to try to understand the nature of the year-long cyber-assault, while also trying to keep the news from leaking to the public.

posted by Fergie @ 10/10/2008 01:02:00 PM 0 comments

About Me

Quid custodiet ipsos custodes?

View my complete profile