RFID Chips: A Privacy And Security Pandora's Box?

"The team counter the argument that honest citizens have nothing to fear from RFID. "A surveillance society where RFID tags reveal personal information and enable the tracking and tracing of the individuals, shall be contested, as every law-abiding citizen should be free from any kind of monitoring," they say."

If you are able to be tracked with this chip, would you still get it?



http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081118141854.htm

Is your privacy being invaded?

Not many people are aware of how easy it is to get information from credit cards, lisences, and pass ports, they all are a type of microchip that can be scanned from a distance and Todd Lewen decided to put it to the test. He sat in his car with a system he bought for just $180.00 and was able to scan credit cards, passports, and the RFID chips implanted in certain people, basically anything with a barcode he was able to scan and withhold information. If someone can do all that for $180.00, imagine if this got into the hands of very shady people, more and more identities could be getting stolen with the advancment of technology. Where do you draw the line?



http://www.examiner.com/x-6495-US-Intelligence-Examiner~y2009m7d13-Microchip-security-questions-Is-your-privacy-being-invaded

Creepiness Factor

"The creepiness factor is a risk inherent in so-called behavioral targeting. This practice is based on marketers anonymously observing a user's behavior on the Internet and compiling a personal profile based on interests and behavior -- sites visited, searches conducted, articles read, even emails written and received. Based on their profiles, users receive advertising targeted specifically to them, regardless of where they travel on the web.

Consumer advocates worry that online data collection and tracking is going too far. Marketing executives counter that consumers benefit from seeing advertising relevant to their interests and contend that relinquishing some personal data is a reasonable trade-off for free access to Internet content, much of it supported by advertising."

I found this to be very interesting because in the article Fran Maier had just been diagnosed with a heart condition and a few days later she was getting junk mail about heart conditions and things to help it. If I would in her shoes I would be VERY creeped out and I would think someone is getting into personal information.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1999

Video Surveillance for your Home

So doing all these readings on security cameras I decided to look up some sites and to see how hard it really is to set these things up. Well I found a do it yourself website that sells cameras you can set up outside or inside your home and it's easy to do and very well priced, check it out.

http://www.surveillance-video.com/

Employers watching Employees

In New Jersey the employers of a major company went onto MySpace.com and made a discussion forum about your place of work and invited all their employees to engage in conversation, the only thing the employees didn't know is was that the company was behind it. After the employees engaged in discussion and bad mouthed some of the head bosses at the job, they were soon fired, but the company sees nothing wrong with this.

The same thing happened with the popular restaurant in Hackensack, NJ, Houstons. The bar tenders engaged in the online discussion and once the owners of restaurant found out and read what they all had to say, anyone who part took in the bad mouthing was soon fired.

I personally think this is wrong, to fire someone for speaking their mind, especially when it was never intended to make its way back to the boss. Do you think this should be grounds or termination?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124045009224646091.html

Google- too close for comfort?

Kalin, a resident in SanFran, decided to google maps her own location one day, and if you have ever done so it is at street level. Kalin was looking at her apartment window and could see her cat in the window, a clear photo, and this freaked Kalin out. If google maps could see her cat in the window, imagine what else it would do with a better camera. Kalin had put in reports for quite sometime but she just became known as the crazy cat woman. It was until she went public with it that someone actually decided to give her some answers. Although google understands her concern, it also helps with the safety of the neighborhood and garentees that the images/videos is just for locations and that no one would ever be zooming in to spy on someone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/technology/01private.html

Corporations spying on employees behind their backs

Deutsche Telekom, a major company in Germany has been hacking into thousands of their employees, cell phones, emails, and computers and keep records of everything on them. They say they are doing it for security measures to make sure no one is being dishonest in the company but do they really need to go as far as going into people's email, cell phones and so on?

It went even farther then monitoring their phones and emails, they had cameras watching their every move, how many times each employee went to the bathroom, if any of them were falling in love with each other and to see who was slacking on the job. It seems that this company is going a little too far with the surveillance.



http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/23/world/fg-germany-spying23

iSpy with an iPhone?

Apparently with a few tweeks you can actually use your iPhone as a camera to spy on someone. Here is how to do it...

1.) You need a jailbroken iphone, one that is unlocked.
2.) Install the Cydia Application
3.) Download the Veency iPhone Virtual Network Computing (VNC) Server on it
4.)This program helps you link your iPhone to your computer, allowing you to view your iPhone's display in a window on your desktop
5.)Once you've installed the viewer on your computer, you can input your iPhone's IP address (found under the Wi-Fi section in settings). At this point, it's critical that you click "accept" on your iPhone to allow the VNC connection to take place.
6.)Now that you're viewing your iPhone's display on your computer, you can use an iPhone video recorder application such as Cycorder on your hacked iPhone. This turns your camera's 2.0 megapixel camera into a video camera. Once you've set this up, you should be able to observe the live video feed from your iPhone on your computer screen. With a networked iPhone and computer, you'll be able to turn the video camera on and off, as well as adjust settings, play music and do lots of other stuff.

Good luck! Although they do not recommend you do this because you are risking it being stolen and it doesn't really hold that much video, who would have thought you could do so much with the iphone.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/how-to-tech/how-to-use-iphone-as-security-camera1.htm

U.S. doles out millions for street cameras

The US has been putting millions into putting cameras in major cities and on streets all over the country. It's costing tax payers, but its a small price to pay for safety. Although with technology now we are able to see every detail in these cameras, some people feel like they're privacy is being violated... below are some main points from the article.

-In the last month, cities that have moved forward on plans for surveillance networks financed by the Homeland Security Department include St. Paul, which got a $1.2 million grant for 60 cameras for downtown; Madison, Wis., which is buying a 32-camera network with a $388,000 grant; and Pittsburgh, which is adding 83 cameras to its downtown with a $2.58 million grant.

-Recent examples include Liberty, Kan. (population 95), which accepted a federal grant to install a $5,000 G2 Sentinel camera in its park, and Scottsbluff, Neb. (population 14,000), where police used a $180,000 Homeland Security Department grant to purchase four closed-circuit digital cameras and two monitors, a system originally designed for Times Square in New York City.

-But privacy rights advocates say that the technology is putting at risk something that is hard to define but is core to personal autonomy. The proliferation of cameras could mean that Americans will feel less free because legal public behavior -- attending a political rally, entering a doctor's office, or even joking with friends in a park -- will leave a permanent record, retrievable by authorities at any time.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/08/12/us_doles_out_millions_for_street_cameras/

Why Everyone should have security cameras

This article talks about how the increase popularity in security cameras is a good thing. In today's world you can't go down the street, especially in a big city without being video taped and it's helping police officers stop crime a lot faster. Through out the article they discuss the different types of video cameras you can install in your home. There are ones you can hide in smoke detectors, picture frames, telephones, a tissue box, and even a pen that can record up to 8 hours of picture and sound in a very discreet pen. These cameras come in either black and white or color and range anywhere from $100.00 to $1,000.00 plus. We have a camera by out garage where we can see the entire drive way from a monitor in the house and it takes a very detailed video of everything going on in that given area. It's great for when you want to see who's ringing your bell before you open your door.

http://www.articlesbase.com/technology-articles/security-cameras-why-everyone-should-have-them-861534.html

Cruisin' in Private?...Nope. Think again....

Hey Mindy! What a fine and beautiful windy night it is on the cruise ship! Fancy having you in the room next to mine! I love being on the balcony! Don’t you? Let me cross over to your room from my balcony!

You just wait Mindy! Let me get my good- hmph- leg over! Okay! Almost-… AHHHHHHHHHHH~!!!!!

SPOOOOOSHHHHH!!!!

This must have been the last words of a New Jersey Woman who thought it would be the best idea in the world to cross over from one balcony to another.

But this article isn’t about her; it’s about the fact that they have a tape of her in her room and then fifteen minutes later they have her on tape falling off her balcony, which only means THEY HAVE CAMERAS IN THE ROOMS!!

What the hell?! Now I feel COMPLETELY grossed out, especially since my seventeen year old sister and I share rooms when we go cruising with the family, and we get dressed in there! I can just picture it! A lone Indonesian man named Batok grins and records the whole thing to take to his room with him!!!! GAH!

And then worst! Can you just imagine all of the couples, marriages, and honeymooners cruising?! The damn ship REEKS of body order. Oh god.


How gross. I’m totally grossed out now. If I couple make a pukey smilie I would.

BAH! Violation!!!!

F.B.I : Galaxy Defenders...Kind Of...

For whatever reason whenever I think of the FBI, I always associate it with MIB. FBI and Men In Black working together fighting crime and alien scum. Sounds like any little kid’s picture of what they do. I mean, that’s my image of them. :P

But, I don’t think that’s what it really is, you know, them running around in black suits… How sad!! :’(

They’re going to change some laws to help the men report in an easier fashion. They want there to be less reporting and more ass kicking! YEAH!

Well… kind of. They were going to allow more than 12,000 agents the power to conduct a physical surveillance, get information, and interview the bad guy’s buddies earlier than before since now they don’t need to play “Mother May I” with the supervisors. At least before they can do any of that, they need to prove that this guy is actually a baddie, and will provide some serious threat to the inner workings of America.

Basically, the FBI just wants investigations to flow more “organically” and let the agents decide on what they feel is the next step to take. They want less confusion and have the agents become more pro-active.

Some people are worried the FBI will accuse them of race or religion and they responded saying that racial profiling is illegal, and will not succumb to it.

And now, wearing a recording tape under their clothes to record conversations now need approval, except when the person is a high security threat.

At the date of the writing of this article, the new laws were in the process of being written. No word on how they turned out.

In Soviet Russia: Blog Reads YOU!

Oh boy! It’s time for some jokes! In America, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, party can always find you! In America, you listen to man on radio. In Soviet Russia, man on radio listen to you! In America, you watch television. In Soviet Russia, television watches you! In soviet Russia everybody spies on you!

Huh? That last one wasn’t a joke. The writer of this article explains how in 1991 when she was living in Prague she was being spied on by her neighbors. Can you just imagine? Being spied on constantly by your neighbors? Having them watch your every move, turning you into a scared, guarded, bitter person?
Yikes! :’(

Oh wait, we’re already being watched. All of the phone taps, emails being read, texts being intercepted and cameras watching you.

Doesn’t it kind of bother you how any mall you walk in, there are cameras WATCHING you? You end up feeling almost criminalized. I mean, you’re innocent. Your records are clean, and you didn’t even get detention in high school! How is it that we’re almost always being watched and stalked? Aren’t we supposed to be trusted? Aren’t all people innocent until proven guilty? I guess this isn’t the case anymore…

A watched group of people creates a group of unfeeling, unintelligent, scared populace. Ideas can’t be freely exchanged for fear of punishments. People are not allowed to be themselves! Dum dum dum!

Living in a country with freedom such as western European countries and North America should be something to thank the genetic lottery. Hopefully more laws are made to protect privacy and make sure the future doesn’t turn out to be like 1984.

Top Internet Security Suites: Paying for Protection

PC world put Anti-Virus suites to the test and came up with a Top 10 list. First place went to Norton Internet Security 2009. Their malware detection percentage was 99% and sends our new updated virus information to your computer every 5 - 15 minutes. Below is the top 10 list.

1. Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009
2. BitDefender Internet Security 2009
3. Panda Internet Security 2009
4. McAfee Internet Security Suite 2009
5. Avira Premium Security Suite 8.2
6. Kaspersky Internet Security 2009
7. F-Secure Internet Security 2009
8. Webroot Internet Security Essentials
9. Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2009

http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,158157/printable.html

Zoot alors! Zhey Have Ze Nayked Piktures of You!

Oh hoh hoh! Ze nayked piktures! Mah specialty! How zimple it is to now take nayked pictures of strangers! Oh hoh hoh! :3

Yep! It’s true! A new machine has been invented where instead of a metal detector and some large lady with a man haircut violating you; you now walk into a machine to be violated in a different way! Hurray! :D

You stand in a machine and it spins you around while it takes naked pictures of you.

Even though I am confident with my own body and the way it looks, not many people are, and this has caused an outrage in even non-prudent Europe!

Why the nudie pics, you ask in wild bewilderment. Well, it’s the newest way to view if anybody has ANYTHING that could be viewed as potentially dangerous. There would be some guy or chick looking at your picture in a private room, and he pushes buttons to say if you’re clear or not. These machines don’t really tell you that they’re taking a naked photo of you, and neither does the guard who escorts you into it. It just happens.

The whole process only takes less than two minutes which is just as long as it takes for somebody to remove their belt and shoes, pass under the arc and redress.

The idea of not having to take off my belt, jacket, hat shoes and purse sounds lovely, but naked pictures of my body, just doesn’t. I’m sure there would be a camera inside of the guard’s office to make sure that no touching happens… but still. I just don’t feel the need to have a nude shot of me taken, and have some guard look me over.

But maybe it would create the “gyno effect” on the guards. It’s a gyno’s job to look at vaginas all the live-long day, so nothing fazes them, or turns them on anymore. It’s just an organ and maybe, these guards would see as just as suspects and harbor no sexual desire for us.

Who knows? All I know is they should tell people what they’re getting into before a machine digitally rapes them! Le Gasp!

Stalking...Is F.U.N!

Gosh! Where the hell are you? Isn’t this something people always ask each other? Wouldn’t it be deliciously lovely to know all the time? <3 I mean I can FINALLY know for sure if my friends really are where they say they are! How perfect! But wait. They’ll know where I am too. This is a problem.

There are two new companies one called “Loopt” and the other “Buddy Beacon” which track your whereabouts, but show them only to subscribing friends. For almost 3 bucks a month, you and a few buds can keep a close watch on each other. I mean it’s perfect when you are going to meet up with them and they’re the kind of people who are always late, or the kind that always get lost.

You don’t have to call them, or if you call them 15 million times, and they haven’t answered, you can see that Joey and Sally are currently at make out point, and can now feel totally uncomfortable when they arrive.

But things can be pretty sucky too. What if your gossipy cousin asks to track you? Or your parents? That could be a major drag. You see, even if you don’t use this service, you can be one of the many people that uses GPS or internet, and the phone companies know exactly where you are; which is currently at home, stuffing your face, or being generally lame like me.

So think about it. There’s no hiding if you have your cell phone tucked away in your pocket, No escaping society unless you unplug from your phone. What if your significant other is the crazy clingy type? You can never have life reflecting walks at night without being stalked.

Oh yeah. A lot of bad can come with this. It’s a blessing and a curse all at once. (Yay being cliché!) Because there is no stopping it unless you have an older phone or don’t have the internet functions or apps, you are still being stalked. At least the companies know your whereabouts.

Aw crap. Now I have to get a decoy phone so AT&T can think I’m having an awesome time somewhere, and not sitting at home writing blogs. :O(

Say Everything

This article is about young people and how they express themselves via facebook, myspace, live journal, blogs, etc. They interviewed a girl in her 20's, Kitty, she was up to date with all the latest networking sites, facebook, myspace, livejounral, and so on. They found out how much you could find out about this girl just by reading her blog and her myspace and facebook. The person interviewing Kitty found out her parents had died a few years back and that she had an eating disorder and that she had a very deep dark depressing time in her life, but now she is much better. The interviewer learned all this about her just from her sites without even meeting her. The rest of the article shows all the different ways that young people portray themselves on the internet. It also discusses how sites like facebook and myspace became so popular. They say it all started with the Real World and the obsession of reality television. It's like when you have your facebook profile and you update with photos, and status updates, it's like you're a celebrity in your own world, but is this a good thing or a bad thing?

http://nymag.com/news/features/27341/index7.html

Virginity Tests? Today? Yea. Today.

Eeep! Virginity tests? What the hell? How can anyone fathom such a thing? Maybe this is something only women can understand. (I’m not trying to be a crazy feminist here. XD)

I mean, how awful is it to be subjugated to such a test? A woman’s virginity is a private and personal matter. Women shouldn’t have to be virgins to get married. This should be a choice, not something to force upon women. Supposedly women over in India in a city are being tested to verify their virginity.

Young women sign up for a mass marriage ceremony (what in the hell?) and can only receive a government present (kind of like a dowry) if they take this test. If they “pass” they are given 6,500 rupees which is about $132! Typically these girls are from extremely poor families where this kind of money would be SUCH a blessing for them.

It’s so disgusting and shameful how they dupe women into taking this exam just to make money. In India, you see, virgin brides are such a hot commodity, since pre-martial sex is frowned upon, so this is how they can get “away” with administering such a test. These poor young girls either sign up out of free will, or get forced into these mass weddings in hopes of securing a finically stable future, even if it means getting married before they feel ready and mature enough for such a commitment.

But the official Neeraj Dubey denies any sort of test. He says that they are making the young women take pregnancy tests, since none of the men that signed up want the child of another man.

Everybody is then all hush hush about it, since it is a logical reason, but the truth is, they are invading these poor girls’ privacy by administering these virginity tests. Virginity should be a choice, not something required of women! But I digress…

Several of the women ended up complaining about how they felt violated and humiliated. I mean, I’m sure the way these women were tested probably wasn’t in a comfortable building in a private room. It must have been a mass test, such as the weddings are.

Cold and Unfeeling.


What a sad way to usher these girls into womanhood.

You Said What?! Wait, I’ll Just Call Good Old Barack, He’ll Know.

Have you ever eavesdropped on people? Do it the old fashioned way of sticking the bottom of the cup to your ear and the top to a door in hopes of hearing mommy tell daddy what she got your for Christmas? I know I’m guilty of such! Eavesdropping on people’s conversations are just so man darn fun that the American government is still doing it.



Yes my friends, the government is still eavesdropping on your phone calls and e mails. By the millions, actually! They are harvesting your conversations by the millions, thanks to this program called Pinwale. So, your call to Sally to complain about how Mindy (who always complements herself and her assets) really has a dumpy little butt? The government has it on tape.



Originally, Pinwale was supposed to record only foreign communications, but it’s being expanded to include domestic. Now it archives foreign AND domestic calls AND e mails without any discretion over where they’re coming from and who these people are [like are they suspected of something serious]. It just records everything. That phone call to your boyfriend at 3 a.m. that may have gotten a little too interesting and make your sheets damp? Yep. They have that on tape too.



Just so you know, so far, no one is doing a THING to stop what’s happening. I mean Mr. Obama DID mention that people are indeed being taped, buuuuuut nothing is still being done.



Really? Wow.

The Day The Ads Died…I Wish.

Oh the internet. The virtual watching hole of life. All people from all walks of life use the internet. We have the Zebras, who are your typically middle-aged inept internet users. They can also include the technologically stupid. The Zebras take a drink in their watering holes, lapping up pop-ups, strange e mails with even stranger attachments and VIRUSES. Then some alligator hiding under the surface of the water is watching, the family of Zebras. So innocent. So ripe for the picking. You see, the zebra can’t physically see the alligator under the murky waters. Although they are taught from young age that the watering hole is dangerous, and that there are “rules” and “privacy policies” [which sound like something good], and that there’s this proverbial “screen” that protects you from the alligators…what was really being said, is that ignorance is bliss and the alligators WILL indeed eventually kill you, and since you just won’t know when or how, you might as well lap carefully but gaily.



So the Zebras wade into the water, thinking they’re relatively safe because they are following the rules of interaction with the watering hole and… SNATCH! One of them is suddenly dragged under! He’s bobs above the surface, visibly missing appendages, and it’s clear to see… the alligator has gotten to personally know his prey.



Yup. That’s the internet for you. I always viewed myself as the Bonobo monkey [minus all the casual sex]. I would say Bonobo monkeys are like the mart internet user. They proceed with caution, always, but on occasion do lose a monkey or two. Buuuuuut, they do fling poo at Zebras and alligators, so it evens out, I guess.



Whoops. Okay. Back to explaining my imagery. So, the alligators are the ad companies, and the water hole represents the internet. Something we need and can’t successfully live without, any more. The snatch and death of the Zebra? That’s a pop-up taking your personal info back to their database. Hmmmmmm.



There have been complaints to try and change the privacy policies . Even going so far as to suggest renaming that section to “advertising information”.



“Spurred by the Federal Trade Commission, some key players in the advertising

industry, including Google and Yahoo, have been exploring much more direct

ways to inform Internet users about ad targeting and give them better controls”



The article then goes on to explain how ads should have a purpose, and an explanation. That would save the morons who try to shoot the duck to win a new iPod! And that would prevent thousands of that are made, and are run, that annoy the Bonobo Monkey’s a.k.a the smart internet users.



The FTC also tried to lobby for a change in laws that allowed the user to see the that these ads have collected, but that got quickly turned down. Going on the supposition that people wouldn’t understand, and may suffer from rage [ha-ha].



Can you imagine how cool it would be to be able to opt out of ads, without having to do it manually in a labor and time intensive routine that has to be done every time your cookies get deleted?! I mean who wouldn’t want ads to not be like alligators waiting at the bottom of a water hole waiting to eat you alive?! Meee! Oh, and way to many people to count. There would be way to many people jumping on the ‘no-ad bandwagon’ and thus it would generate no revenue and make the internet…well…almost unprofitable, I guess. The would economically screw things up, and seeing as we’re not exactly doing so wonderfully right now…It’s no wonder why these laws weren’t changed and why there wasn’t much of a fight about it when the lobbying efforts got thrown out the window. Right?

To Tweet or Not to Tweet? That Would Be My Internal Struggle If I Was Iranian…

As if being in the middle of a bloody, tumultuous political uprising isn’t bad enough, where wearing the wrong color can get you bludgeoned and through in a ditch! The SNS Twitter has reinvented the idea of activism, as a result of Iranian citizen tweets on up-to-date rallies, beatings, death’s and marches in uproarious Tehran. There has been public outpouring of support and interest as a result of Iranian citizen tweets. Even media outlets have begun to read Iranian citizen tweets as a means of remaining connected to Iran.



But for all it’s praise and glorification, I haven’t seen anyone stand back and examine the potential problems that can arise from tweeting activism in the middle of a political uprising… until I read “The Tragic Pitfall of Iranian Citizen Journalism” in the Huffington Post.



Iranian tweeters have used the internet to expose what’s going on in their country…But haven’t they also exposed themselves? The Huffington Post article raises an alarming theory—that internet activism has consummated the marriage of censorship and surveillance. Previously informants had to infiltrate a group, be microphones, have secret cameras, know about face to face meetings and understand code to be able to spy on people that were considered dissenters or threats. Now? A search of ‘sensitive words’ is done through the internet on SNS, emails, search engines, etc and logged in a database for investigation. What does this mean for the Iranian election citizen journalist tweets? Why has te government not been able to stop them from tweeting? Well first, this means that somewhere there is a database compiled of ‘sensitive words’ that can eventually be traced (fairly easily) to a location, time, and person. Yep, there’s no anonymity on the internet folks. You. Can. Be. Found. Next, besides the obvious fact that Iran would want to keep news of their uprising within their means of interpretation for public dissemination, these tweets are convenient for them. This cuts out the work and the middle man and has left these citizen journalists marked…For what?... I’m sure we’ll be reading tweets about this soon, as it dominoes through the Iranian tweeter activists…

The Twitter (R)Evolution…Courtesy of Tehran.

Normally I would start my word soup with some sort of anecdote about yours truly or try to add a dash of lameness, buuuuuuut….this time I can’t! I don’t tweet! I confess! I’m not a Twitterhead, rarely do I set eyes on that page [was it not for the Iranian Twitter sensation I would occasionally peer at]. I never found the appeal, really. Plus, who wants to read about my random ramblings in 140 characters or less, not even I do. I’m a (wo) man of many words. How can ANYBODY sum up the words in their head in as little as 140 characters?! Characters ARE NOT letters, mind you. They include spaces and punctuations. So it’s not even like, ‘Ok. You have 140 letters are your whim to type as you please. GO!’ Ah! Somehow, however, the Iranians are able to do it. And they’re able to tweet about a revolution no less. I can’t even explain what I ate for breakfast in 140 characters. The opening quote of this article:



“Pray that today at 4pm Toopkhane Sq. will turn into a sea of green, biggest

march in 30 years, Mousavi will be there”



That’s 117 characters! AHA! Yes! I counted it out MYSELF. Yet, it’s such a powerful image. It evokes something in the reader. Like I said, I can’t even say something that well written about breakfast…but then again, I’m not organizing a revolution against my morning eggs.



The government has been trying to block all modes of communications between the protesters of the current regime. They’ve tried blocking websites, and monitoring text messages, but Twitter? They can’t seem to get to Twitter. Twitter seems like Iran’s kryptonite. They can’t stop it. It’s a moving, living, embodiment of the Iranian people. Even news broadcasters are relying on it for information. This is the first time in HISTORY that news in a censored country has come out so raw…and more importantly…so true. People are taking pictures with their camera phones, uploading them, and sharing these blood chilling images with the world. Iran seems to be blocking Facebook and YouTube on and off, but just can’t seem to get to Twitter.



But, here’s the thing. Apparently, politics isn’t even what Iranians blog about so much. High on their blogging list of things there is also religion and…poetry. How romantic, no? I guess the Iranian government doesn’t think so.



But Iran isn’t the only country to block the internet. China is also a big player in censoring what its citizens can see, read or write about. For example, China blocked access to YouTube on the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square. In countries like North Korea or Cuba, only a select group of….very very few…have access to such websites and only have access for very specific reasons. However, nor China or Iran can keep the internet blocked forever. They economically depend on the internet to help make revenue. Even though ‘censored countries’ get tsk-tsked by the rest of the world, their main reason for “loosening up” is mainly for financial reasons—not for it’s citizens. So what does this mean? Well, it means that eventually, humble me thinks, China and Iran will have to embrace the blogs and the internet because it’s Pros outweigh its Cons, at least financially speaking. I mean, you could probably order a singing goat from China, and a magical lamp from Iran. Money DOES talk. And to make it…They’ll have to let other versions of talking occur as well.

Oh You Can Tell By The Way I Use My Walk… I’m a Terrorist?

Can you just imagine that while you’re ordering your kebab from your friendly neighborhood kebab stand on wheels, someone is watching you? Somebody’s blearing eyes are watching your every move on the black and white (maybe color) screen! AHHHHHHHH!!!! Creepy nightmare, right?!?! But..AHHHH! It gets worse! This is actually true ! In lower Manhattan they have super sneaky cameras watching your every move. Even reading your license plates. So, some New Yorkers and contacted the New York Civil Liberties Union, and in conjunction they decided to sue the United States Department of Homeland Security for ‘failing to disclose records about..’ this heist in downtown Manhattan (as I like to call it).



This whole Lower Manhattan security initiative stalks you from Canal Street all the way to Battery Park! Civil Liberties groups are saying that this is an AWFUL idea because this plan and what it entails was never fully disclosed (or even slightly) to the public. So, if I understood correctly, in the name of watching out for ‘suspects’ they also have the right to be privy to the every move of innocent citizens? This doesn’t sit well with me. Who’s to say what these records could be used for? What everyday citizens could possibly be accused of? Where has privacy gone?! I mean it’s not as if we’re all terrorists with bombs strapped on, right? Maybe someone just wants to leave their mistresses house in peace, without worrying that his wife might be able to get her hands on this footage. Is what he doing wrong? Maybe. Does he have the right to do it in privacy. Absolutely. I doubt this suit will ever make it to court and win. Maybe they’ll read my blog and change their mind? Until then, make sure you smile pretty while you walk down the downtown Manhattan street chomping on that kebab or big ol’ hot dog of yours….

Metro Card: Your Ticket To Ride Or Your Ticket To Being Tracked?

Who would have thought there would be a day when a murder suspect could be acquitted and proven innocent solely on the information his metro card provided? You might say, perhaps, that such a thing was inevitable. I agree.



We are entering the age of “ Privacy Lost”.



In this article we learn brothers Jason and Corey Jones were convicted of shooting a government witness that provided information on drug and gun cases. Both men had records spotted with drug trafficking, guns, and drug usage—and a link to the victim, which made them prime suspects. After a witness came forward to i.d. them, they were facing charges that could have sentenced them to the death penalty. Jason Jones, however, kept on insisting they had detained the wrong man. If his alibi was true, it would have placed him 5 miles away from the scene of the crime at the time the shooting took place. His defense lawyers used an unconventional method to prove their client’s innocence—they asked the NYC Transit Authority to run a trace on his Metro Card (which police had found in his wallet when he was arrested) for the day of the shooting. When the trace came back, Jason Jones’ alibi checked out. He was exactly where he said he had been, according o the traced metro card times.



When I first read this article, I thought “Another way we didn’t even realize we could be traced”. Just like every other “social convenience”, the Metro Card gives you one kind of mobility and takes away another. Then I started thinking of the countless innocent people in jail, and how perhaps something so simple as having the technology to trace Metro Cards existed when they were convicted, they might have been acquitted and leading very different lives. So, maybe…just maybe… even though some privacy has been lost—a new kind of freedom has been gained?



1. How do you feel about being able to be tracked by your Metro Card?
2. Do you think being “trackable” by your Metro Card is more useful than invasive?

Jon - Kate + Eight = Broken Family

Oh! My favorite! I love reading the news and feeling enriched while indulging in my guilty pleasure of reading about ‘celebrities’. I personally have always smelled the demise of the Gosselin family since the tots were about three. Jon and Kate always seemed to…act. They bitched and moaned to each other, and not in the loving old married couple kind of way. They were NASTY. Kate always yelled at Jon like she was the master, and he was the slave, and not in the sexy kind of way. She was downright degrading, at times! But, Jon isn’t innocent either! He was always the blubbering passive aggressive kind of guy. His anger boiling in some deep part of his core, while waiting to throw the contents over the fortified plaster walls on some attacker. The media got to them, according to what I read . However, I’m pretty sure the stress of raising multiples [in front of the world] is another reason. Raising eight kids, six of them being the same age [5 years old] seems like a Herculean feat to me. I mean the Duggers have 18, but they rang in ages. The media attacks don’t seem like fun either, though. Within the recent months, tabloids have been cranking out gossip, and [tall?] tales about ‘who said this’ and ‘who did what’. Kate’s own brother has also hopped on the ‘I Hate Kate’ train parade. From what I’ve read, Kate has surprisingly had nothing to say about her bother other than the fact that she’s disappointed.



Oh and speaking of raising multiples, the writer of the article I’m basing my blog on, wrote about how she feels media infiltration of your family life is the worst thing. You know what? I agree! Imagine cameras following you around allllllll day, taping how you and your spouse interact, how you handle your kids, how you relate to the world. And then, after filming for 8 hours [a day; which they need to do in order to produce a 30 minute segment], your day get spliced up and patched back together to portray whatever the T.V. stations deems to be the juiciest storyline. Things get taken out of context, stares are cued in at a certain point to illicit a reaction from the crowd, events get cut, and BAM there’s a day you don’t even remember having. Jon and Kate + 8 kids… feasible, I think, after much hard work and dedication. Jon and Kate + 8 kids + Cameras + Paparazzi + World Speculation….impossible to come out alive.

I Always Feel Like Somebody’s Watching Me

The urinal test . Everybody who’s anybody (hardy-har-har) has downloaded it, or mooched the test off of a friend, or has at least heard of it. If you haven’t well let me fill you in. it test’s the player’s ability to be a gentleman when the urinal fills up. These are called apps. It’s what is sold us or in some cases GIVEN to us free of charge.



“Hey wait a second. Free?” you say.

“Why yes. Free”

“What’s so horrible about that? I LOVE free annnnnd I’d LOVE to see if I’m a pissing gentleman”



Well the problem isn’t necessarily connected to the Urinal Test app, but more so to the tracking apps. “Tracking? Huh? Like tracking deer for the hunt?!” Basically sir (or madam), you’re being tracked by large companies all paying to get your attention. “What kinda apps ‘track’?” Well…since you asked… It’s really any app that has to do with location. For example: YouTube, Yelp, Urbanspoon, TMZ, and even your good friend the GPS. All of these apps and many many, many more work together to get your attention to mosey on to their store and spend your hard earned dough on their product. Yup. The apps you hold near and dear to your heart can be spying on you. Right now.



How many of you just frantically went on to your cell phones and tried to cancel some of your apps? How many of you at least took a PEEK at them, so make sure you didn’t have any of those treacherous tracking apps on your phone? It’s a pretty creepy idea, since we’ve become such a digitally dependant society. Can you imagine no phones? No computers? NO INTERNET?! You wouldn’t be reading this right now, since you’d be too busy trying to rub two stones together to make a flame and cook your dinner. “Oh man! What kind of information do they collect?” Well, my friend, at least 20 pieces of info on you such as consumer data, including income, housing, and spending power. What you do on your 3G isn’t only for YOUR eyes. Somebody is spying on you , and gathering it to make you one SUPER consumer. The scary thing (as if it isn’t scary enough) is most people don’t even know they’re being tracked. Which is why taking your self off of the company’s list is near impossible.



Since none of these apps collect or ‘pin-point’ your exact location, nor your exact home address, you can’t sue them! So far, as I’m typing this, there are no rules in place to regulate or protect your privacy from these apps. It seems almost as if you have a little secret squirrel in your pocket! Now your Blackberry, PDA, Zune and ‘whatever-is-left’ users aren’t immune to the tracking apps. If you’ve ever downloaded a free game onto ANYTHING, friends, you’ve been tracked. The evolution of the cell phone is mind boggling; I mean they practically speak for us! At least to advertising companies they do!... Soon we’ll have talking advertisements!...Oh wait. We do.

Cyber Attack Ahoy! .Gov, Bring In The Masked Savior!

-Man the battalions! Prepare yourself men! A great attack is coming!





-Sir, excuse me, sir, but isn’t this attack on the internet?



-Ahh….Well… What? The inter-what?



-The internet sir. You know. That place you go on the computer for vast amounts of knowledge?



-Uhmm….My reports told me it was a graaaaaaave attack!



-Yes. It is. But it’s online. Sir.



-Oh. Well… You men can go back home then.



EEEp! That sounded like a lame car insurance commercial! But seriously! There was an attack on state websites recently. The important .gov websites at the Head of State, White House, and even the Pentagon websites have been suffering cyber attacks by Cyberbullies! (Whom I picture to look like large tubby men, with humps on their backs, broken glasses, and an awful haircut with a maniacal laughter).



But maybe, they’re not so terrible since the State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the attacks aren’t plenty or horrible, but more so annoying. There have also been attacks on South Korean based websites, and they speculate North Korea could be the possible ‘hump back’ culprits. (How unoriginal of South Korea to assume that. Waa-Waa-Waa). But America confirmed ever so nicely (and slowly) that there is NO evidence that would lead anyone to think North Korea is the perpetrator.



So, how bad are these ‘attacks’? Well, they basically flood websites with fake/ghost computers that are carrying viruses…Which makes things…shall we say, difficult. Oh boo.



No word on what the government is doing, but I’m picturing super computer geeks coming to the rescue complete with flowing capes!



How dreamy. <3

Every Step You Take…Every Move You Make…

Picture yourself sitting on the veranda of your beautiful summer home in St. Tropez over looking the ocean, hands behind your head, smoking a cigar… When all of a sudden you’re surrounded by men dressed in black, faces covered, magnums pointed in your direction from every angle, and someone shouting at you to get on the ground… While you’re on the ground, the big brute whose knee is jutting into your back yells into the back of your head that you are under arrest by the U.S. Government. Your eyes peer in through your sliding glass doors and find a sleuth of officers tearing apart the inside of your house, dumping drawers and their contents on the floor… They haven’t read me my rights! They haven’t served me with a search warrant! Isn’t this illegal?!... Actually. It’s not.



One of 3 judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan wrote “The 4th Amendment’s requirement of reasonableness…applies to extraterritorial searches and seizures of U.S citizens”. So, what does this mean? It means that if the government can come with a reason (a “reasonable” reason), they can tap your phones, search your property and not have to Mirandize you when they bring you into custody. Reasonableness… Seems quite vague to me.



My question here is, “What constitutes ‘reason enough’ to ‘trump a United State’s citizens rights”?



This is one of those “issues” that I’m sitting on the fence about. Why? Well, I want the government to catch suspected terrorists before they’re able to carry out any attacks that could kill an innumerable amount of victims. My fear is… Are we opening up Pandora’s Box? If they can do this to suspected terrorists with U.S citizenship/ U.S. naturalization who are living outside the U.S., what’s stopping them from expanding their reach to other ‘reasonable’ crimes? Of course, the old saying goes “If you have nothing to fear, you have nothing to hide”. Which I believe it true to some extent… But isn’t this taking away our “option” of being able to retain some measure of secrecy? Aren’t the definitions of ‘privacy’ and ‘secrecy’ very similar?



I just decided to write about this article , because I feel like its one more step that’s being taken (right under our noses) to living in a global “Big Brother” world, where everything we do can always be monitored in the name of some unnamable social benefit…

Can You Hear Me Now?! England Spies…On You?

I’ll say…this is an Orwellian nightmare, my comrades! So, from this moment forward, I shall be addressed as “master and commander and ruler of the whole word”. Thank you comrades. Let us plot against Snowball! Muahahahahahahah!



Whoopsy! Did I let myself get carried away? Well, I guess that’s fine since according to what I read England may be suffering their own Orwellian nightmare, or at least it will be soon. A lady by the name of Jacqui Smith proposed the idea to be able to go through everybody’s text messages, calls and (gasp!) emails.



Everyone over in Queens Country seems to be in a major tizzy. English citizens feel they are being called ‘guilty until proven innocent’. Guilty until proven innocent?! What in the Queen’s name is going on here?! The English government has basically given this response “Look here. Keep your knickers on. It’s not like we’re going to have EXACT copies of what you’re saying. More like, a general idea and exact times, is all. Oh. And we’re storing it on a super computer. Cheers!”



I even took the time to read some of the comments about this article, and they all hate Ms. Smith. I would go so far as to say, they hate her enough to want to feed her to the monster that sleeps under Stonehenge. After all, isn’t that what Stonehenge really is? Killer monster teeth that are sitting pretty above the earth until one day it decides to SNAP shut?



Ahem. Back to work.



I mean, can you just imagine how horrible this plan would be? Napoleon, the Orwellian pig of course, reading about your life?! Even if you have the most boring life in the world (a category I’m sure I could run for the title of, seeing as I don’t tweet because I’m not leading a revolution), it just doesn’t feel right being spied on like you’ve committed some kind of heinous crime. I can’t even have people hold my cell phone for too long, for fear or people reading my texts! My cover would be blown, the intelligent façade I’ve worked so diligently to create would be shattered once people knew I looked up baking blogs on my iPhone. If I was English, I would say “Chaps! I won’t be subjected to such treatment! I’m going to start a Twitter Revolution until the Queen hears my cries! Huzzah!”

Lancaster, PA

Lancaster, PA keep a close eye on itself.

In this article, the very small town of Lancaster, PA which is only 4-6 miles around has over 165 cameras in the streets. They installed the cameras to help cut down on the crime in town, the prostitution, and any other vandalism. They thought it would cut down the crime rate but it didn't. If anything it is helping them solve murders, theft, crime, prostitution etc. The problem with the new camera installation is that anyone can sign up to be a camera monitor. This worries the people of the town because if they have a neighbor they don't really like they're afraid of being spied on. Also they found a wife who wanted to use the camera's to spy on her husband and his mistress but obviously the town did not allow that.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-spycam-city21-2009jun21,0,3641451.story

Big Brother is watching your house.

George Orwell's Big brother theory has become very true. Even if you don't believe it just look at technology today. There are camera's everywhere, on the street, in buildings, your phones, you have google earth where you can see your own house on a map via satellites. Britian alone has 4.2 million cameras on the streets, thats 1 camera for every 14 people and each person is caught on a camera an average of 300 times a day. Within 200 yards of Orwell's former flat, there were 34 cameras recording every moment. Although it seems over the top to have this many cameras, it comes with it's good and it's bad. Although these camera's may help with theft and crime in gerneral it's also a loss of privacy and some people can't handle being watched 24.7 so it's for you to decide.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23391081-details/George+Orwell,+Big+Brother+is+watching+your+house/article.do

Protect your children from the Internet's Seamy Side

This is an article on internet safety for children and what parents can do to protect their children from the dangers of the internet. A study was done what happens when a girl would type Barbie into google, you would expect maybe a barbie website or links to toy stores, but the top 20 hits link were softcore porn sites. The word "fashion" was also typed in and within the top 20 matches fasion fetishes and hardcore pornography were related. The article gives parents and kids what they should and shouldn't do.
Stay out of chat rooms
Do not reply to unknown emails
do not give out personal information
never share password, even with friends,.
Never arrange a face to face meeting with someone you meet online.
Don't believe everything you read online
Do tell a parent if something online makes you uncomfortable.
Make use of available controls on your ISP
Make sure computers are out in the open where family members father.
Know what sites your children are visiting; stay involved.
Let children know which sites are appropriate and which are off limits.

Ebay switches from No to Yes..

For any of you who have an ebay account and have noticed ever since the day you signed up that your email inbox has began to fill up with junk mail, here is why.
Ebay has over 19 million members and for atleast 6 of these 19 million members, and any new members who signed up after the "Swtich" date, you're preferences were switched from No to Yes automatically. What this means is, on ebay there is a setting that you can select No or Yes to allowing ebay to give out your information to advertisers. Before they made the switch, it was automatically no, but now it is Yes and over 90% of ebay users don't know about this and that you can switch it back to no. Not only is it emails, its also phone calls and actual junk mail in your physical mail box. So for all you ebay users you might wanna change your setting and probably get a new email address because if it's like mine, 99% is junk mail and I had to delete it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/11/technology/11GEE2.html

Response to net neutrality question

As this was the one question I chose to not answer on the final exam, I thought I should address the idea of net neutrality in my blog.

Net neutrality is the notion that, because the internet is one enormous network where everyone has access to everywhere at anytime, every site should be accessed the same way at the exact same speed and there should not be any interference with this open networked concept (keeping the net, short for internet, neutral/equal). A few problems exist with net neutrality though, such as the bigger websites paying more to have their site run faster than smaller, less known sites. As we do live in a capitalistic nation, where the more money you have, the more options are open to you, but the question becomes, on this open network, should capitalism come into play and affect the speed of some of the larger sites in comparison to the smaller ones? Should capitalism exist everywhere except online, even though more and more aspects of life are turning to online?

My take on this whole concept is, even though I don't think it's fair that the speed at which certain sites can be accessed in relation to others can be different in some sites' favor, at the end of the day, if we live in a capitalistic society (which we do), we can't have capitalism for some aspects of life, and then completely ignore it in other parts of life. If money talks in the offline world, I guess it's only fair that money should talk in the online world too. The larger companies/sites have worked hard to become as successful and powerful as they could, and should be able to benefit because of that. Hard work should pay off.

War...thankfully it's just in the cyber world

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/07/mydoom/

Talk of a "cyberwar" is now spreading after more than two dozen high-level websites in the U.S. and South Korea were knocked by denial-of-service attacks this week. Some are blaming a five year old "worm" as the source of the traffic, which has been under the influence of an unsophisticated hacker who it appears that did little to sustain his borrowed code against detection.

The attacks have spurred a thousand headlines and helped to toss some fuel on some long-standing international political flames, with one party blaming another for the aggression. As reported by several media outlets this week, websites belonging to the White House, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Secret Service, National Security Agency, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Defense and the State Department, in addition to sites for the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq were thumped by denial-of-service attacks over the July 4th holiday weekend. The Washington Post website was also affected by the attacks, caused by a "botnet" of more than 50,000 computers in several countries (China, South Korea, and Japan) influenced by the hacker.

At least eleven sites in South Korea, including sites for the Ministry of Defense and Presidential Blue House were also targeted, spurring the Associated Press to publish a story mainly quoting anonymous South Korean intelligence officials blaming the attacks on North Korea.

Chips...not the edible type

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hHq9P54bYfXbHp-aDgs01gePq1twD99CDMT00

This article was very fascinating and dealt with the fact that passports, drivers licenses and other documents all contain chips. These chips allow the government to detect each persons identity, just by strolling down the street. This is an incredible breach of privacy, the fact that I can be walking down the street and the government can, within seconds, have my drivers license ID and basically know all this information about me.

I understand the fact that we are in a post 9/11 world where we are constantly trying to find and arrest terrorists, but this is just plain ridiculous. I want to have the freedom to go and buy a sandwich and have the solace in knowing that an FBI official will not know what country I last visited, just by looking at a scanner.

Are we living in the novel 1984, where the government is turning into "Big Brother?" If the government is able to gain knowledge about our passports, they can probably get medical records, as well as past jobs of employment and other personal information. This is a very scary development and a total breach in the privacy of the individual.

Oh Bush.....

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/07/psp/

The Justice Department is investigating whether the furtiveness of Bush's warrant-less wiretapping program had an influence on terrorism prosecutions by hiding exculpatory evidence from defendants, according to five inspectors general this past Friday.

The report (mandated by Congress), also warned that President Bush's post-9/11 extrajudicial intelligence programs involved unparalleled collection of communications, and the government needs to be careful about storing and using that data.

Senator Russ Feingold (Wisconsin Democrat), who sits on the Intelligence Committee, said the report showed the programs were "outrageous...This report leaves no doubt that the warrantless wiretapping program was blatantly illegal and an unconstitutional assertion of executive power...I once again call on the Obama administration and its Justice Department to withdraw the flawed legal memoranda that justified the program and that remain in effect today.”

The government has only admitted to eavesdropping on calls and e-mails, where one end was overseas and one person was suspected to be a terrorist, but has never officially confirmed that it "sucked" in the telephone records of millions of Americans or eavesdropped wholesale on the internet.

Response to class discussion- gatekeeping/credibility

We spoke about gatekeeping and credibility when it comes to online blogging, citizen journalism, and of course the infamous Wikipedia. The big problem with Wikipedia is that it is a form of citizen journalism, where regular, non "experts" are the ones who are putting out the information for other viewers to then go and research.

In my opinion, this is a huge problem, and even though our class discussion didn't change my overall opinion about this topic, it surely gave me a different angle to view this problem. As I believe that a research site, such as Wikipedia, should have "experts" per say who are delivering the important information for viewers to then research, our class discussion brought up the key point, well who are these "experts" and is their credibility really that much more valid than a regular joe schmo?

In my opinion, the answer is definitely yes, there are more educated, intellectual, studied people who have been working hard and studying to become these "experts," and the general public should be more inclined to listen to these people instead of possibly uneducated people who do this for fun. That's the point of blogs to me, for these regular joe schmos to give their personal opinions based off of journalistic pieces that are 100% objective. But in a research site like Wikipedia, where people go to find true facts and information, I think you shouldn't have uninformed, studied people writing the information with possibly some subjectivity thrown into the articles, because that's what blogs are for. There are people out there who are naturally smarter and then on top of that, work and study harder to gain more information to then put out to the general public, and it's important to have these people gatekeeping and researching the information that the public sees.

Class Discussion-Gate Keeping & Objectivity-Thoughts?

In class we spoke about the significance of gate keeping and credibility. Is gate keeping significant? Is objectivity important when it comes to the flow of information such as the news?

As I listened to my fellow classmates feelings about these questions I thought about my own feelings in my head. While I believe we should be able to write as we wish and have the freedom to hold our own opinion and public expression, I do believe there is a "good" way to keep a steady flow of information. I believe gate keepers such as editors etc. have a very important role when it comes to the release of news and information to the public. While I understand certain information sources like to spin their information to their benefits there is still a consistent flow of information. It's consistent because there is an editor or someone of that nature reading through the information and deciding what will and will not be placed in their publication.

I do agree with one of the critics in a short clip we watched. A hierarchy of knowledge of necessary. I like the idea that someone there is always someone higher in the pyramid (except the top point of course) that double checks what is going on in the organization. There does need to be someone to make a call on what should and should not be there.

Back to one of the original questions in regards to the importance of objectivity in the news. I do believe that it is important for some information to remain neutral. I think it is important for the audience to get the facts and then analyze the issue in the way they want whether it's posing their own questions and talking with friends or building on more research from that point forward.

Watch out for those blind hackers...

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/blind_hacker/

A legally blind Massachusetts phone hacker, Matthew Weigman, 19, was sentenced to over 11 years in federal prison. This phone hacking followed his guilty plea on computer infringement and witness intimidation charges earlier this year. There is no parole in the federal system so the 135 month term will likely keep Weigman behind bars until 2018.

Weigman is known in the telephone party-line scene as "Li'l Hacker," and is considered one of the best phone hackers alive. He is known for using social engineering to influence phone company workers and others into revealing confidential information and entering commands into computers and telephone switching equipment on his behalf.

The FBI had been chasing Weigman since he was 15 years old, and finally arrested him in May of last year after he just turned 18. When interviewed, Weigman stated, “I’ve been interested in phones since I’ve been about 8...I talked to technicians when they came down here to do things on my phone.”

ATM Vendors

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/atm-vendor-halts-talk/

An ATM vendor has succeeded in getting a security talk taken out of the upcoming Black Hat conference, after a researcher announced he would reveal a vulnerability in the system. The researcher, Barnaby Jack, works for Juniper Networks, and was going to show how he could "jackpot" a popular ATM brand by exploiting a vulnerability in its software.

But Jack's employer released a statement saying it was canceling the talk due to the vendor's intervention. The statement read, "Juniper believes that Jack’s research is important to be presented in a public forum in order to advance the state of security...However, the affected ATM vendor has expressed to us concern about publicly disclosing the research findings before its constituents were fully protected. Considering the scope and possible exposure of this issue on other vendors, Juniper decided to postpone Jack’s presentation until all affected vendors have sufficiently addressed the issues found in his research.”

Truly a scary thought...

Web Vigilante

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/former-perverted-justice-member-arrested-for-ddosing-rolling-stone-radar/

Bruce Raisley, a software developer, has been charged with "launching denial of service attacks against websites belonging to Rolling Stone, Radar, and others." Raisley allegedly launched these attacks to block access to 2 articles written by the publications that reported embarrassing information about him. And of course, by him trying to do this has brought even more attention to his case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Erez Liebermann stated, "his actions were alarming in that he chose to attack third party websites when he didn’t like their content...It’s one thing for him to be unhappy with a website. It’s another thing for him to attack third parties that have not done anything, which causes damage on the side of the victim companies and on the side of any affected computer.”

"The Car of the Future" Police-mobile

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2009/07/04/holmes.super.police.car.cnn

When I think of a car of the future this police vehicle is exactly what comes to mind. The year 2012 is the expected date of production for this new and improved police car aimed to really fight crime. This high-tech piece of equipment has many gadgets that resemble an oversized iphone.

The car has a 15 inch computer consoul, radar screen, cameras in the front and back, a license plate recognition device, and can read up to 15000 plates a minute. At the start of production this new piece of machinery is said to produce 10,000 new jobs. Whenever a new company comes in the empoloyment of many is soon to follow. What does this new wave of technology mean for the common American citizen? We are, for sure, going to have to watch our speeding! If I was a criminal I would definitely not want to mess with the cops that have this car. The police will be able to be more efficient than ever before. The video compares it to the Bat-mobile.

Head of British Secret Intelliegence Service Personal Information Given Up on Facebook

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/07/05/uk.spy.chief.facebook/index.html

Being a British ambassador and the newly appointed head of Britain's international spy agency definitely does not entitle you to a normal life. John Sawers' wife made family vacations and their place of residence open to the public when she decided to blast information on the public networking site, Facebook. It is understood Sawers daughter recently joined the site, but given her father's status wouldn't dream to place private information on the site. What was his wife thinking?

Sawers was appointed only 10 days ago to become the head of the Secret Intelliegence service, also known as the M16. The article critically states how detrimental this could be to his personal security. While all signs point to Sawers doing a great job while in this position one must wonder if this information placed on Facebook could be harmful to his well being. When he is head of the M16 he will be in charge of a new British cybersecurity organization. The new organization will be in "charged with making sure that all the intelligence services are not vulnerable to hacking, identity theft, or phishing." When a person is in charge of so much information and new technology their identity should be as concealed as possible for him and his family's safety.

Response to eXistenZ

eXistenZ was unlike any movie I'd ever seen before. While we talked as a class about a few possibilities of why this movie would have been made and what was the possible idea behind it, I have a slightly different perception of what this movie might have intended to teach its viewers.

I thought that this was somewhat of a wake-up call to teenagers who play violent and graphic video games to warn them of the difference between virtual reality and reality. eXistenZ I felt, was trying to portray that some teenagers (and even some adults) would think it was alright to transfer and act upon what they saw in virtual reality to reality, leading to several deaths or serious injuries. The movie was trying to give the sense that to some, there is a blurry line between fantasy and reality, where whatever one sees in video games is possible to occur in reality. This is why there have been the instances of stories where humans are doing some absolutely ridiculous acts of violence because they are imitating what they see in their favorite video games.

To some, the line between virtual reality and reality is non-existent, and this could lead to danger for other humans around these few examples. This idea, I thought, was what eXistenZ was trying to poke at.

Response to class discussion- desktop interface

When asked by Professor Zaslow to think about/come up with different possible interfaces instead of the only one I was familiar with (Microsoft's desktop), I was fairly stumped and uncertain about what my answer would be.

I have only known the desktop, as I have always worked with a PC, and never with a Mac. I am only familiar with what the desktop has to offer and the way it is set up/arranged. To me, the recycle bin makes sense for me to put garbage, or files I did not need any longer, also trying to remind me and other users that it is good and important to recycle in real life when necessary. Internet Explorer would be where I would go to search or "explore" the web/internet. Word is where I would go to type up assignments and essays, simply made up of varying numbers of "words." And finally, "My Network Places" makes sense because all computers are part of much larger networks, and web access is obtained through either a wireless network or a wired network, which can both be found here.

To me, saving my assignments in something other than files that I personally name, doesn't make sense at all, to the point where I cannot even think of how I would change this interface. The problem was not that I didn't understand what was being asked of me, but instead, to actually imagine and come up with other possibilities that would make sense to me.

E-mail Surveillance?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/us/17nsa.html?_r=1

This article discusses the renewed scrutiny that the National Security Agency faces over the extent of its domestic surveillance program. The major problem faced is the recent "intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans." A certain team is made to go through bulk e-mails messages. This is done without court warrants. The handling of these messages infuriates many because it's an invasion of American's privacy.

They claim to have a hard time distinguishing between American and foreign e-mails. That is just inexcusable though. With all of the technology that we have today there must be a way to know the difference between foreign and American messages. Are they claiming to not know the difference or is the government choosing to snoop and blaming it on negligence?

The agency is permitted to collect e-mails from private Americans if there is reason to believe they could be involved in overseas contact/e-mails. Who determines which Americans are examined? It seems to me that almost anyone could be a reasonable suspect when the government is deciding. What constitutes a person to be of personal "liking" to the agency?

The article states, "In April, the Obama administration said it had taken comprehensive steps to bring the security agency into compliance with the law after a periodic review turned up problems with “overcollection” of domestic communications. " An over-collection of information is what leads to an invasion of privacy. This must be monitored and fixed obviously.