http://sos.ca.gov/elections/voting_systems/ttbr/red_overview.pdf
When you know that the basic rights of citizens could be easily violated (or hijacked) you MUST demand secure and inviolate protection of such rights.
It's your duty to vote - and your right that the vote be counted. Unfortunately, when accurate tallying of the votes is under threat, there's little you can do but suffer while the bureaucrazy plods along, trying to figure out what's going on.
To that end, the report listed in the link above is a true eyeopener. We all know about how Diebold systems were hijacked by a team of researchers just a few years ago (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0307/S00198.htm). In a sickening reprise, research teams organized by the California Secretary of State were able to get into multiple machines -- sold by Diebold, Hart InterCivic, and Sequoia.
The methods appear to be very similar -- simply modify the firmware to execute all sorts of illegal commands. The physical security of the machines were lacking: the teams managed to push all kinds of 'protected' buttons without leaving a trace.
The more important (if you can say that) software security was lacking as well. Compromising the firmware, the boot loader, and arranging results to be different depending upon the mode of operation of the device -- all these suffered.
I'll leave the actual study for you to peruse and chuckle at (sadly), but I really think it's time our govt started taking the idea of Security more seriously. Trusting private vendors is simply insane - especially trusting them with the most critical process in a democracy. We have so many gifted scientists at the NSA, FBI, CIA, and many other organizations without acronyms or addresses - get them to do it, under the supervision of a bipartisan technical committee (no business folks need apply).
Quite simple - but I'm sure that can't be easily accomplished mainly because the govt is beholden to industry. I'm not even going to get into how to fix this security-wise (although I have a few thoughts), but do want to say that if the USA wants to be taken seriously as not just a superpower, but more importantly, as a democrazy (!), it needs to revamp its entire election process - from scratch.
Be safe!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
How to Take Over an iPhone
The latest darling of the gadget-crazy crowd, the iPhone, was hacked into by researchers from a company called ISE.
http://www.securityevaluators.com/iphone/
The video clearly demonstrates how the iPhone was hijacked, and their site also lists how to avoid this security breach (and how one could fall into the trap set by the hackers).
It's a question of trust -- the SSID picked up by the iPhone, if it happens to be trusted previously, is automatically used. When that happens, you are essentially going through the hacker's network, and he could easily replace a rogue webpage for the one that's being requested. This rogue page would have the necessary code to extract information from the device. Simple - but very dangerous.
As more and more companies take to giving their execs and even lower-level personnel access to such devices, they multiply their risks exponentially. We all know how Paris Hilton's phone got hijacked -- and so many details came out that must have embarrassed her. Now imagine this happening to a high-profile, high-security firm (God forbid - the DHS!) or large law firms. So many secrets...
I'd recommend that users be trained in depth about the security vulnerabilities of such gadgets -- forget the convenience for a second -- before they are permitted to operate one. All devices must have password protection at boot-up, and for launching certain applications/documents. Further, they should have a master password in case the user forgets the actual password.
I don't know if the iPhone supports such features, but it'd be worth a look if Apple wants to get big companies to get them for their fawning execs.
My personal opinion - if you MUST use data-sieves like these, do NOT STORE any information that you wouldn't want to see on a public website somewhere. Just store songs and nothing else.
Be sure to delete all IM, conversation logs, documents, personal information that you may have stored 'temporarily' for the sake of 'convenience.'
Be safe!
http://www.securityevaluators.com/iphone/
The video clearly demonstrates how the iPhone was hijacked, and their site also lists how to avoid this security breach (and how one could fall into the trap set by the hackers).
It's a question of trust -- the SSID picked up by the iPhone, if it happens to be trusted previously, is automatically used. When that happens, you are essentially going through the hacker's network, and he could easily replace a rogue webpage for the one that's being requested. This rogue page would have the necessary code to extract information from the device. Simple - but very dangerous.
As more and more companies take to giving their execs and even lower-level personnel access to such devices, they multiply their risks exponentially. We all know how Paris Hilton's phone got hijacked -- and so many details came out that must have embarrassed her. Now imagine this happening to a high-profile, high-security firm (God forbid - the DHS!) or large law firms. So many secrets...
I'd recommend that users be trained in depth about the security vulnerabilities of such gadgets -- forget the convenience for a second -- before they are permitted to operate one. All devices must have password protection at boot-up, and for launching certain applications/documents. Further, they should have a master password in case the user forgets the actual password.
I don't know if the iPhone supports such features, but it'd be worth a look if Apple wants to get big companies to get them for their fawning execs.
My personal opinion - if you MUST use data-sieves like these, do NOT STORE any information that you wouldn't want to see on a public website somewhere. Just store songs and nothing else.
Be sure to delete all IM, conversation logs, documents, personal information that you may have stored 'temporarily' for the sake of 'convenience.'
Be safe!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Stealing CPU Cycles and Hiding Between Ticks
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070711-security-paper-shows-how-applications-can-steal-cpu-cycles.html
I won't bore you with the details (you can look them up yourself) but what concerns me is that such techniques (hiding from the process list and stealing CPU cycles) will probably be exploited by hackers/phishers/cybercriminals and the like.
It's not terribly complex to do so, and the only reason the MacOS is immune to the problem is it uses a different algorithm (per the site above). Windows and *nix are quite vulnerable to this exploit, and an admin could be left scratching his head on who or what is consuming all of that CPU but not showing up in top or ps -ef.
Imagine a really pesky little malware/virus/trojan using this weakness - and you can quickly see that traditional methods of detection and removal will probably not work here. The only way to fix this problem is at the hardware level, or update the OS to use a completely different way of figuring out CPU usage and process-tracking.
Overall, the use of this threat is probably low at this point, but now that it's out and famous, expect use of this annoying vulnerability very soon (say less than 2 months).
Be safe!
I won't bore you with the details (you can look them up yourself) but what concerns me is that such techniques (hiding from the process list and stealing CPU cycles) will probably be exploited by hackers/phishers/cybercriminals and the like.
It's not terribly complex to do so, and the only reason the MacOS is immune to the problem is it uses a different algorithm (per the site above). Windows and *nix are quite vulnerable to this exploit, and an admin could be left scratching his head on who or what is consuming all of that CPU but not showing up in top or ps -ef.
Imagine a really pesky little malware/virus/trojan using this weakness - and you can quickly see that traditional methods of detection and removal will probably not work here. The only way to fix this problem is at the hardware level, or update the OS to use a completely different way of figuring out CPU usage and process-tracking.
Overall, the use of this threat is probably low at this point, but now that it's out and famous, expect use of this annoying vulnerability very soon (say less than 2 months).
Be safe!
Monday, July 9, 2007
Google Swallows Postini
http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/07/09/postini/index.php
I actually was expecting GOOG to buy up a Security company pretty soon considering how quickly it was expanding its hosted-applications suite. If you dissect the way GOOG has slowly invaded MSFT's traditional territory, it started with the Web, moving to the desktop, and now on to the enterprise level.
Right from searching the Web to looking for lost email on your desktop to mapping to price comparison and now to SAAS, Google is your go-to guy.
Thus, this purchase makes a whole lot of sense, not only from the pov of 'sensitive' companies (say banks, data aggregators) that may be chary of handing over control to a third-party (not just in terms of storing sensitive date etc) but also from GOOG's own pov in terms of compliance, due diligence in protecting data etc.
It'll help the CIOs of the hosted companies to relax a bit knowing their information is in 'good' hands. More credibility, more security, more protection.
Also important to note is that GOOG is working on making offline access to the hosted data possible using Google Gears. Now that's giving MSFT serious heartburn and sleepless nights. Wonder what other hapless ASPs are up to...
Be safe!
I actually was expecting GOOG to buy up a Security company pretty soon considering how quickly it was expanding its hosted-applications suite. If you dissect the way GOOG has slowly invaded MSFT's traditional territory, it started with the Web, moving to the desktop, and now on to the enterprise level.
Right from searching the Web to looking for lost email on your desktop to mapping to price comparison and now to SAAS, Google is your go-to guy.
Thus, this purchase makes a whole lot of sense, not only from the pov of 'sensitive' companies (say banks, data aggregators) that may be chary of handing over control to a third-party (not just in terms of storing sensitive date etc) but also from GOOG's own pov in terms of compliance, due diligence in protecting data etc.
It'll help the CIOs of the hosted companies to relax a bit knowing their information is in 'good' hands. More credibility, more security, more protection.
Also important to note is that GOOG is working on making offline access to the hosted data possible using Google Gears. Now that's giving MSFT serious heartburn and sleepless nights. Wonder what other hapless ASPs are up to...
Be safe!
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