This one's all about cybercrime, the internet, how insecure it is, why, and what can be done about it. (Right now, very little. Be careful. It's only going to get worse before it gets better.)
But for now... the news!
Glitchet News
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Cybercrime
". . . Sources said Pevkur could at any moment decide to use his knowledge of rootkits and data decryption to wirelessly break into the cell phones of high-ranking government officials, business executives, international celebrities, or whomever he chooses, really."
The coming internet of things means that every thing is connected to the internet, and every thing can now be hacked.
The coming internet of things means that every thing is connected to the internet, and every thing can now be hacked.
How two technology consultants helped drug traffickers hack the Port of Antwerp.
Den for hacking tools, zero-days, malware, and financial information is taken down along with tons of its key players.
Insecurity
If you're not familiar with the topic of password cracking, this is a detailed look at the variety of ways to do it while keeping the technical discussion easy to understand.
This is seriously useful (and cool) tech. In a nutshell: measure earth quality by cropdusting RFID sensors with drones to figure out where to grow crops to best preserve water. Also, a potentially frightening delivery method for cropdusting other kinds of tiny tech.
It's better than nothing.
"If [Dan Geer] doesn't understand how something works in detail, he says, he won't use it." This is a hell of a way to live. Soon, most people will barely understand anything they use. (Actually, I think we're already there.)
Fantastic, detailed look at the beginning of the net's infrastructure - and how early, hasty decisions that were meant to be patched later, never were. The world we live in now is a result of those early quasi-decisions.
The Open Web
A rallying cry to the way content propagates through the net now. Not through the web, through hyperlinks, but through social media streams that refuse to share, demand your attention, and lock you into themselves.
This is a difficult problem to solve, the stream. An endless inundation of content. Some quality, some not. Ultimately driven down a funnel, a bubbled existence of information made of images, still and moving. How can we avoid turning the internet into television?
The short and skinny? The algorithm gives you what you "want". It's terrible.
Build yourself an off switch.
Visualization of real-time cyber attacks routed through Norse's honeypot network. Which country do you think makes the most attacks? (Hint: it's China.)
An interesting conversation on the dynamics of a surveillance world where we have so much that can be surveiled.
Anyone who's been online long enough knows that the data never disappears. Never. But, it can be covered up.