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Tag Archives: Security

Data Killer Erases Discs At The Press Of A Button

By David Ponce on 05/15/12 • Leave a comment!

By David Ponce

Getting sensitive data off a hard drive isn’t as simple as deleting the files. The true geeks in the audience already knew that. But in case that’s not you, just know that simply deleting a file only tells the operating system that the area on the disc it once occupied is now free to be overwritten. But it’s not until this done, that your data is really gone. There are programs that will format, and reformat any given area with the aim to do just that, but the Data Killer machine goes the brute force way instead. It passes strong magnetic currents over the discs, realigning the microscopic bits on the surface of the platters without damaging them, and it does this quickly, at the simple press of a button.

Our product line-up can handle everything from a single 3.5-inch hard disk, to 14 of them at once. With our larger models, you can also instantly obliterate the data on a notebook PC.

There’s no word on price or availability.

[ DigInfo ] VIA [ Engadget ]

In A Throwback To Days Of Yore, USB Stick Lets You Use Wax Seal

By David Ponce on 05/01/12 • Leave a comment!

By David Ponce

The best way to make sure no one accesses your documents is to use a strong encryption algorithm and a long, hard-to-guess password. But hey, everyone knows that, and it’s new and modern and sort of expected. To add an old-timey twist to your data securing needs, the above Top Secret Custom Made USB stick is made out of porcelain. This makes it possible to apply a wax seal to it. Seal is unbroken when you receive the stick: you know the contents haven’t been peeked at. If it is… well, then we hope you used a password, like we told you.

You get to pick your colour of wax from bordeaux red, orange, pink, blue and green. You also get to pick which “classic letter” to have imprinted on the wax press. The entire kit consisting of the wax, the press, the porcelain 2, 4 or 8GB stick costs €35 or about $46.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Geek.com ]

Anonymous Hacks Into Syrian President’s Email — Password Was 12345

By David Ponce on 02/08/12 • 2 Comments

By David Ponce

Syria’s uprising could take on a new twist in the coming days as news that hacker group Anonymous has gained access to Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad’s personal email account surfaces. Unfortunately for the leet pride of most of Anonymous’ hackers, they didn’t have to do much work to gain entry as Al-Assad’s password was simply “12345″. Once in, the group had access to 78 different inboxes belonging to either the president or his staffers. We have no doubt that these emails are being read as we type this and once the good bits start to surface, it’ll be interesting to see who gets embarrassed. We just need to look back a few months at the fallout from the WikiLeaks cables to see how damaging this type of information can be to governments worldwide.

We should soon find out more. In the meantime, if your password is something as stupid as “12345″ or even “password”, do yourself a favor and just go change it. It doesn’t even need to be anything too elaborate; a short string of hard-to-remember unrelated random characters is less secure than a longer string of say, a few related words. Like “idontlikerememberingpasswords”.

VIA [ Geek.com ]

Be Careful What You Say On Twitter, It Could Get You Kicked Out Of The U.S.A.

By David Ponce on 01/31/12 • 7 Comments

By David Ponce

Because it’s well known that terrorists will openly talk about their plans on Twitter, the DHS and CIA monitors the service for keywords. This practice has led recently to the unfortunate detention and immediate deportation of two Brits visiting the States. And what were the evil, offending tweets that had them explaining themselves for 12 hours? Leigh Van Byran said:

“free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America?”

Destroy… as in “get trashed and party” as he explained to the Daily Mail. And Emily Banting offense? A Family Guy quote!:

“3 weeks today, we’re totally in LA pissing people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin’ Marilyn Monroe up!”

So watch out, what everyone knew has been confirmed. A sense of humor is an automatic disqualification for anyone working at DHS, as is common sense, logic and any of the skills that everyone outraged at this story clearly has. And the message is clear: foreigners, watch what you say online. The dumbest stuff will come back and bite you.

[ The Daily Mail ] VIA [ DVice ]

Polo Shirt Will Also Stop Bullets

By David Ponce on 01/20/12 • 4 Comments

By David Ponce

Products like this are certainly nothing new, but it’s nice to be reminded now and then that it is possible to don a little protection while avoiding the look-at-me-I’m-a-high-value-target look altogether. Miguel Caballero Bulletproof Men’s Polo Shirt features a cotton exterior for an attempt at a casual look, while the innermost layer is microfiber. It tries to keep you warm in the cold and wick the sweat away in the heat. The middle layer is the company’s proprietary bullet proof section, and comes in three flavors:

    OPTION IIA: 9mm / 40 Smith and Wesson FMJ
    OPTION II: 9mm / .357 Magnum / 38 Super / Mini Uzi submachine gun
    OPTION IIIA: Uzi machine gun / MP5,MP9 submachine gun / 44 Magnum SJHP / Stab-proof

Some clients include “action hero Steven Seagal, King Abdullah of Jordan, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, Prince Felipe of Spain.” A small degree of peace of mind comes at a hefty price, of course. It’s between $3,500 and $4,500.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ RedFerret ]

Facebook’s White Hat Credit Card Rewards Responsible Hacking

By David Ponce on 01/03/12 • 1 Comment

By David Ponce

Following in the footsteps of Google and Mozilla, Facebook launched a program called “White Hat Bug Bounty Program” last July. The idea was to encourage hackers in the wild to find security holes in Facebook’s code and report it to the company for a reward. This reward takes the shape of the credit card you see above. As long as the vulnerability is disclosed to Facebook by following their Responsible Disclosure Policy and the hacker does not go public with the vulnerability information until the hole has been fixed, they are promised to get a reward of at least $500. There is no set maximum, though the highest amount paid so far is $5,000.

Possessing this card has become somewhat of a status symbol as only 81 of them have been doled out so far.

Ryan McGeehan, manager of Facebook’s security response team, told CNET in a recent interview. “Having this exclusive black card is another way to recognize them. They can show up at a conference and show this card and say ‘I did special work for Facebook.’”

As anyone who’s ever come across a hardcore hacker surely knows, it is respect and appreciation, almost as much as money, that can drive them. A token such as this is a smart move. Too bad the program was unable to prevent Zuckerberg’s personal photos from leaking into the wild.

Alarm Lets You Know Your House Is Burning Down Through SMS

By David Ponce on 11/28/11 • Leave a comment!

By David Ponce

We’re not entirely sure what would be better: to come home to a house in ashes or to be texted of this fact as it’s happening. If you’re the type who’d rather know, the FireText fire alarm can be setup to send a predefined text message to up to 4 recipients. It’s quad-band GSM and is battery powered so there’s no wiring needed.

It’s £90 or about $140.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Geeky Gadgets ]

MyRingGuard Can Save You In Case Of Emergency

By David Ponce on 11/01/11 • 1 Comment

By David Ponce

This is a great idea. The MyRingGuard is a prototype silicone and plastic ring that sends a distress text message along with your exact GPS location to a pre-determined set of people in case of emergency. They can then decide to either come to you, call 911 for you or walk around their apartment while flailing their arms, in agony over how to best come to your help. Say you’re out running late at night and trip and injure yourself. Or you fear for your safety for whatever reason. Instead of reaching for your phone just press your thumb to your index finger and the ring will communicate through Bluetooth and send out those distress signals. Think of it as a sophisticated panic button.

Currently the MyRingGuard is in the crowdfunding phase, not on your usual Kickstarter but on another social funding site. For $39 you can get a ring, though you’re free to contribute more to attain the stated $30,000 goal. However it appears to only work with Android powered phones at the moment.

[ MyRingGuard Funding Page ]

Security Flaw With iPad 2 Uncovered

By David Ponce on 10/24/11 • Leave a comment!

By David Ponce

There are now two “security flaws” with iDevices. The quotation marks are there because one is real, the other isn’t. First about the one that isn’t real. You can make calendar appointments, email and text through Siri on an iPhone 4S even when it’s locked. This is not a security flaw, it’s a feature. You don’t like that feature, you can turn it off through the settings. The entire point of Siri is to not have to access your phone while it’s locked! Anyway, now onto the real security flaw and this one is on the iPad 2. Uncovered by 9to5Mac.com, the flaw is explained in the video above. If you can’t access it for some reason, here’s how it works.

When on the lock screen press the standby button until you see the red slider for powering off the device. At that point, close the Smart Cover and take it off again. Press cancel… and you’re in! Now you don’t have complete access to the iPad 2, only the last screen before going on standby. If that happens to be the main menu, you can scroll applications but you can’t launch them. The problem is if you were in the middle of an email, or browsing something private, then that will show. This is a big issue.

Of course the word will eventually spread and the gap closed in a software update, but until then here’s a little fix. Go to Settings in the General tab and disable Smart Cover Unlocking. That should do it until a fix is out.

[ 9to5Mac ] VIA [ Techcrunch Gadgets ]

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