sorry for the lack of updates loyal followers but my life has been awfully hektik these few weeks. between playing child carer for my nephew and neices and trying to cook food for them that they will actually eat i have zero alone time.
actually makes me wonder, if i ever have kids then i'm making it my job to look after them EVERYDAY. i mean sure it's hard but you should've thought of that before you had kids...anyway i'm not bitching i'm just saying...
sometimes i think parents should have to pass some sort of test before they're allowed to have kids. harsh but you would have less kids growing up screwed in the head.
but then again, who would the corporations prey on if not the slightly less intellectual and unfortunate. GG
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
last but not least. Japan's Divine Wind
Preferably on Channel Ocho.
But then, you have the ones that make you wonder. For instance, the Brits burned Washington, D.C., in 1814, and out of nowhere came the first recorded tornado in D.C. history. It trashed the living shit out of the British army and conveniently put out all their fires on the federal buildings.
After ensuring a conveniently sweet remodeling for the White House.
Where it Gets Weird:
The first Mongol invasion of Japan took place in November 1274 and consisted of 23,000 men and 700 to 800 ships. They were at sea for two weeks, made fantastic time and even managed to establish a beachhead on Hakata Bay, Japan. When the Battle of Bun'ei broke out on Nov. 19, Japan was so weak it looked like they should have started scouting out other islands to move to.
This was before Tommy Lee Jones came to straighten them out.
But no matter -- they weren't the type to give up. They simply came back with a second, larger invasion in 1281. This force consisted of 140,000 soldiers, 4,000 ships and a two-pronged invasion via China and Korea. It was pretty much the size of six or seven of the previous invasion force. It was the best the Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty could muster, and you can bet the Mongol leader, Kublai Khan, expected to conquer Japan this second time around.
If you're now picturing Japan as a powerful typhoon magnet where you have to carefully slip in during narrow windows between storms, stop. Storms almost never hit the Hakata Bay, and one of the invasions wasn't even in typhoon season (they tend to hit in the summer, and the first attack was in November).
So exactly how low were the odds of the Mongols getting trashed at Hakata Bay? According to Japanese sources, a typhoon like the one that hit the Mongols during the second invasion occurs "once a hundred years or once a few hundred years." Or, as was the case with Mongolians, every time they invaded Japan.
All their cunning was useless.
The Mongols never tried to invade Japan again.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Sorry for the inconvenience...
hello friends and followers, the jill is back after.
due to unforseen circumstances and, well...IT...*mumbles* i was away for awhile but now i am happy to announce that i have returned~
so what do i have for you as a show of gratitude that nobody deleted me from their list, money? jewels? riches?
close, a nice article on how the feds are trying to silence an xbox hacker. enjoy.
The US federal government is attempting to silence a talented hacker by preventing him from offering expert testimony at an upcoming Xbox 360 jailbreak trial.
According to Wired, the defendant, named as 28-year-old Matthew Crippen of Anaheim, allegedly ran a garage-style business modding Xbox 360s for $60-$80 per unit.
Unsurprisingly, the Feds want to lock Crippen away in the slammer for up to three years.
But Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, the designer of the Chumby and author of the 2003 title Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering, wants the court to know that mod-chipping is not a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
"Basically, what he did was insufficient on his own to violate anything," Huang told Wired.
"[Of course], the bottom line [is that] I would like to see the scope of the DMCA limited to an appropriate statute that respects fair use, one that respects traditional rights."
Unfortunately, Huang may not get the opportunity to defend Crippen in court, as federal prosecutors have asked the judge to preclude Huang from testifying.
The feds believe that Huang's opinion would be "legally irrelevant" as fair use is not a defense to a DMCA charge and therefore legally "inadmissible."
We beg to differ.
Democracy isn't about silencing your ideological opponents, stifling inconvenient testimony or painting Lady Justice green to protect corporate interests.
Huang should clearly be allowed to speak, whether or not the Feds want to hear what he has to say.
So, warez 4ever, dudez. Don't give up the fight!!!
due to unforseen circumstances and, well...IT...*mumbles* i was away for awhile but now i am happy to announce that i have returned~
so what do i have for you as a show of gratitude that nobody deleted me from their list, money? jewels? riches?
close, a nice article on how the feds are trying to silence an xbox hacker. enjoy.
Feds attempt to silence Xbox hacker
The US federal government is attempting to silence a talented hacker by preventing him from offering expert testimony at an upcoming Xbox 360 jailbreak trial.
According to Wired, the defendant, named as 28-year-old Matthew Crippen of Anaheim, allegedly ran a garage-style business modding Xbox 360s for $60-$80 per unit.
Unsurprisingly, the Feds want to lock Crippen away in the slammer for up to three years.
But Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, the designer of the Chumby and author of the 2003 title Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering, wants the court to know that mod-chipping is not a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
"Basically, what he did was insufficient on his own to violate anything," Huang told Wired.
"[Of course], the bottom line [is that] I would like to see the scope of the DMCA limited to an appropriate statute that respects fair use, one that respects traditional rights."
Unfortunately, Huang may not get the opportunity to defend Crippen in court, as federal prosecutors have asked the judge to preclude Huang from testifying.
The feds believe that Huang's opinion would be "legally irrelevant" as fair use is not a defense to a DMCA charge and therefore legally "inadmissible."
We beg to differ.
Democracy isn't about silencing your ideological opponents, stifling inconvenient testimony or painting Lady Justice green to protect corporate interests.
Huang should clearly be allowed to speak, whether or not the Feds want to hear what he has to say.
So, warez 4ever, dudez. Don't give up the fight!!!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
#2. The Dick Family
After fruitlessly combing the deserts of Sudbury for her, Michael turned to the Suffolk Free Press for help. The newspaper to write a story on the Dick family's predicament and even decided to include a picture of the family to make Liza feel homesick.
So, the family gathered out in the street, and the newspaper photographer snapped their picture. Sure enough, running the picture of the family farm did the trick! Michael Dick and his family were reunited with Liza just a few hours after the paper hit the streets.
Thanks to the tireless work of brave newsies.
After taking a good look at the newspaper photo, Liza realized something ...
"Hey, that's me!"
She didn't know they were there, and she didn't know a photo was being taken. After a decade apart, at the moment her family posed for a photo for a newspaper story about how she was missing, she just happened to be standing within 100 feet of them.
She described the experience as "very strange" and said, "Perhaps it was fate." Yeah, call it what you want. We'll leave it at "weird as shit."
Wait -- why the hell is there an arrow sticking out of that one girl's throat?
Saturday, October 16, 2010
The Synchronicity of Dennis the Menace
Just a few hours before Ketcham's Dennis the Menace hit the nation, on the opposite side of the Atlantic, issue No. 452 of the British comic The Beano hit newsstands even though it was dated 17 March, 1951. This particular comic was notable for featuring the first appearance of what went on to become cartoonist David Law's most famous creation: Dennis the Menace.
Fair to fair, this kid looks like he could kick Dennis's ass.
Where it Gets Even Weirder:
So, their comics strips had the same exact name, and for some bizarre reason were published on the same exact day. That means the guy in the UK just ripped off his American counterpart, right? Or vice versa?
Was this just belated revenge for Yorktown?
Besides, aside from this freak occurrence, the two characters had nothing in common. Hank Ketcham's take on Dennis was based on his own son, and David Law's Dennis was more like a gritty reboot of Calvin.
Something tells us this kid actually does piss on stuff in his comics.
Though they clearly bought their shirts from the same thrift shop.
Also, a down-and-out Doc Brown had a cameo.
Seriously, this kid rocks.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Google Analytics on your Blogger Account
Spunchops has been kind enough to write a tutorial on how to add google analytics to your blog page. it lets you track various things about your site including page views, traffic information and referrals(google ads).
it's basically used to spy on who clicks your ads, how long they stay on your page(spammers?) and where in the world they're from.
while his tutorial did help me i won't paste the whole thing here but clicking THIS will take you directly to it.
i ran into some problems and managed to find more info about how to set it up properly here.
ENJOY~
coming up next part 3 in the strange coincidences series. =D
it's basically used to spy on who clicks your ads, how long they stay on your page(spammers?) and where in the world they're from.
while his tutorial did help me i won't paste the whole thing here but clicking THIS will take you directly to it.
i ran into some problems and managed to find more info about how to set it up properly here.
ENJOY~
coming up next part 3 in the strange coincidences series. =D
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Two Brothers, One Bike, One Cab
In July 1975, newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic went nuts over the death of 17-year-old Erskine Lawrence Ebbin, the poor kid having been knocked off his moped by a taxi in Hamilton, Bermuda.
You see, the previous year his brother was killed ... on the same street. Also by a taxi. Both kids were 17, and they were hit almost one year apart. Oh, and they happened to be driving the same moped.
Moped show-boating claims two more lives.
Where it Gets Even Weirder:
Before we go any further, please know that Cracked had to check with several overseas libraries and even the Library of Congress to verify this report.
WE STOP AT NOTHING.
The two brothers were killed by the same taxi.
With the same driver.
Carrying the same passenger.
Almost exactly one year later.
The Final Destination movies exist, folks, and you are living in them right now.
It's worth noting that death can occasionally be bribed with coke.
sorry for the delay i was helping my friend out with some computer problems, yay i got paid!!!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Tips and Tricks to help protect yourself from malicious hackers.
“Their intention is to infect your computer so that you don’t even know you’ve been infected.”
Hardly reassuring words for computer users or business owners. Cybercrime continues to flourish for one simple reason: it’s profitable.
Hackers use two broad approaches: Either they sneakily install malicious software on your computer to control it or steal your information, or they trick you into giving up your information voluntarily.
The malicious software can enter your system when you visit a shady website, or open an e-mail attachment carrying a virus. If it infects your machine, it might hand control of your computer over to networks that will rent it out to spammers, who will use it as a junk-mail-sending machine.
Or worse, it might install “key-logger” software that takes careful note of every word you type – usernames, passwords and all – and sends it back to hackers, who can co-opt your online accounts, take your money, and even represent themselves as you to your friends.
None of these things bode well for small businesses, which are often focused on the job at hand more than they are on information security. But there are new responses to these threats. In increasingly perilous seas, how do you stay on course without giving in to paranoia?
Here are some suggestions:
1. Don’t open unexpected attachments, even if they come from friends.
E-mail attachments are a great source of malware. But nowadays, they don’t just come from dodgy strangers, they can come from your best friends.
When certain malware infects computers, it will scan e-mail address books and send malicious messages to every contact, making it appear that the message comes from a friend. Oftentimes, they’ll contain messages such as “Here’s the PDF I said I’d send,” but they’re getting more clever and more subtle all the time.
If someone you know sends you an e-mail with attached files that you weren’t expecting, or that seem strangely generic (“Hey, check out these pictures!”), make contact with the sender first to make sure it’s genuine.
“If it sounds unbelievable, it totally is,” says David Mirza Ahmad, a cyber-security veteran and one of the founders of Subgraph, a Montreal-based security start-up. “Look for cues in the e-mail: Is the e-mail worded a little differently? Is it normal to receive random files from this person? If there’s a file, there should be context.”
In fact, any unexpected behaviour from friends on social networks should be taken with a grain of salt. Social networks are the latest frontier for hackers because they engender so much trust. If a Facebook friend starts posting items they wouldn’t normally post, be careful: their account might have been compromised, and the items might be a trap.
2. Update, update, update.
Even if you never opened another attachment in your life, you can still let viruses in, even by doing something as simple as visiting the wrong website at the wrong time.
The software that runs modern computers is enormous and labyrinthine, and hackers are always finding new holes that they can use to sneak malicious software onto computers – usually by injecting. And software makers such as Microsoft, Apple, and anti-virus makers, are constantly rushing to patch those holes. It’s a never-ending game of cat-and-mouse.
This is why it’s essential to keep your software up-to-date, and up to the minute. You need to update three things: First, your operating system (such as Windows or Mac OS), which receive updates to plug security holes as they’re found. By default, these will install automatic updates – it’s important to let them. Second, your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome) needs to be up-to-date for the same reason. New versions are free to download. This goes expecially for users of Internet Explorer 6, an older version of the popular browser that was well-known as a security nightmare.
Finally, your virus-checking software needs constant updates to know which malware to look for today.
3. Be very careful about following login links from e-mails.
The next trick is to keep from getting tricked. Increasingly, scammers will try to convince you to give away your login and password for a phony web page that’s set up to look like a real one.
It’s called “phishing” – as in, going fishing for victims. You’ve probably already received some that use banks as bait: An e-mail arrives, prompting you to visit your bank’s website to “verify your login information.” It will direct you to a page that looks like your bank’s website, but it is really a false front that passes your login information on to hackers.
So far, these have been fairly easy to spot. But scammers are getting smarter: they’re now sending e-mails that look like new-friend or message-waiting notices from social networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn.
Always be cautious. Watch out for vague-seeming notifications. Pay careful attention to the URL at the top of the web page. If there’s any doubt, don’t follow the link from the e-mail, but visit the social network’s page directly and log in there.
4. Use different passwords.
Password safety isn’t the be-all and end-all of security, but it’s an important rudiment. You’ve probably been regularly warned not to use simple or easy-to-guess passwords. But it’s probably even more important (and, yes, more annoying) not to use the same password for every online service you use.
The reason is simple: If, by installing a key-logger, or tricking you with a phishing trick, a hacker gets the username and password for one site, you can bet he’ll turn around and try it on every other service you’re signed up with. You could wind up being locked out of everything at once.
If remembering a dozen different passwords is unwieldy (and it is), consider using at least two groups of passwords – one for not-so-important sites, and different ones for the really sensitive logins. Or, Mr. Mizra suggests using desktop software that uses one master password to access all the individual passwords - software such as the Mac OS Keychain or PasswordSafe for Windows.
5. Don’t think you’re smarter than the criminals.
So you know the ropes on the Internet. You know a malicious e-mail when you see one. Still, sometimes curiosity gets the best of you, and you click, thinking that you’re not going to divulge any personal information or download any suspicious files. Surprise: the bad guys have anticipated that, too.
“People believe that the operating system will protect them from everything they want to do; that by clicking on this link they’re smarter than the criminal,” Mr. Masiello says. “The criminals have got smart to this kind of thing.”
Tricks such as interstitial pages, pop-ups, and unpatched browser exploits can infect a computer before the user has clicked a single button or typed a word on a malicious web page.
And if you’re reading this on a Mac – don’t get too smug. For all of Apple’s marketing, Macs aren’t actually more secure, they’re just targeted less because fewer people own them. Malware comes for everyone, and – unfortunately - the only real solution is diligence.
Hardly reassuring words for computer users or business owners. Cybercrime continues to flourish for one simple reason: it’s profitable.
Hackers use two broad approaches: Either they sneakily install malicious software on your computer to control it or steal your information, or they trick you into giving up your information voluntarily.
The malicious software can enter your system when you visit a shady website, or open an e-mail attachment carrying a virus. If it infects your machine, it might hand control of your computer over to networks that will rent it out to spammers, who will use it as a junk-mail-sending machine.
Or worse, it might install “key-logger” software that takes careful note of every word you type – usernames, passwords and all – and sends it back to hackers, who can co-opt your online accounts, take your money, and even represent themselves as you to your friends.
None of these things bode well for small businesses, which are often focused on the job at hand more than they are on information security. But there are new responses to these threats. In increasingly perilous seas, how do you stay on course without giving in to paranoia?
Here are some suggestions:
1. Don’t open unexpected attachments, even if they come from friends.
E-mail attachments are a great source of malware. But nowadays, they don’t just come from dodgy strangers, they can come from your best friends.
When certain malware infects computers, it will scan e-mail address books and send malicious messages to every contact, making it appear that the message comes from a friend. Oftentimes, they’ll contain messages such as “Here’s the PDF I said I’d send,” but they’re getting more clever and more subtle all the time.
If someone you know sends you an e-mail with attached files that you weren’t expecting, or that seem strangely generic (“Hey, check out these pictures!”), make contact with the sender first to make sure it’s genuine.
“If it sounds unbelievable, it totally is,” says David Mirza Ahmad, a cyber-security veteran and one of the founders of Subgraph, a Montreal-based security start-up. “Look for cues in the e-mail: Is the e-mail worded a little differently? Is it normal to receive random files from this person? If there’s a file, there should be context.”
In fact, any unexpected behaviour from friends on social networks should be taken with a grain of salt. Social networks are the latest frontier for hackers because they engender so much trust. If a Facebook friend starts posting items they wouldn’t normally post, be careful: their account might have been compromised, and the items might be a trap.
2. Update, update, update.
Even if you never opened another attachment in your life, you can still let viruses in, even by doing something as simple as visiting the wrong website at the wrong time.
The software that runs modern computers is enormous and labyrinthine, and hackers are always finding new holes that they can use to sneak malicious software onto computers – usually by injecting. And software makers such as Microsoft, Apple, and anti-virus makers, are constantly rushing to patch those holes. It’s a never-ending game of cat-and-mouse.
This is why it’s essential to keep your software up-to-date, and up to the minute. You need to update three things: First, your operating system (such as Windows or Mac OS), which receive updates to plug security holes as they’re found. By default, these will install automatic updates – it’s important to let them. Second, your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome) needs to be up-to-date for the same reason. New versions are free to download. This goes expecially for users of Internet Explorer 6, an older version of the popular browser that was well-known as a security nightmare.
Finally, your virus-checking software needs constant updates to know which malware to look for today.
3. Be very careful about following login links from e-mails.
The next trick is to keep from getting tricked. Increasingly, scammers will try to convince you to give away your login and password for a phony web page that’s set up to look like a real one.
It’s called “phishing” – as in, going fishing for victims. You’ve probably already received some that use banks as bait: An e-mail arrives, prompting you to visit your bank’s website to “verify your login information.” It will direct you to a page that looks like your bank’s website, but it is really a false front that passes your login information on to hackers.
So far, these have been fairly easy to spot. But scammers are getting smarter: they’re now sending e-mails that look like new-friend or message-waiting notices from social networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn.
Always be cautious. Watch out for vague-seeming notifications. Pay careful attention to the URL at the top of the web page. If there’s any doubt, don’t follow the link from the e-mail, but visit the social network’s page directly and log in there.
4. Use different passwords.
Password safety isn’t the be-all and end-all of security, but it’s an important rudiment. You’ve probably been regularly warned not to use simple or easy-to-guess passwords. But it’s probably even more important (and, yes, more annoying) not to use the same password for every online service you use.
The reason is simple: If, by installing a key-logger, or tricking you with a phishing trick, a hacker gets the username and password for one site, you can bet he’ll turn around and try it on every other service you’re signed up with. You could wind up being locked out of everything at once.
If remembering a dozen different passwords is unwieldy (and it is), consider using at least two groups of passwords – one for not-so-important sites, and different ones for the really sensitive logins. Or, Mr. Mizra suggests using desktop software that uses one master password to access all the individual passwords - software such as the Mac OS Keychain or PasswordSafe for Windows.
5. Don’t think you’re smarter than the criminals.
So you know the ropes on the Internet. You know a malicious e-mail when you see one. Still, sometimes curiosity gets the best of you, and you click, thinking that you’re not going to divulge any personal information or download any suspicious files. Surprise: the bad guys have anticipated that, too.
“People believe that the operating system will protect them from everything they want to do; that by clicking on this link they’re smarter than the criminal,” Mr. Masiello says. “The criminals have got smart to this kind of thing.”
Tricks such as interstitial pages, pop-ups, and unpatched browser exploits can infect a computer before the user has clicked a single button or typed a word on a malicious web page.
And if you’re reading this on a Mac – don’t get too smug. For all of Apple’s marketing, Macs aren’t actually more secure, they’re just targeted less because fewer people own them. Malware comes for everyone, and – unfortunately - the only real solution is diligence.
omg
im such a noob. that's what happens when you make a last minute blog post at 4 in the morning...
anyway here is the video to accompany my previous post...im such a twit
anyway here is the video to accompany my previous post...im such a twit
Enter The Gamer
I doubt there is anyone here who doesn't play online games or doesn't have or know somebody with a gaming addiction.
Here is something most of us can relate to unless of course you have no idea what MMORPG or WTFBBQ means, in which case: Enter The Gamer!!!!
Here is something most of us can relate to unless of course you have no idea what MMORPG or WTFBBQ means, in which case: Enter The Gamer!!!!
Turning PC Into Apple Macintosh: Hackintosh
A 'Hackintosh' is a computer that runs Apple's OS X operating system on non-Apple hardware. This has been possible since Apple's switch from IBM's PowerPC processors to Intel processors a few years ago. Until recently, building a PC-based Mac was something done only by hard-core hackers and technophiles, but in the last few months, building a Hackintosh PC has become much easier. Benchmark Reviews looks at what it's possible to do with PC hardware and the Mac Snow Leopard OS today, and the pros and cons of building a Hackintosh computer system over purchasing a supported Apple Mac Pro.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Dan Bull This is England
check out dan bull's new video. pretty intense imo in a great way of course.
also, hurt by johnny cash...made me cry.
also, hurt by johnny cash...made me cry.
I love this song
ch-ch-ch-check it ouuuuut
and of course, the original
which one do you think is better? personally i like the voice of the original johnny cash, but you can't beat the sound of the first one.
yippy ey aaaaaaye yippy ey oooooohhh
<3
and of course, the original
which one do you think is better? personally i like the voice of the original johnny cash, but you can't beat the sound of the first one.
yippy ey aaaaaaye yippy ey oooooohhh
<3
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Todays random post brought to you by Peniplus
Random Quote
The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and intelligent. The machine easily masters the grim and the dumb. - Marshall McLuhan, 1969
stay classy.
Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back
A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do. It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted its expensive device back, the student told Wired.com in an interview Wednesday.
The answer came when half-a-dozen FBI agents and police officers appeared at Yasir Afifi’s apartment complex in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday demanding he return the device.
Afifi, a 20-year-old U.S.-born citizen, cooperated willingly and said he’d done nothing to merit attention from authorities. Comments the agents made during their visit suggested he’d been under FBI surveillance for three to six months.
An FBI spokesman wouldn’t acknowledge that the device belonged to the agency or that agents appeared at Afifi’s house.
“I can’t really tell you much about it, because it’s still an ongoing investigation,” said spokesman Pete Lee, who works in the agency’s San Francisco headquarters.
Afifi, the son of an Islamic-American community leader who died a year ago in Egypt, is one of only a few people known to have found a government-tracking device on their vehicle.
His discovery comes in the wake of a recent ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals saying it’s legal for law enforcement to secretly place a tracking device on a suspect’s car without getting a warrant, even if the car is parked in a private driveway.
Brian Alseth from the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington state contacted Afifi after seeing pictures of the tracking device posted online and told him the ACLU had been waiting for a case like this to challenge the ruling.
“This is the kind of thing we like to throw lawyers at,” Afifi said Alseth told him.
“It seems very frightening that the FBI have placed a surveillance-tracking device on the car of a 20-year-old American citizen who has done nothing more than being half-Egyptian,” Alseth told Wired.com.
Afifi, a business marketing student at Mission College in Santa Clara, discovered the device last Sunday when he took his car to a local garage for an oil change. When a mechanic at Ali’s Auto Care raised his Ford Lincoln LS on hydraulic lifts, Afifi saw a wire sticking out near the right rear wheel and exhaust.
Garage owner Mazher Khan confirmed for Wired.com that he also saw it. A closer inspection showed it connected to a battery pack and transmitter, which were attached to the car with a magnet. Khan asked Afifi if he wanted the device removed and when Afifi said yes, Khan pulled it easily from the car’s chassis.
“I wouldn’t have noticed it if there wasn’t a wire sticking out,” Afifi said.
Later that day, a friend of Afifi’s named Khaled posted pictures of the device at Reddit, asking if anyone knew what it was and if it meant the FBI “is after us.” (Reddit is owned by CondeNast Digital, which also owns Wired.com).
“My plan was to just put the device on another car or in a lake,” Khaled wrote, “but when you come home to 2 stoned off-their-asses people who are hearing things in the device and convinced it’s a bomb you just gotta be sure.”
A reader quickly identified it as an Orion Guardian ST820 tracking device made by an electronics company called Cobham, which sells the device only to law enforcement.
No one was available at Cobham to answer Wired.com’s questions, but a former FBI agent who looked at the pictures confirmed it was a tracking device.
The former agent, who asked not to be named, said the device was an older model of tracking equipment that had long ago been replaced by devices that don’t require batteries. Batteries die and need to be replaced if surveillance is ongoing so newer devices are placed in the engine compartment and hardwired to the car’s battery so they don’t run out of juice. He was surprised this one was so easily found.
“It has to be able to be removed but also stay in place and not be seen,” he said. “There’s always the possibility that the car will end up at a body shop or auto mechanic, so it has to be hidden well. It’s very rare when the guys find them.”
He said he was certain that agents who installed it would have obtained a 30-day warrant for its use.
Afifi considered selling the device on Craigslist before the FBI showed up. He was in his apartment Tuesday afternoon when a roommate told him “two sneaky-looking people” were near his car. Afifi, already heading out for an appointment, encountered a man and woman looking at his vehicle outside. The man asked if Afifi knew his registration tag was expired. When Afifi asked if it bothered him, the man just smiled. Afifi got into his car and headed for the parking lot exit when two SUVs pulled up with flashing lights carrying four police officers in bullet-proof vests.
The agent who initially spoke with Afifi identified himself then as Vincent and told Afifi, “We’re here to recover the device you found on your vehicle. It’s federal property. It’s an expensive piece, and we need it right now.”
Afifi asked, “Are you the guys that put it there?” and the agent replied, “Yeah, I put it there.” He told Afifi, “We’re going to make this much more difficult for you if you don’t cooperate.”
Story continued here
what are your thoughts on this blatant invasion of privacy. As a half iranian women it scares me to think that these bastards now have the power to follow me around as i do my laundry.
The answer came when half-a-dozen FBI agents and police officers appeared at Yasir Afifi’s apartment complex in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday demanding he return the device.
Afifi, a 20-year-old U.S.-born citizen, cooperated willingly and said he’d done nothing to merit attention from authorities. Comments the agents made during their visit suggested he’d been under FBI surveillance for three to six months.
An FBI spokesman wouldn’t acknowledge that the device belonged to the agency or that agents appeared at Afifi’s house.
“I can’t really tell you much about it, because it’s still an ongoing investigation,” said spokesman Pete Lee, who works in the agency’s San Francisco headquarters.
Afifi, the son of an Islamic-American community leader who died a year ago in Egypt, is one of only a few people known to have found a government-tracking device on their vehicle.
His discovery comes in the wake of a recent ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals saying it’s legal for law enforcement to secretly place a tracking device on a suspect’s car without getting a warrant, even if the car is parked in a private driveway.
Brian Alseth from the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington state contacted Afifi after seeing pictures of the tracking device posted online and told him the ACLU had been waiting for a case like this to challenge the ruling.
“This is the kind of thing we like to throw lawyers at,” Afifi said Alseth told him.
“It seems very frightening that the FBI have placed a surveillance-tracking device on the car of a 20-year-old American citizen who has done nothing more than being half-Egyptian,” Alseth told Wired.com.
Afifi, a business marketing student at Mission College in Santa Clara, discovered the device last Sunday when he took his car to a local garage for an oil change. When a mechanic at Ali’s Auto Care raised his Ford Lincoln LS on hydraulic lifts, Afifi saw a wire sticking out near the right rear wheel and exhaust.
Garage owner Mazher Khan confirmed for Wired.com that he also saw it. A closer inspection showed it connected to a battery pack and transmitter, which were attached to the car with a magnet. Khan asked Afifi if he wanted the device removed and when Afifi said yes, Khan pulled it easily from the car’s chassis.
“I wouldn’t have noticed it if there wasn’t a wire sticking out,” Afifi said.
Later that day, a friend of Afifi’s named Khaled posted pictures of the device at Reddit, asking if anyone knew what it was and if it meant the FBI “is after us.” (Reddit is owned by CondeNast Digital, which also owns Wired.com).
“My plan was to just put the device on another car or in a lake,” Khaled wrote, “but when you come home to 2 stoned off-their-asses people who are hearing things in the device and convinced it’s a bomb you just gotta be sure.”
A reader quickly identified it as an Orion Guardian ST820 tracking device made by an electronics company called Cobham, which sells the device only to law enforcement.
No one was available at Cobham to answer Wired.com’s questions, but a former FBI agent who looked at the pictures confirmed it was a tracking device.
The former agent, who asked not to be named, said the device was an older model of tracking equipment that had long ago been replaced by devices that don’t require batteries. Batteries die and need to be replaced if surveillance is ongoing so newer devices are placed in the engine compartment and hardwired to the car’s battery so they don’t run out of juice. He was surprised this one was so easily found.
“It has to be able to be removed but also stay in place and not be seen,” he said. “There’s always the possibility that the car will end up at a body shop or auto mechanic, so it has to be hidden well. It’s very rare when the guys find them.”
He said he was certain that agents who installed it would have obtained a 30-day warrant for its use.
Afifi considered selling the device on Craigslist before the FBI showed up. He was in his apartment Tuesday afternoon when a roommate told him “two sneaky-looking people” were near his car. Afifi, already heading out for an appointment, encountered a man and woman looking at his vehicle outside. The man asked if Afifi knew his registration tag was expired. When Afifi asked if it bothered him, the man just smiled. Afifi got into his car and headed for the parking lot exit when two SUVs pulled up with flashing lights carrying four police officers in bullet-proof vests.
The agent who initially spoke with Afifi identified himself then as Vincent and told Afifi, “We’re here to recover the device you found on your vehicle. It’s federal property. It’s an expensive piece, and we need it right now.”
Afifi asked, “Are you the guys that put it there?” and the agent replied, “Yeah, I put it there.” He told Afifi, “We’re going to make this much more difficult for you if you don’t cooperate.”
Story continued here
what are your thoughts on this blatant invasion of privacy. As a half iranian women it scares me to think that these bastards now have the power to follow me around as i do my laundry.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
AWWWW SHEEEET
THAT'S RIGHT LADIES AND MENTLEGEN
the third series of the greatest anime to grace Gods green earth is out.
BLACK LAGOON
this might be old news to some of you, but i just found out two minutes ago.
a taste of what is to come;
awww sheet so bad ass.
although i'm not sure about this:
As already reported last year, the third season of the anime adaptation of Rei Hiroe’s Black Lagoon will not be adapted into another TV season but rather OVA episodes by Studio Madhouse and director Sunao Katabuchi. Now it has been announced that the first of five volumes of Roberta’s Blood Trail will be released in Japan on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in Japan on July 17th…most probably without English subitles like Geneon Entertainment’s recent Japanese Blu-ray Disc releases of the first two seasons. source
I'm not sure what all this means but i'm trying to order it online.
if anybody knows what the difference between OVA series and a normal tv series is please enlighten me. thank you for your time
the third series of the greatest anime to grace Gods green earth is out.
BLACK LAGOON
this might be old news to some of you, but i just found out two minutes ago.
a taste of what is to come;
awww sheet so bad ass.
although i'm not sure about this:
As already reported last year, the third season of the anime adaptation of Rei Hiroe’s Black Lagoon will not be adapted into another TV season but rather OVA episodes by Studio Madhouse and director Sunao Katabuchi. Now it has been announced that the first of five volumes of Roberta’s Blood Trail will be released in Japan on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in Japan on July 17th…most probably without English subitles like Geneon Entertainment’s recent Japanese Blu-ray Disc releases of the first two seasons. source
I'm not sure what all this means but i'm trying to order it online.
if anybody knows what the difference between OVA series and a normal tv series is please enlighten me. thank you for your time
Friday, October 8, 2010
A severe case of KS'er rage
anyone who has played an MMORPG in their lifetime (or any game for that matter) will understand what it is like to be KS'ed (kill stolen/kill stoled/kill steal/kill stealed[you get the picture])
if you don't know what i'm talking about, just skim passed this post else LOL.
thank you for your time.
(that's a lion in the back)
if you don't know what i'm talking about, just skim passed this post else LOL.
thank you for your time.
(that's a lion in the back)
Starbuck's Free Wi-Fi Opens the Door for Hackers and Crackers
Hackers and crackers are everywhere, looking for easy marks. Believe me when I say they're just as likely to hang out at your favorite Starbucks as you are, Ms. Entrepreneur. They could be sitting with a latte and a laptop on the sofa right next to you. And don't look for Boris- and Natasha-style cartoon characters here. ("Fearless Leader say we steal computer access from moose and squirrel!") They are far more subtle than that.
So for an entrepreneur who considers Starbucks -- or any other coffee shop for that matter -- his home office, what options are available to ensure the privacy and security of his or her data when accessing the internet on a free Wi-Fi connection?
One of the best ways is to use a Virtual Private Network to connect to the net. Until very recently, VPN was the stuff of corporations and large businesses. Small businesses, startups and independent entrepreneurs avoided VPN because it's highly technical to set up and administer.
Today, anyone can access the internet from a PC or Mac using what I call a "consumer grade" VPN. But don't let "consumer grade" fool you -- this is the same exact thing large corporations use. Think of a VPN as a secure tunnel that you use to connect to the internet -- a tunnel that's impervious to a hacker or cracker's attempt to see what you're doing and gain access to your data.
One provider of affordable and turnkey VPN is Connect In Private, which offers a secure offshore backchannel for internet surfing, e-mails and more on computers and mobile devices. CIP protects you from identity theft and fraud by providing a fully encrypted network that is impenetrable to hackers.
For about $15 a month (based on an annual contract), CIP provides a secure line for accessing the internet from anywhere you choose. This week, the company began offering a one-week account for $10, which gives you a chance to test-drive the service.
If you're accessing the net via a free and unsecured Wi-Fi spot, and you're working on something critical to the success of your startup, $10-$15 is a small price to pay to guarantee your data is secure!
Read Moar Here
So for an entrepreneur who considers Starbucks -- or any other coffee shop for that matter -- his home office, what options are available to ensure the privacy and security of his or her data when accessing the internet on a free Wi-Fi connection?
One of the best ways is to use a Virtual Private Network to connect to the net. Until very recently, VPN was the stuff of corporations and large businesses. Small businesses, startups and independent entrepreneurs avoided VPN because it's highly technical to set up and administer.
Today, anyone can access the internet from a PC or Mac using what I call a "consumer grade" VPN. But don't let "consumer grade" fool you -- this is the same exact thing large corporations use. Think of a VPN as a secure tunnel that you use to connect to the internet -- a tunnel that's impervious to a hacker or cracker's attempt to see what you're doing and gain access to your data.
One provider of affordable and turnkey VPN is Connect In Private, which offers a secure offshore backchannel for internet surfing, e-mails and more on computers and mobile devices. CIP protects you from identity theft and fraud by providing a fully encrypted network that is impenetrable to hackers.
For about $15 a month (based on an annual contract), CIP provides a secure line for accessing the internet from anywhere you choose. This week, the company began offering a one-week account for $10, which gives you a chance to test-drive the service.
If you're accessing the net via a free and unsecured Wi-Fi spot, and you're working on something critical to the success of your startup, $10-$15 is a small price to pay to guarantee your data is secure!
Read Moar Here
Exoskeletons, Robo Rats and Synthetic Skin: The Pentagon’s Cyborg Army
Eyes that are alert and steady. Skin that's sensitive to the touch. Arms that bend and grasp. To an unknowing observer, troops in the next-generation military might look much like today's.
But those eyes are veiled by self-assembling contact lenses that transmit text messages and take blood pressure readings. That skin is made up of nanowires laid onto flexible rubber. And the arm underneath? A prosthetic -- controlled by brain implant.
The Pentagon wants troops to be faster, stronger and more resilient. And with help from robotics, nanotechnology and neuroscience, the military's cyborg army -- from human troops to rat-bot recruits -- is getting prepped for battle.
But those eyes are veiled by self-assembling contact lenses that transmit text messages and take blood pressure readings. That skin is made up of nanowires laid onto flexible rubber. And the arm underneath? A prosthetic -- controlled by brain implant.
The Pentagon wants troops to be faster, stronger and more resilient. And with help from robotics, nanotechnology and neuroscience, the military's cyborg army -- from human troops to rat-bot recruits -- is getting prepped for battle.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
drugs...
i've noticed i have a small problem with drugs.
i know they are bad for me but at the risk of getting all philosophical, life seem rather mundane and dull. we only live once, what is the point of breaking my ass to get a whole lot of material shit only to die in the end. also, why the hell would i have a baby and have them suffer the same thing. None of it makes sense, so i like to take a little something to help clear my mind and enjoy life more.
i mean recreational drugs are far less dangerous than the shit they put in our foods that is available to people of all ages. why is the world full of hypocrites, another question i ask myself while on drugs.
and after thinking all this i still wonder when (im 21 atm) i will get a job and move out of my parents place...RL seems so lame i wish i could live online.
money has always been a problem for my family, they struggled to pay the mortgage when me and my siblings were younger (some not even born) and that lead to a life of constant moving around from public housing to public housing. eventually settling into where we are now. there has been many more problematic situations in our families history, too many to list.
i'm always aware that there are many people worse off, much much worse off. that helps a little but if i just "stopped whining and got a job" then sure it might feel better and help me get over my situation easier, but the problems remain.
i need more drugs.
i know they are bad for me but at the risk of getting all philosophical, life seem rather mundane and dull. we only live once, what is the point of breaking my ass to get a whole lot of material shit only to die in the end. also, why the hell would i have a baby and have them suffer the same thing. None of it makes sense, so i like to take a little something to help clear my mind and enjoy life more.
i mean recreational drugs are far less dangerous than the shit they put in our foods that is available to people of all ages. why is the world full of hypocrites, another question i ask myself while on drugs.
and after thinking all this i still wonder when (im 21 atm) i will get a job and move out of my parents place...RL seems so lame i wish i could live online.
money has always been a problem for my family, they struggled to pay the mortgage when me and my siblings were younger (some not even born) and that lead to a life of constant moving around from public housing to public housing. eventually settling into where we are now. there has been many more problematic situations in our families history, too many to list.
i'm always aware that there are many people worse off, much much worse off. that helps a little but if i just "stopped whining and got a job" then sure it might feel better and help me get over my situation easier, but the problems remain.
i need more drugs.
BMW 335i
and this is the car i will drive to church in. if i ever went to church.
PREMIUM 4 door 5 seater.
3 liter 6 cylinder aluminum engine block.
twin-turbo inline-six with a 300 horsepower output.
6-speed manual, with take off assistance.
5-link rear suspension.
DSC and DTC.
3 liter 6 cylinder aluminum engine block.
twin-turbo inline-six with a 300 horsepower output.
6-speed manual, with take off assistance.
5-link rear suspension.
DSC and DTC.
2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
This will be my car for the weekends, the nissan being my car to go to work during the weekdays.
It's available in three models...haven't decided which one i want yet.
I think i'm in love
*drools* yup definitely in love.
Secret-Spilling Sources at Risk Following Cryptome Breach
Secret-spilling site Cryptome was hacked over the weekend, possibly exposing the identities of whistleblowers and other confidential sources, according to a hacker who contacted Wired.com and claimed responsibility for the breach.
The hacker said two intruders from the group Kryogeniks breached the long-running site, where they gained access to a repository of secret files and correspondence. Among them, the hacker claimed, were the records of self-proclaimed WikiLeaks insiders who have been the source of several unconfirmed tips supposedly detailing internal WikiLeaks matters.
Wired.com could not confirm the identity of the hacker, who asked to be identified as “Ruxpin” or “Xyrix.” To verify his claims, the hacker showed Wired.com screenshots of Cryptome founder John Young’s Earthlink account inbox and Cryptome’s directory. The latter showed two WikiLeaks file paths. The hacker also provided a list of about 30 names and e-mail addresses of sources who communicated with Cryptome and the contents of at least one e-mail between Young and a Wired.com contributor from 2008. The Wired.com contributor and Young have authenticated the e-mail.
The hacker said they broke into Cryptome using a stolen e-mail password for the Earthlink account belonging to Young. They then used the e-mail account to reset the password for his site’s hosting account. The hacker claims they copied 6.8 terabytes of data from Cryptome, though “no files were deleted or altered.”
“Everything was copied for analysis,” one of the hackers wrote Wired.com in an e-mail interview. “Cryptome is an interesting read indeed.” He added that “only data that had relatively new time stamps is being given thought. There is simply too much to sift through.”
Young, reached by phone, confirmed some of the information provided by the hacker but disputed other assertions.
He didn’t know how the hackers got into his site or if data was deleted but said that “all the files were inaccessible,” and that Network Solutions had to restore content from a backup. He disputed the amount of data the hackers say they obtained.
“We had a little over 7 gigabytes, but not terabytes,” he said. “We’ve never had that much.”
Regarding the WikiLeaks insiders, although he acknowledged that some of them communicated with what appear to be e-mail addresses that could identify them, he doesn’t believe they’re actual WikiLeaks insiders and says he’s never done anything to verify their identities, and that the e-mail addresses could have easily been spoofed.
“I’ve not verified any of those and don’t know how one would,” he said. “I’ve been quite skeptical of anyone claiming to be a WikiLeaks insider.”
The hack of Cryptome would seem to illustrate the real value that a site like WikiLeaks offers. Cryptome, a proto-WikiLeaks, has published many important leaks since it was launched in 1996, exposing government secrets and gaffes.
The site, however, doesn’t provide the kind of secure, anonymized submission process that WikiLeaks boasts. Instead, it uses e-mail addresses controlled by Young, raising the risk that sensitive sources could be exposed by this and other hacks. Despite many controversies surrounding WikiLeaks and its founder, that site has never had a security breach, as far as anyone knows. But now Cryptome has.
Young, who has long been suspicious of WikiLeaks’ motives, began publishing the tips this spring, despite expressing doubts publicly about their veracity. The tips prompted the ire of WikiLeaks, which referred to them as a “smear campaign” and has disputed that the sources are insiders.
Cryptome’s hacker claims that although some of the “insiders” initially communicated anonymously with Cryptome using a PGPBoard drop box, they later used personal e-mail addresses for ongoing correspondence, thus potentially exposing their identities to anyone with access to Cryptome’s files.
“Six [WikiLeaks insiders] are on familiar terms with John Young,” he told Wired.com. “Their real names are exposed in their signatures and in their messages. They are using familiar, personal accounts to communicate with Young.”
The hacker noted that “someone@wikileaks.org writes about problems with their leader and problems with money. He sends a PDF (was published to the site recently), some chat logs, and information about the encryption process for submits that he thinks is suspicious. This is from one of the regulars.”
He declined to identify the WikiLeaks correspondents or the e-mail addresses they used.
“Their privacy is to be respected, and they will not be exposed or compromised,” he wrote. “We believe in preserving the system of transparency that Cryptome and other websites represent.”
The hacker claimed that Young demanded proof from the insiders to verify their connection to WikiLeaks and that “he gets it with ease” from them.
“They are legitimate,” the hacker wrote. “Those who are not, appear to get trolled (John Young is absolutely hilarious) and moved to a different folder.”
Asked if the identities of other anonymous sources of Cryptome were also exposed, he replied, “Yes, all of them are. [Young’s] address books were compromised, and many of the messages were not sent from anonymous emails … there are over hundreds. Too many to easily quantify.”
The hackers got the password for the e-mail account through Earthlink’s customer service center. Earthlink handles customer service for Pipeline accounts and uses a system, called MIDAS, that stores customer passwords unencrypted, in the clear, according to the hacker.
“Any Earthlink employee using MIDAS can do this without effort,” he wrote. “MIDAS is a legacy ssh application that many of the employees do not use, preferring a web interface called Spirtle instead.”
Earthlink did not return a call for comment.
The hacker said Earthlink’s system was breached about a month ago, at which time Cryptome’s login credentials were seized.
Armed with that password, according to a Network Solutions spokesman, the hackers then initiated a password reset for Cryptome’s hosting account using an online form. Network Solutions sent an automated e-mail to Young’s Pipeline account with a link to reset the password. The hackers, who had control of the e-mail account, then used the link to reset the Network Solutions Cryptome password twice — to passw0rd1 and then letmein1 — locking Young out of his account while they rummaged through Cryptome’s content.
The hackers said they decided to breach Cryptome primarily to harass a fellow hacker named Josh Holly, aka “TrainReq,” by posting a message identifying Holly as Cryptome’s hacker. Holly is best known for allegedly hacking into Miley Cyrus’s Gmail account and stealing provocative photos she purportedly sent of herself to singer Nick Jonas.
“Cryptome is a popular website,” the hacker wrote Wired.com. “Many people would have seen the joke (defacement), and the person (Trainreq) would have been subsequently bombarded with inquires about that to which he was clueless.”
The message included a shout-out to fellow Kryogeniks members EBK and Defiant — Christopher Allen Lewis and James Robert Black, Jr. — who were recently sentenced to 18 months and 4 months in prison respectively for a stunt in which they replaced Comcast’s homepage with a shout-out to fellow hackers.
The Cryptome hackers deleted the shout-out to Holly before many people saw it, however. “It did not have the intended effect,” the hacker wrote. “Josh Holly was sleeping and unavailable for trolling.”
They replaced it with another one identifying “Ruxpin” as Cryptome’s hacker. It’s not known if Ruxpin is one of the hackers behind the hack, since the hackers acknowledged they initially intended to point blame for the hack at someone else. It’s also not known if Ruxpin is the real handle for the hacker who communicated with Wired.com.
In addition to the shout-outs, the hackers left a note for Young: “Dear John. Rest assured that the integrity of the data hosted here has not been altered. We like Cryptome and needed your site because it was popular. Sorry. Godspeed.”
Young was not amused and says he’s determined to hunt down the intruders.
“One of the things I’m interested in is how much prowling they did beyond Cryptome,” he said. “Any rummaging in our e-mail is different than rummaging in Cryptome. We’re going to burn his or her ass with that.”
source
long post is loooong.
i'm sure we all remember xyrix. still attention whoring it seems.
The hacker said two intruders from the group Kryogeniks breached the long-running site, where they gained access to a repository of secret files and correspondence. Among them, the hacker claimed, were the records of self-proclaimed WikiLeaks insiders who have been the source of several unconfirmed tips supposedly detailing internal WikiLeaks matters.
Wired.com could not confirm the identity of the hacker, who asked to be identified as “Ruxpin” or “Xyrix.” To verify his claims, the hacker showed Wired.com screenshots of Cryptome founder John Young’s Earthlink account inbox and Cryptome’s directory. The latter showed two WikiLeaks file paths. The hacker also provided a list of about 30 names and e-mail addresses of sources who communicated with Cryptome and the contents of at least one e-mail between Young and a Wired.com contributor from 2008. The Wired.com contributor and Young have authenticated the e-mail.
The hacker said they broke into Cryptome using a stolen e-mail password for the Earthlink account belonging to Young. They then used the e-mail account to reset the password for his site’s hosting account. The hacker claims they copied 6.8 terabytes of data from Cryptome, though “no files were deleted or altered.”
“Everything was copied for analysis,” one of the hackers wrote Wired.com in an e-mail interview. “Cryptome is an interesting read indeed.” He added that “only data that had relatively new time stamps is being given thought. There is simply too much to sift through.”
Young, reached by phone, confirmed some of the information provided by the hacker but disputed other assertions.
He didn’t know how the hackers got into his site or if data was deleted but said that “all the files were inaccessible,” and that Network Solutions had to restore content from a backup. He disputed the amount of data the hackers say they obtained.
“We had a little over 7 gigabytes, but not terabytes,” he said. “We’ve never had that much.”
Regarding the WikiLeaks insiders, although he acknowledged that some of them communicated with what appear to be e-mail addresses that could identify them, he doesn’t believe they’re actual WikiLeaks insiders and says he’s never done anything to verify their identities, and that the e-mail addresses could have easily been spoofed.
“I’ve not verified any of those and don’t know how one would,” he said. “I’ve been quite skeptical of anyone claiming to be a WikiLeaks insider.”
The hack of Cryptome would seem to illustrate the real value that a site like WikiLeaks offers. Cryptome, a proto-WikiLeaks, has published many important leaks since it was launched in 1996, exposing government secrets and gaffes.
The site, however, doesn’t provide the kind of secure, anonymized submission process that WikiLeaks boasts. Instead, it uses e-mail addresses controlled by Young, raising the risk that sensitive sources could be exposed by this and other hacks. Despite many controversies surrounding WikiLeaks and its founder, that site has never had a security breach, as far as anyone knows. But now Cryptome has.
The WikiLeaks Connection
According to the hacker, Cryptome’s WikiLeaks files contain ample communication between Young and about half-a-dozen supposed WikiLeaks insiders who, out of purported discontent with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his management of the organization, have sent Cryptome unverified tips about supposed malfeasance and other activities inside WikiLeaks.Young, who has long been suspicious of WikiLeaks’ motives, began publishing the tips this spring, despite expressing doubts publicly about their veracity. The tips prompted the ire of WikiLeaks, which referred to them as a “smear campaign” and has disputed that the sources are insiders.
Cryptome’s hacker claims that although some of the “insiders” initially communicated anonymously with Cryptome using a PGPBoard drop box, they later used personal e-mail addresses for ongoing correspondence, thus potentially exposing their identities to anyone with access to Cryptome’s files.
“Six [WikiLeaks insiders] are on familiar terms with John Young,” he told Wired.com. “Their real names are exposed in their signatures and in their messages. They are using familiar, personal accounts to communicate with Young.”
The hacker noted that “someone@wikileaks.org writes about problems with their leader and problems with money. He sends a PDF (was published to the site recently), some chat logs, and information about the encryption process for submits that he thinks is suspicious. This is from one of the regulars.”
He declined to identify the WikiLeaks correspondents or the e-mail addresses they used.
“Their privacy is to be respected, and they will not be exposed or compromised,” he wrote. “We believe in preserving the system of transparency that Cryptome and other websites represent.”
The hacker claimed that Young demanded proof from the insiders to verify their connection to WikiLeaks and that “he gets it with ease” from them.
“They are legitimate,” the hacker wrote. “Those who are not, appear to get trolled (John Young is absolutely hilarious) and moved to a different folder.”
Asked if the identities of other anonymous sources of Cryptome were also exposed, he replied, “Yes, all of them are. [Young’s] address books were compromised, and many of the messages were not sent from anonymous emails … there are over hundreds. Too many to easily quantify.”
How They Got In
The whois record for Cryptome, which is hosted by Network Solutions, listed the site contact address as jya@pipeline.com, one of Young’s accounts.The hackers got the password for the e-mail account through Earthlink’s customer service center. Earthlink handles customer service for Pipeline accounts and uses a system, called MIDAS, that stores customer passwords unencrypted, in the clear, according to the hacker.
“Any Earthlink employee using MIDAS can do this without effort,” he wrote. “MIDAS is a legacy ssh application that many of the employees do not use, preferring a web interface called Spirtle instead.”
Earthlink did not return a call for comment.
The hacker said Earthlink’s system was breached about a month ago, at which time Cryptome’s login credentials were seized.
Armed with that password, according to a Network Solutions spokesman, the hackers then initiated a password reset for Cryptome’s hosting account using an online form. Network Solutions sent an automated e-mail to Young’s Pipeline account with a link to reset the password. The hackers, who had control of the e-mail account, then used the link to reset the Network Solutions Cryptome password twice — to passw0rd1 and then letmein1 — locking Young out of his account while they rummaged through Cryptome’s content.
The hackers said they decided to breach Cryptome primarily to harass a fellow hacker named Josh Holly, aka “TrainReq,” by posting a message identifying Holly as Cryptome’s hacker. Holly is best known for allegedly hacking into Miley Cyrus’s Gmail account and stealing provocative photos she purportedly sent of herself to singer Nick Jonas.
“Cryptome is a popular website,” the hacker wrote Wired.com. “Many people would have seen the joke (defacement), and the person (Trainreq) would have been subsequently bombarded with inquires about that to which he was clueless.”
The message included a shout-out to fellow Kryogeniks members EBK and Defiant — Christopher Allen Lewis and James Robert Black, Jr. — who were recently sentenced to 18 months and 4 months in prison respectively for a stunt in which they replaced Comcast’s homepage with a shout-out to fellow hackers.
The Cryptome hackers deleted the shout-out to Holly before many people saw it, however. “It did not have the intended effect,” the hacker wrote. “Josh Holly was sleeping and unavailable for trolling.”
They replaced it with another one identifying “Ruxpin” as Cryptome’s hacker. It’s not known if Ruxpin is one of the hackers behind the hack, since the hackers acknowledged they initially intended to point blame for the hack at someone else. It’s also not known if Ruxpin is the real handle for the hacker who communicated with Wired.com.
In addition to the shout-outs, the hackers left a note for Young: “Dear John. Rest assured that the integrity of the data hosted here has not been altered. We like Cryptome and needed your site because it was popular. Sorry. Godspeed.”
Young was not amused and says he’s determined to hunt down the intruders.
“One of the things I’m interested in is how much prowling they did beyond Cryptome,” he said. “Any rummaging in our e-mail is different than rummaging in Cryptome. We’re going to burn his or her ass with that.”
source
long post is loooong.
i'm sure we all remember xyrix. still attention whoring it seems.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Insurance and You
Ok so one of the downfalls of growing up and not acting like a kid anymore is responsibilities, when we are born we are expected to act a certain way when we reach a certain age. We are also expected to encounter problems caused by the monetary government. Luckily for us the same people that give us the monetary system and it's problems give us ways to defend ourselves against them.
These defences are called insurance and essentially allows us to insure ourselves against "bad things".
These bad things can range from work injuries to car accidents, medical dilemmas and especially mother nature.
what i find fascinating is that these defenses (insurance) also leads to more problems caused by the monetary system. i.e insurance fraud.
and the perpetual spiral of crap continues...
These defences are called insurance and essentially allows us to insure ourselves against "bad things".
These bad things can range from work injuries to car accidents, medical dilemmas and especially mother nature.
what i find fascinating is that these defenses (insurance) also leads to more problems caused by the monetary system. i.e insurance fraud.
and the perpetual spiral of crap continues...
Random Picture time!
alcohol, sweet sweet nectar of omnipotent gods!
My elite PC Monitor, in all its glory!
My elite keyboard, come at me bro.
My PC Case with optional configurable Cat Attatchment
=3
My elite PC Monitor, in all its glory!
My elite keyboard, come at me bro.
My PC Case with optional configurable Cat Attatchment
=3
Hackers Hijack Cryptome and Delete Everything
The longstanding whistleblower website Cryptome.org has been hacked during the weekend and all of the 54,000 files hosted on it have been deleted.
Cryptome publishes sensitive leaked documents and is ran by a long-time civil liberties activist named John Young, who co-founded the site in 1996.
The attack began during the early hours of October 2nd with the hacking of an Earthlink email address associated with the domain name.
The hackers then contacted the site's hosting provider, Network Solutions, from the compromised mailbox and requested information about the Cryptome's accounts.
There is no information to suggest that Network Solutions gave hackers control over the site's management panel, but they did somehow manage to get in.
They proceeded to delete all of the 54,000 files (around 7 GB) hosted in the account, changed the password and replaced the index page.
Theere were two separate versions of rogue home pages uploaded. One credited a hacker named "Trainreq" for the attack and the other one calling himself "RuxPin".
The pages reference "EBK" and "Defiant," two of the hackers convicted for hijacking the Comcast.net domain back in May 2008.
Kryogeniks, the group of defacers "EBK" and "Defiant" were members of, is also mentioned and so is Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking classified data to Wikileaks.
"A person wrote claiming to know who did the hack. No way to know if this claim is true. Hackers, like spies, often blame one another to cover their tracks.
"Blocking attacks is nearly impossible due to the purposefully weak security of the Internet. Nearly all security methods are bogus.
"A competent hacker or spy, or the two working together, can penetrate easily. We monitor and keep back-ups ready. And do not trust our ISP, email provider and officials to tell the truth or protect us," a statement from Cryptome reads.
This is the second successful Cryptome.org hack in fourteen years. The previous incident occurred in 2003 and also involved all files being deleted.
Back in February, the site was temporarily suspended by Network Solutions due to a DMCA notice from Microsoft regarding the company's "Global Criminal Compliance Handbook," which Cryptome published.
Then in March, PayPal suspended the account used by the site to receive donations from users, forcing John Young to refund $5,300.
source
IMO i highly doubt it was trainreq who did this, and if they did they aren't true hackers. merely puppets being employed by somebody to do their dirty work. no hacker in their right mind would delete all the files off a whistleblower website unless their was incriminating evidence against them. They usually back up the files and either hold it for ransom or simply give it back after they have gained some notoriety.
prepare for the new generation of hackers, hacking against we the people. they will make sure our internets are policed and profit from it.
Cryptome publishes sensitive leaked documents and is ran by a long-time civil liberties activist named John Young, who co-founded the site in 1996.
The hackers then contacted the site's hosting provider, Network Solutions, from the compromised mailbox and requested information about the Cryptome's accounts.
There is no information to suggest that Network Solutions gave hackers control over the site's management panel, but they did somehow manage to get in.
They proceeded to delete all of the 54,000 files (around 7 GB) hosted in the account, changed the password and replaced the index page.
Theere were two separate versions of rogue home pages uploaded. One credited a hacker named "Trainreq" for the attack and the other one calling himself "RuxPin".
The pages reference "EBK" and "Defiant," two of the hackers convicted for hijacking the Comcast.net domain back in May 2008.
Kryogeniks, the group of defacers "EBK" and "Defiant" were members of, is also mentioned and so is Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking classified data to Wikileaks.
"A person wrote claiming to know who did the hack. No way to know if this claim is true. Hackers, like spies, often blame one another to cover their tracks.
"Blocking attacks is nearly impossible due to the purposefully weak security of the Internet. Nearly all security methods are bogus.
"A competent hacker or spy, or the two working together, can penetrate easily. We monitor and keep back-ups ready. And do not trust our ISP, email provider and officials to tell the truth or protect us," a statement from Cryptome reads.
This is the second successful Cryptome.org hack in fourteen years. The previous incident occurred in 2003 and also involved all files being deleted.
Back in February, the site was temporarily suspended by Network Solutions due to a DMCA notice from Microsoft regarding the company's "Global Criminal Compliance Handbook," which Cryptome published.
Then in March, PayPal suspended the account used by the site to receive donations from users, forcing John Young to refund $5,300.
source
IMO i highly doubt it was trainreq who did this, and if they did they aren't true hackers. merely puppets being employed by somebody to do their dirty work. no hacker in their right mind would delete all the files off a whistleblower website unless their was incriminating evidence against them. They usually back up the files and either hold it for ransom or simply give it back after they have gained some notoriety.
prepare for the new generation of hackers, hacking against we the people. they will make sure our internets are policed and profit from it.
DDoS attack hits U.K. record label and law firm
Denial of service attacks launched by the group Anonymous took down the Web sites of U.K. record label Ministry of Sound and its legal firm Gallant Macmillian on Sunday.
The Anonymous group targeted the two sites as part of its battle against organizations that it believes are using strong-arm tactics to deal with those who share files on the Internet. The Ministry of Sound specifically hired Gallant Macmillian to identify and sue individuals who allegedly uploaded songs from its music catalog, according to The Register. Macmillian has reportedly sent out letters to those suspected of illegal file sharing.
As of Monday, the Ministry of Sound and Macmillian both remain offline. Though some reports say that both sites were brought down by the DDoS assaults, file sharing site Slyck said that Macmillian intentionally took down its site ahead of the scheduled attacks. That move prompted Anonymous to change its plans and hit the Ministry of Sound and the record label's music store payment site.
In a statement from Anonymous that Slyck posted before Sunday's attack, the group said it has targeted companies like Macmillian since "they have declared themselves our enemies by sending out thousands of blackmailing letters against innocents, seeking compensation for copyright infringements that don't exist."
Security vendor Panda Security last week posted a chat session that it conducted with someone reportedly from Anonymous. The unidentified person said the group's mission is to fight back against the antipiracy lobby, claiming that its outdated views on copyright infringement need to be changed in light of the Internet.
These latest attacks follow DDoS hits launched by Anonymous two weeks ago against the MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America), the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), and a firm called Aiplex Software, which had been hired by the MPAA to go after sites that illegally share copyrighted content.
source
As of Monday, the Ministry of Sound and Macmillian both remain offline. Though some reports say that both sites were brought down by the DDoS assaults, file sharing site Slyck said that Macmillian intentionally took down its site ahead of the scheduled attacks. That move prompted Anonymous to change its plans and hit the Ministry of Sound and the record label's music store payment site.
In a statement from Anonymous that Slyck posted before Sunday's attack, the group said it has targeted companies like Macmillian since "they have declared themselves our enemies by sending out thousands of blackmailing letters against innocents, seeking compensation for copyright infringements that don't exist."
Security vendor Panda Security last week posted a chat session that it conducted with someone reportedly from Anonymous. The unidentified person said the group's mission is to fight back against the antipiracy lobby, claiming that its outdated views on copyright infringement need to be changed in light of the Internet.
These latest attacks follow DDoS hits launched by Anonymous two weeks ago against the MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America), the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), and a firm called Aiplex Software, which had been hired by the MPAA to go after sites that illegally share copyrighted content.
source
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Stuxnet code hints at possible Israeli origin, researchers say
Security researchers today offered another tantalizing clue about the possible origins of the notorious Stuxnet worm, but cautioned against reading too much from the obscure tea leaves. In a paper released today and presented at a Vancouver, British Columbia security conference, a trio of Symantec researchers noted that Stuxnet includes references in its code to the 1979 execution of a prominent Jewish Iranian businessman. Buried in Stuxnet's code is a marker with the digits "19790509" that the researchers believe is a "do-not infect" indicator. If the marker equals that value, Stuxnet stops in its tracks, and does not infect the targeted PC. The researchers -- Nicolas Falliere, Liam O Murchu and Eric Chen -- speculated that the marker represents a date: May 9, 1979. "While on May 9, 1979, a variety of historical events occurred, according to Wikipedia "Habib Elghanian was executed by a firing squad in Tehran sending shock waves through the closely knit Iranian Jewish community," the researchers wrote.
source
Monday, October 4, 2010
OH...MY...GO-
ok, listen to me...lord knows i hate reading just as much as the next schmoe...but this book...omg...omg...this book.
i just finished it and let me just say...spectacular.
check it out here http://www.nealstephenson.com/snowcrash/
also you can get it on Audio Book if reading isn't your type of thing. trust me, get this. you won't regret it.
i just finished it and let me just say...spectacular.
check it out here http://www.nealstephenson.com/snowcrash/
also you can get it on Audio Book if reading isn't your type of thing. trust me, get this. you won't regret it.
Hacker claims third-party iPhone apps can freely transmit UDID, pose serious threat to privacy
When Apple addressed a congressional inquiry on privacy in July, the company claimed that it couldn't actually track a particular iPhone in real time, as its transactions were anonymous and thoroughly randomized. Bucknell University network admin Eric Smith, however, theorizes that third-party application developers and advertisers may not have the same qualms, and could be linking your device to your name (and even your location) whenever they transmit data. Smith, a two-time DefCon wardriving champ, studied 57 top applications in the iTunes App Store to see what they sent out, and discovered that some fired off the iPhone's UDID and personal details in plaintext (where they can ostensibly be intercepted), including those for Amazon, Chase Bank, Target and Sam's Club, though a few were secured with SSL. Though UDIDs are routinely used by apps to store personal data and combat piracy, what Smith fears is that a database could be set up linking these UDIDs to GPS coordinates or GeoIP, giving nefarious individuals or organizations knowledge of where you are.
It's a scary idea, but before you direct hate Apple's way, it's important to note that Cupertino's not necessarily the one to blame. iOS is arguably the best at requiring users to opt-in to apps that perform GPS tracking; transmitting the UDID and account information together publicly is strictly against the rules; and we'd like to think that if users provide their personal information to an application developer in the first place, they'd understand what they're doing. Of course, not all users monitor those things closely, and plaintext transmission of personal details is obviously a big no-no.
Smith's piece opens and closes on the idea that Apple's UDID is like the unique identifier of Intel's Pentium III processor, which generated privacy concerns around the turn of the century, and we wonder if ths story might play out the same way -- following government inquiries, Intel offered a software utility that let individuals manually disable their chip's unique ID, and removed it from future CPUs.
source
It's a scary idea, but before you direct hate Apple's way, it's important to note that Cupertino's not necessarily the one to blame. iOS is arguably the best at requiring users to opt-in to apps that perform GPS tracking; transmitting the UDID and account information together publicly is strictly against the rules; and we'd like to think that if users provide their personal information to an application developer in the first place, they'd understand what they're doing. Of course, not all users monitor those things closely, and plaintext transmission of personal details is obviously a big no-no.
Smith's piece opens and closes on the idea that Apple's UDID is like the unique identifier of Intel's Pentium III processor, which generated privacy concerns around the turn of the century, and we wonder if ths story might play out the same way -- following government inquiries, Intel offered a software utility that let individuals manually disable their chip's unique ID, and removed it from future CPUs.
source
Study Shows Some Android Apps Leak User Data Without Clear Notifications
i thought i would post this article because i have an android phone
and am are currently uninstalling everything.
Something as simple as changing your Android phone’s wallpaper or downloading a ringtone could transmit personal data about you, including your location, without your knowledge. Sound farfetched? It’s not: About 15 of 30 randomly selected, popular, free Android apps sent sent users’ private information to remote advertising servers and two-thirds of the apps handled data in ambiguous ways, say researchers. The researchers at Duke, Intel Labs and Penn State University, created a tool called TaintDroid that identifies apps transmitting private data to distant locations. TaintDroid monitors how applications access and use your location, microphone, camera, phone numbers in your contact list. The tool also provides feedback once an app is newly installed, letting you know if the app is transmitting data. “This automatic feedback gives users greater insight into what their mobile applications are doing and could help users decide whether they should consider uninstalling an app,” says Peter Gilbert, a graduate student in computer science at Duke University who’s working on the project. The TaintDroid program isn’t publicly available yet.
source
ASIO files found in drug raid
A CACHE of secret files stolen from ASIO and police and anti-corruption agencies has been discovered during a drug raid in Melbourne, raising fears of a major breach of national security and crime intelligence. Police are investigating whether the former head of intelligence and phone tapping at Victoria's Office of Police Integrity stole the documents. The files were discovered on September 10 by detectives searching a house in Melbourne's north as part of a drug investigation. They found boxes containing sensitive national security and law enforcement documents, including files from ASIO, the OPI and West Australian police. The suspected criminal whose home was raided is believed to be in a relationship with the former OPI official suspected of taking the documents. The former official previously worked for the Victoria Police and the West Australian Anti-Corruption Commission. It is unclear how long the pair have been in a relationship. The Age believes many of the documents contain information that may pose a threat to sources used by the agencies. The files also contain specific details on highly sensitive operational matters.
source
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Random Quote
"The only secure computer is one that's unplugged, locked in a safe, and buried 20 feet under the ground in a secret location... and I'm not even too sure about that one" - Dennis Hughes, FBI
No quick solution for net neutrality
If there’s going to be a quick resolution to the net neutrality debate, it won’t come from Congress. Democrat Senator Henry Waxman says he’s dropping plans for legislation after failing to secure the backing of his Republican opponents. Waxman had hoped to be able to negotiate enough cross-party support that a bill could pass before next month’s elections. Without that support, there’s no real prospect of getting a yes vote before that time. And with the control of both houses of Congress unpredictable after that election (even if the Democrats hold on to the Senate, they may lose their ability to block delaying tactics), there’s a good chance that Waxman’s party will have to concentrate on bills it has the strongest chance of passing for the next two years, meaning a new neutrality law would likely take a back seat anyway.
The draft bill, which leaked earlier this week, would largely have given Congressional force to what the Federal Communications Commission already considers the legal position on the issue. It would have specifically stated that internet carriers come under the same law as phone companies and that this gave the FCC the right to enforce a government policy of net neutrality. That meant carriers would not have been able to prioritize particular types of traffic beyond those actions required for “reasonable network management.” Violation would have opened the company up to a fine as high as $2 million.
The trade-off for the FCC getting these powers confirmed in primary legislation is that the bill would have specifically prevented it from imposing any other rules on broadband companies. It would also have limited the regulations to wired services only, leaving wireless companies free to discriminate in favor of particular internet companies.
Waxman hasn’t ruled out trying to bring in legislation again, but in the meantime is urging the FCC to return to its previously debated “third way” strategy of reclassifying broadband as a communications rather than information service (thus coming under FCC control) but doing so with a wording that limited its regulatory powers to the net neutrality issue.
source
The draft bill, which leaked earlier this week, would largely have given Congressional force to what the Federal Communications Commission already considers the legal position on the issue. It would have specifically stated that internet carriers come under the same law as phone companies and that this gave the FCC the right to enforce a government policy of net neutrality. That meant carriers would not have been able to prioritize particular types of traffic beyond those actions required for “reasonable network management.” Violation would have opened the company up to a fine as high as $2 million.
The trade-off for the FCC getting these powers confirmed in primary legislation is that the bill would have specifically prevented it from imposing any other rules on broadband companies. It would also have limited the regulations to wired services only, leaving wireless companies free to discriminate in favor of particular internet companies.
Waxman hasn’t ruled out trying to bring in legislation again, but in the meantime is urging the FCC to return to its previously debated “third way” strategy of reclassifying broadband as a communications rather than information service (thus coming under FCC control) but doing so with a wording that limited its regulatory powers to the net neutrality issue.
source
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Google reader
an online RSS feed. well i never.
https://www.google.com/reader
expect me to be much more punctual with my comments!
https://www.google.com/reader
expect me to be much more punctual with my comments!
Pentagon out to 'destroy' Wikileaks, founder says
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday accused the Pentagon of setting out to destroy the whistleblower website and struck back at news organizations that he said bought in to the smear campaign.
Speaking to an audience in London, the 39-year-old defended the decision to release some 77,000 classified documents related to the US war in Afghanistan. The Pentagon, and some critics, have alleged the leak endangered the lives of civilians there by publicly identifying individuals who were cooperating with the military.
“I need to express the seriousness of the attack against this media organization,” he said according to the AFP. “The Pentagon has demanded... that we destroy, totally destroy, our previous publications, including that Afghan publication. The Pentagon is trying to get up an espionage case and destroy our organization.”
The Pentagon has warned that Assange may release an additional 15,000 documents that are even more explosive than the first batch. The status of those plans is unclear.
Assange denied Wikileaks endangered innocent people.
“We do not have a goal of innocent people being harmed,” he said using language that at times sounded similar to generals who defend their actions when they generate collateral damage. “We have precisely the opposite goal.” He said Wikileaks took a “harm reduction approach” in vetting the documents that were leaked.
Speaking to an audience in London, the 39-year-old defended the decision to release some 77,000 classified documents related to the US war in Afghanistan. The Pentagon, and some critics, have alleged the leak endangered the lives of civilians there by publicly identifying individuals who were cooperating with the military.
Assange denied Wikileaks endangered innocent people.
“We do not have a goal of innocent people being harmed,” he said using language that at times sounded similar to generals who defend their actions when they generate collateral damage. “We have precisely the opposite goal.” He said Wikileaks took a “harm reduction approach” in vetting the documents that were leaked.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Sintel - short film
check out the independent film made in Linux with tools like GIMP.
support them and show those hollywood big wig homo's that you dont need billions to make a good movie.
the site: http://www.sintel.org/
or watch it on youtube
support them and show those hollywood big wig homo's that you dont need billions to make a good movie.
the site: http://www.sintel.org/
or watch it on youtube
I love my morning coffee
hey guys, i just found this cool add-on for mozilla firefox. it lets you keep up to date with sites that you regular.
you schedule which days you want the site to open and everything. unfortunantly it doesn't have an auto-open feature /yet/ so you have to click the coffee cup to open your webpages.
have fun!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2677/
you schedule which days you want the site to open and everything. unfortunantly it doesn't have an auto-open feature /yet/ so you have to click the coffee cup to open your webpages.
have fun!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2677/
O-M-G
this game reminds me of a game...i can't quite remember the title.
anyway the game is a side scroller and silhouetted. you are a kid and have to get past various obstacles. When you die, by whatever means, it is fairly spooky.
if any of you know the name please comment.
also, the game that reminds me of said game. :s
http://www.addictinggames.com/topsy-turvy-game.html
anyway the game is a side scroller and silhouetted. you are a kid and have to get past various obstacles. When you die, by whatever means, it is fairly spooky.
if any of you know the name please comment.
also, the game that reminds me of said game. :s
http://www.addictinggames.com/topsy-turvy-game.html
I love dan bull
dan bull has got to be the hottest shiznitch on the internet today.
why he is not making millions i do not know. (beiber probably has something to do with it)
anyway, his latest 'open letters' are the stuff legends are made of, check it out on youtube @ http://www.youtube.com/user/douglby#p/u/7/OZkp41_0Ur8
support him on facebook : https://www.facebook.com/itsDanBull?v=wall&ref=notif
by far my most favorite of his videos!
elite.
why he is not making millions i do not know. (beiber probably has something to do with it)
anyway, his latest 'open letters' are the stuff legends are made of, check it out on youtube @ http://www.youtube.com/user/douglby#p/u/7/OZkp41_0Ur8
support him on facebook : https://www.facebook.com/itsDanBull?v=wall&ref=notif
by far my most favorite of his videos!
elite.
US military Cyber Command
The US military's central Cyber Command will not become operational as had been planned tomorrow, according to Pentagon spokesmen. Issues responsible for the delay include difficulties finding suitably qualified staff among America's uniformed legions, and also the fact that it isn't even clear what "operational" means for a cyberforce.
“I don’t know that the 1 October deadline is holding strong and fast,” military spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Rene White told the military paper, asked if Cyber Command would indeed be operational as US defence secretary Robert Gates had specified it should be.
Asked what "fully operational" would actually mean for the cyber command, the colonel replied: “That’s a good question."
Cyber Command, which is bossed by the head of America's feared National Security Agency (NSA) and has its headquarters at the same complex (Fort Meade in Maryland) was created to bring the nascent cyberwar forces of the separate American armed services together. These include the US 24th Air Force, Fleet Cyber Command, Army Forces Cyber Command and Marine Forces Cyber Command.
The US air force alone nowadays considers that it has 30,000 personnel assigned to "cyber" duties, though most of these are simply previously existing communications and electronics troops whose jobs are now deemed to be cyber ones. Only a few thousand are in the specialist 24th Air Force cyber formations.
Cyber Command HQ itself at Fort Meade is expected to have around 1000 staff eventually, mostly uniformed service people as opposed to the largely civilian-staffed NSA (though the NSA is formally speaking a "combat support agency of the Department of Defense"). Finding suitable military people to man up the Cyber Command is apparently a serious issue. Briefing politicians last week, NSA/Cyber Command chief General Keith Alexander said: “If you were to ask me, what is the biggest challenge that we currently face? It’s generating the people that we need to do this mission."
Some US officers considering this problem have said that military culture doesn't value technical skills and its many other requirements - that personnel should be physically fit, able to shoot straight, will be expected to command others if they are to have decent status and pay etc etc - mean that Cyber Command can never be properly manned from the existing services. A pair of cyber colonels recently argued for the creation of a fifth service, the Cyber service, which would be deliberately set up to appeal more to tech geeks, though in fact this might already be said to exist in the form of the NSA.
Another factor in the Cyber Command delays is the issue of what its job is. General Alexander's confirmation as boss was held up for some time by puzzled politicians trying to get more detail on this, and indeed judging by Colonel White's comments even the Pentagon remains unsure. Of course the command has a formal mission statement - inscribed on its crest in the form of an MD5 hash, though one needs to leave out a crucial hyphen to get the right value - but this doesn't seem to have resolved the matter.
Much debate has revolved around the issue of whether the Command will mount network attacks in other countries, and if so what the legal mechanisms for ordering it to do so might be. There's no doubt that it will be capable of making such attacks, however: the 24th AF alone contains an entire unit, the 67th Network Warfare Wing, dedicated to nothing else. Furthermore the left-field military research agency, DARPA, is known to be working on a digital "cyber range" in which to test the fearful network artillery and code missiles of tomorrow.
But for now, anyway, it appears that the Cyber Command will remain only at "initial operational capability" while it gets itself sorted out.
Read the Stars & Stripes piece here.
“I don’t know that the 1 October deadline is holding strong and fast,” military spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Rene White told the military paper, asked if Cyber Command would indeed be operational as US defence secretary Robert Gates had specified it should be.
Cyber Command, which is bossed by the head of America's feared National Security Agency (NSA) and has its headquarters at the same complex (Fort Meade in Maryland) was created to bring the nascent cyberwar forces of the separate American armed services together. These include the US 24th Air Force, Fleet Cyber Command, Army Forces Cyber Command and Marine Forces Cyber Command.
The US air force alone nowadays considers that it has 30,000 personnel assigned to "cyber" duties, though most of these are simply previously existing communications and electronics troops whose jobs are now deemed to be cyber ones. Only a few thousand are in the specialist 24th Air Force cyber formations.
Cyber Command HQ itself at Fort Meade is expected to have around 1000 staff eventually, mostly uniformed service people as opposed to the largely civilian-staffed NSA (though the NSA is formally speaking a "combat support agency of the Department of Defense"). Finding suitable military people to man up the Cyber Command is apparently a serious issue. Briefing politicians last week, NSA/Cyber Command chief General Keith Alexander said: “If you were to ask me, what is the biggest challenge that we currently face? It’s generating the people that we need to do this mission."
Some US officers considering this problem have said that military culture doesn't value technical skills and its many other requirements - that personnel should be physically fit, able to shoot straight, will be expected to command others if they are to have decent status and pay etc etc - mean that Cyber Command can never be properly manned from the existing services. A pair of cyber colonels recently argued for the creation of a fifth service, the Cyber service, which would be deliberately set up to appeal more to tech geeks, though in fact this might already be said to exist in the form of the NSA.
Another factor in the Cyber Command delays is the issue of what its job is. General Alexander's confirmation as boss was held up for some time by puzzled politicians trying to get more detail on this, and indeed judging by Colonel White's comments even the Pentagon remains unsure. Of course the command has a formal mission statement - inscribed on its crest in the form of an MD5 hash, though one needs to leave out a crucial hyphen to get the right value - but this doesn't seem to have resolved the matter.
Much debate has revolved around the issue of whether the Command will mount network attacks in other countries, and if so what the legal mechanisms for ordering it to do so might be. There's no doubt that it will be capable of making such attacks, however: the 24th AF alone contains an entire unit, the 67th Network Warfare Wing, dedicated to nothing else. Furthermore the left-field military research agency, DARPA, is known to be working on a digital "cyber range" in which to test the fearful network artillery and code missiles of tomorrow.
But for now, anyway, it appears that the Cyber Command will remain only at "initial operational capability" while it gets itself sorted out.
Read the Stars & Stripes piece here.
Hello again
still no followers, >sigh< i wonder where i should get some friends.
p.s if anybody reads this, CLICK MY ADS~!!!
p.s if anybody reads this, CLICK MY ADS~!!!
My FIrst Blog!!
so yeah, my first blog...what to write what to write...i guess i should have some sort of theme going...reviews perhaps? of movies? vidya games?
i think i'll focus on getting some friends first >=3
i think i'll focus on getting some friends first >=3
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)