The Twitter Boycott

Twitter is in trouble with their Tweeters.  Threat of abuse, rape, and even death can be shoved onto anyone in cyberland without any repercussion to the oppressor.  If Facebook notices any discourtesy of the sort, they will take down your account.  Twitter feminist journalist Caitlin Moran lead a 24-hour boycott of the social media site yesterday 8/5/2013.  The Twitter boycott was held to show the support for women who have been targeted by these threats.
Bomb threats to journalists have been the main target for this abuse.  The suspected reason is because there are a certain type of men who can’t stand to see women in the public eye.  These men feel helpless and obviously insecure about their own accomplishments so they discredit women by making sexual and violent threats against them.

Targeted Women

Among the targeted women of these scandalous threats is Mary Beard.  Mary Beard received a tweeted bomb threat from her twitter feed stating she would be blown up.  The victims have been advised to contact the police of these threats.  Two men have been arrested in connection with these crimes.
Del Harvey, Twitter’s UK General Manager, posted a promise of action on the Twitter UK blog.

The archaeologist and television presenter Tony Pollard wrote: “#twittersilence? No way! NEVER give bullies dead air – it gives their fist more velocity. Talk & keep talking. That’s empowerment. Rave on!”

Women shouldn’t be subject to this kind of violence, especially over the media. With the Bob Filner lawsuit going on, women are exasperated with such violence that is being infringed on them.

To Tweet or not to Tweet

Some are saying not to boycott Twitter , instead Tweet because voices should be heard.   You have to NOT do something instead of doing it!  If you don’t want to be silent then tweet, says Simone De Beauvior.
To tweet or not to tweet, Twitter has been awakened to this situation and they know something has to be done.  We are not going to stand for it, as a community we will fight for what we believe in and letting others bully and threat us is not in the cards.
The boycott has already worked, the 24-hour boycott has made talk worldwide.  With Tweeters, once they start talking, they can’t stop…


References:
Mary Beard is latest woman to be sent bomb threat on Twitter – The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/04/mary-beard-bomb-threat-twitter
August 4, 2013
Twitter boycott is my small symbolic gesture against online misogyny – The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/04/twitter-boycott-gesture-online-misogyny
August 4, 2013
The Twitter Boycott: All Your Questions Answered – Marie Claire UK
http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/blogs/543850/the-twitter-boycott-everything-you-need-to-know.html

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Deal of the Week: Sharp LC 60LE757U – 60″ LED-backlit LCD TV for only $1490!

http://www.hyphenet.com/blog/deal-of-the-week-sharp-led-backlit-led-tv/

The Sharp 60″ LC-60LE757U AQUOS Full HD Smart LED 3D TV features a 2D and Active 3D Full HD 1920 x 1080p LCD panel with an Edge-Lit LED backlight system, 240 Hz native refresh rate, AquoMotion 480 scanning and Quattron color technology.
The TV offers Bluetooth wireless connectivity and MHL smartphone streaming. It’s also equipped with built-in Wi-Fi, an Ethernet jack, a web browser and a dual-core processor. Once connected to the web, you’ll be able to enjoy all your favorite social networking and entertainment apps including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Netflix and more. You can even surf the web and watch TV on a split-screen.

Call (619) 325-0990 to order Sharp LCD TV today!

Buy of the Week offer valid through August 9, 2013.
Note: Shipping and taxes apply.
Looking for something else? Check out our monthly deals or contact us to get a quote on the product you’re searching for.

Is Your TV Watching You?

http://www.hyphenet.com/blog/is-your-tv-watching-you/

Image courtesy of [graur razvan ionut] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We all know the risks of our computer camera being hacked and someone on the other side could be visually intruding our home.  The paranoia of a cyber criminal watching us on the other side of our computer exists.  But what about your TV?  Today there are very high-end televisions that have “smart” PC-like features. These televisions have internet connectivity, apps, cameras, and microphones.  There has been a security hole discovered in some of the Samsung Smart TVs that show a little more work needs to be done before the consumer can feel safe watching it in the comforts of their own home.

The Flaw

The flaw with the Samsung Smart TV, is that there is a build-in camera and no one can even notice. While your watching TV, a hacker anywhere around the world has the ability to watch you. They aren’t only invading your privacy, but they could be stealing your bank account information and other private personal information by viewing everything you do on your smart TV.
Sansung has already been on the issue, researchers at iSEC Partners have informed the company already about the bugs. Now there has been a software update sent to all the Samsung users with these affected TVs.
Security cameras, lights, and central control systems are features that hackers are able to access remotely. Hackers are very often finding ways to steal our personal information and this is just another tackle from them. Hackers have the control to send us to any website of their choosing when we access these TVs for internet use. We may think we are logging into our bank account but this may be a login to their database signing away all of our personal information away.

Security and Safety

CNNMoney said, Samsung is taking this issue very seriously.

“The camera can be turned into a bezel of the TV so that the lens is covered, or disabled by pushing the camera inside the bezel. The TV owner can also unplug the TV from the home network when the Smart TV features are not in use.”

Samsung is recommending that customers use encrypted wireless access points for better protection. Also they suggest, if users are not using the cameras, then to put tape over it just in case.

References:
Your TV might be watching you – CNN Money
http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/01/technology/security/tv-hack/index.html
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Featured Image courtesy of [Idea go] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Android Fragmentation [Infographic]

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Cell Phone SIM Cards Being Hacked!

We know those tiny gold chips hidden inside our phones that hold the key to our dearest gems.  Phone numbers, account numbers, passwords, games, and the irreplaceable pictures from way back when.  Research has shown that millions of SIM cards in use today are vulnerable to being hacked.  These memory bites are susceptible to being cloned remotely, or even have the voice mail numbers changed in the blink of an eye.
These cards are vulnerable from a Seventies-era cipher that are being used worldwide, according to Security Research Labs.  Karsten Nohl from Security Research Labs states, “With over seven billion cards in active use, SIMs may well be the most widely used security token in the world.”
The hacked SIM cards, allow spying, encryption keys for calls, SMSs being read, and mobile identity.  There are over six billion cellphones being used today, and not everyone is updated with a smartphone that doesn’t use a SIM card.
The outdated SIM cards have a Data Encryption Standard (DES encryption) which is an algorithm for the encryption of electronic data.  Nohl tested 1,000 SIMs in the time-frame of two years and found that 1/4 of those were vulnerable.

Java Applets

When the software updates, cryptographic-secured SMS messages- that use Java software, pose a “critical hacking risk”. – Karsten Nohl

So the hackers would send a neglected signed OTA command with the SIM cards responding as a cryptographic signature which is then resolved to a 56-bit key on the computer.  This is how the attacker installs the Java applets.  The Java applet can then break out out and access the rest of the card.  Newer cards are being designed to protect such attacks from happening, networks and handsets are getting on board with these defense techniques.

References:
“Hugely significant” SIM card vulnerability leaves millions of cellphones at risk – We Live Security
http://www.welivesecurity.com/2013/07/22/hugely-significant-sim-card-vulnerability-leaves-millions-of-cellphones-at-risk/
July 22, 2013
Data Encryption Standard – Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Encryption_Standard
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Google Analytics Real-Time API Launch

Google launched the beta of their real-time Google Analytics API today.  This new API will allows computer programers and developers to view the analytics of their sites performance in real-time.  This feature is already available for Google Analytics, but the real-time data is not completely accurate.  Now when you access the Google Analytics Real-Time API, you will remain invite-only and outside of Google’s SLA for a period of time.
This new API allows you to make queries of your real-time data and use the information to your advantage.  For instance, if you want to track a specific page or link you can put a counter on that item.  You can also build an app that will show the number of visitors on your site on a Pebble watch.
The Google Analytics Real-Time API gives clarity on where traffic is coming from to it’s exact source.  If you see your site is being searched by Pinterest.com, you can add a “Pin It” button to your page.  The Google Analytics Real-Time data has been running for two years now.  There has always been a lag, this new improved API will make real-time seem more like real-time.


Please visit http://www.hyphenet.com/blog/ for more posts on the latest technology and IT security news.

References:
Google Launches Real-Time API For Analytics In Invite-Only Beta – Techcrunch
http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/01/google-launches-real-time-api-for-analytics-in-invite-only-beta/
August 1, 2013
Google Launches Real Time Analytics API – Daily Gadgetry
http://dailygadgetry.com/google-launches-real-time-analytics-api/1411
August 1, 2013
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Win64/Expiro is an infectious virus that won’t stop!

Image courtesy of [jscreationzs] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

WeLiveSecurity’s anti-virus labs made a new discovery on the Win64/Expiro virus.  These file-infecting viruses have been well known for years and studied extensively.  The malicious code of this virus aimed to modify 32-bit files.  The Expiro (Xpiro), has a body that is versatile because of it’s full cross-platform, able to infect 32-bit and 64-bit files.

Local, removable and network drives are what this virus aims to infect.  Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers have malware install extensions for this dirty virus.  Although, the malware is known to steal and store certificates and passwords from Internet Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, and from the FTP client FileZilla.  These browser extensions redirect the user to malicious URLs.  In doing so, it collects confidential information while users do online banking and use other private websites for personal use.  The Win64/Expiro is an infectious virus that won’t stop!  It disables services on the compromised computer like Windows Defender and Windows Security Center.

The Infection

During the infection process, the virus will upload the startup code which is inserted into files to be overwritten.  At the end of this vicious process, the code virus adds a jump instruction that takes the code unpacked into the .vmp0 section.  This virus is infecting executable files, passing them through directories regularly.  The malicious code creates new files, then writes it to a special file in blocks of 64K.  When the virus is blocked by the read/write access, it then works it’s way to changing the security descriptor of the file and information of the user.
If you have signed executable files, the virus will infect that as well.  The infector process can be seen in the system by the large numbers of I/O operations and the volumes of read/written bytes.  The virus needs to see all the files in the system, so this process can take some time.
As a bot, the malware can perform the following:

• change control server URLs;
• execute a shell command – passes it as param to cmd.exe and returns result to server;
• download and execute plugins from internet;
• download a file from internet and save it as %commonapddata%\%variable%.exe;
• implement a TCP flood DoS attack;
• enumerate files matching mask \b*.dll in the %commonappdata% folder, loading each one as a library, calling export «I» from it, and loading exports «B» and «C» from it;
• call plugin functions «B» and «C» from the loaded plugin;
• start proxy server (SOCKS, HTTP);
• set port forwarding for TCP on the local router (SOAP).

The file infector is a good option for cyber crime, this viral malicious code spreads very fast.  Be aware of these long processes on your computer.  Cross-platform infections make the range of potential victims endless.

Please visit http://www.hyphenet.com/blog/ for more posts on the latest technology and IT security news.

References:
Versatile and infectious: Win64/Expiro is a cross-platform file infector – WeLiveSecurity
http://www.welivesecurity.com/2013/07/30/versatile-and-infectious-win64expiro-is-a-cross-platform-file-infector/
July 30, 2013