Please try the URL privacy information feature enabled by clicking the flashlight icon above. This will reveal two icons after each link the body of the digest. The shield takes you to a breakdown of Terms of Service for the site - however only a small number of sites are covered at the moment. The flashlight take you to an analysis of the various trackers etc. that the linked site delivers. Please let the website maintainer know if you find this useful or not. As a RISKS reader, you will probably not be surprised by what is revealed…
Journalist Tony Collins has published a letter from UK Member of Parliament Richard Bacon to the Government Minister responsible for the UK National Heath Service. It catalogues a series of issues that illustrate some of the risks of implementing IT systems to support patient care across a significant number and variety of hospitals. http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/the-tony-collins-blog/2011/01/mps-letter-to-christine-connelly-in-full/ Background to the UK National Programme can be found at www.nhs-it.info.
For the "just when you thought it couldn't get worse" department: "A team of security researchers has created a proof-of-concept Trojan for Android handsets that is capable of listening out for credit card numbers - typed or spoken - and relaying them back to the applications creator." http://www.thinq.co.uk/2011/1/20/android-trojan-captures-credit-card-details/ Next thing I wouldn't be surprised of hearing of exploits for irobot's Roomba. Robert Schaefer, Atmospheric Sciences Group, MIT Haystack Observatory Westford MA 01886 781-981-5767 http://www.haystack.mit.edu rps@haystack.mit.edu [Notes from Webster: ANDROID: late Greek, manlike; a mobile robot usually with a human form. TROJAN HORSE: from the large hollow wooden horse filled with Greek soldiers and introduced within the walls of Troy by a stratagem. Beware of Greek-Bearing Handheld Metaphors. They may engage in Spartanogenesis. PGN]
William J. Broad, John Markoff and David E. Sanger, *The New York Times*, 15 Jan 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/world/middleeast/16stuxnet.html The Dimona complex in the Negev desert is famous as the heavily guarded heart of Israel's never-acknowledged nuclear arms program, where neat rows of factories make atomic fuel for the arsenal. Over the past two years, according to intelligence and military experts familiar with its operations, Dimona has taken on a new, equally secret role - as a critical testing ground in a joint American and Israeli effort to undermine Iran's efforts to make a bomb of its own. Behind Dimona's barbed wire, the experts say, Israel has spun nuclear centrifuges virtually identical to Iran's at Natanz, where Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium. They say Dimona tested the effectiveness of the Stuxnet computer worm, a destructive program that appears to have wiped out roughly a fifth of Iran's nuclear centrifuges and helped delay, though not destroy, Tehran's ability to make its first nuclear arms. "To check out the worm, you have to know the machines," said an American expert on nuclear intelligence. "The reason the worm has been effective is that the Israelis tried it out." Though American and Israeli officials refuse to talk publicly about what goes on at Dimona, the operations there, as well as related efforts in the United States, are among the newest and strongest clues suggesting that the virus was designed as an American-Israeli project to sabotage the Iranian program. In recent days, the retiring chief of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Meir Dagan, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton separately announced that they believed Iran's efforts had been set back by several years. Mrs. Clinton cited American-led sanctions, which have hurt Iran's ability to buy components and do business around the world. The gruff Mr. Dagan, whose organization has been accused by Iran of being behind the deaths of several Iranian scientists, told the Israeli Knesset in recent days that Iran had run into technological difficulties that could delay a bomb until 2015. That represented a sharp reversal from Israel's long-held argument that Iran was on the cusp of success. The biggest single factor in putting time on the nuclear clock appears to be Stuxnet, the most sophisticated cyberweapon ever deployed. ...
"Controversially, the OECD advises nations against adopting the Pentagon's idea of setting up a military division - as it has under the auspices of the US air force's Space Command - to fight cyber-security threats. While vested interests may want to see taxpayers' money spent on such ventures, says Sommer, the military can only defend its own networks, not the private-sector critical networks we all depend on for gas, water, electricity and banking." http://bit.ly/hYEIfO (New Scientist)
Nick Bilton, *The New York Times*, 15 Jan 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/business/16ping.html My wife and I sat cross-legged on the floor of a local Barnes & Noble store recently, surrounded by several large piles of books. We were searching for interior design ideas for a new home that we are planning to buy. As we lobbed the books back and forth, sharing kitchen layouts and hardwood floor textures, we snapped a dozen pictures of book pages with our iPhones. We wanted to share them later with our contractor. After a couple of hours of this, we placed the books back on the shelf and went home, without buying a thing. But the digital images came home with us in our smartphones. Later that evening, I felt a few pangs of guilt. I asked my wife: Did we do anything wrong? And, I wondered, had we broken any laws by photographing those pages? It's not as if we had destroyed anything: We didn't rip out any pages. But if we had wheeled a copier machine into the store, you can be sure the management would have soon wheeled us and the machine out of there. But our smartphones really functioned as hand-held copiers. Did we indeed go too far?
Microsoft investigates 'phantom' Windows Phone 7 data Microsoft has told BBC News that it is investigating why some handsets running its Windows Phone 7 software are sending and receiving "phantom data". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12238367 followup to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12152517 Robert Schaefer, Atmospheric Sciences Group, MIT Haystack Observatory Westford MA 01886 781-981-5767 http://www.haystack.mit.edu rps@haystack.mit.edu
"The European Commission (EC) suspended trading in carbon credits on Wednesday after unknown hackers compromised the accounts of Czech traders and siphoned off around $38 million, according to published reports." http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/carbon-trading-halted-after-hack-exchange-012011 Robert Schaefer, Atmospheric Sciences Group, MIT Haystack Observatory Westford MA 01886 781-981-5767 http://www.haystack.mit.edu rps@haystack.mit.edu
Social networking provides a growing market for sleazy business practices -- and the antidote to exposing scams as they happen. *Infoworld*, 19 Jan 2011 http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/more-misadventures-facebook-819
Jim Fitzgerald, Associated Press (13 Jan 2011) IBM's Watson computer beat former Jeopardy! champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a 15-question practice round in which the hardware and software system answered about half of the questions and got none of them wrong. Watson, which will compete in a charity event on Jeopardy! against Jennings and Rutter on Feb. 14-16, recently received a buzzer, the finishing touch to a system that represents a huge step in computing power. "Jeopardy! felt that in order for the game to be as fair as possible, just as a human has to physically hit a buzzer, the system also would have to do that," says IBM's Jennifer McTighe. Watson consists of 10 racks of IBM servers running the Linux operating system and has 15 terabytes of random-access memory. The system has access to the equivalent of 200 million pages of content, and can mimic the human ability to understand the nuances of human language, such as puns and riddles, and answer questions in natural language. The practice round was the first public demonstration of the computer system. IBM says Watson's technology could lead to systems that can quickly diagnose medical conditions and research legal cases, among other applications. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jan/13/ibm-computer-gets-a-buzz-on-for-charity-jeopardy/ [Who's on First? Wats'on Second? Jeopardy Leopardy, Docked! The Mouse ran off half-cocked. PGN]
> I wonder if a good defense here is that the machine was doing exactly what it was programmed to do and all the defendant was doing was using expert play to increase his chances of winning. There are two things wrong here. First, the defendants are not charged with hacking (18 USC 1030), they're charged with wire fraud (18 USC 1341, I believe). But even if they were charged with a computer crime, I do not accept the notion that "what it was programmed to do" is a good standard, unless and until we have computers or compilers with a "do what I mean" instruction. After all, by this standard someone perpetrating a buffer overflow attack could say "the computer was programmed to accept as machine code all bytes starting after 18235 non-zero bytes in the input field"—and it was. (For a long discussion of the issue, see http://volokh.com/2011/01/04/eleventh-circuit-holds-that-it-is-a-crime-for-an-employee-to-use-his-employers-computer-for-non-business-reasons/ -- and see my long disagreements with Orin Kerr...) Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
There was a strong element of social engineering in this activity. Before the button pushing could work, a technician had to activate the "Double Up" feature, which was normally inactive. The grand jury indictment explains how the accused accomplished that. http://postgazette.com/pg/10365/1114511-58.stm " ... Mr. Nestor ... flaunted large amounts of cash to casino employees and cultivated an image as a so-called 'high roller' during 14 visits to the ... casino ... Mr. Nestor played at only the most expensive slot machines in the casino, placing wagers of between $1 and $25 per credit in an area reserved for high-limit gamblers... . Mr. Laverde, a former Swissvale police officer, acted as Mr. Nestor's bodyguard, flashing his police badge to casino employees and hinting that he carried a weapon... . The men persuaded casino technicians to alter 'soft' options on the machines, such as volume and screen brightness controls. Such perks aren't unusual for high-rollers, who can wager anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars in one day." >From the Pennsylvania grand jury indictment: http://www.pgcb.state.pa.us/files/communications/20091007_Washington_County_DA_PR.pdf "Shortly after arrival, NESTOR inquired about the slot machine's 'Double Up' feature to slot technician Daniel Joseph DOWNING, a Meadows Racetrack and Casino employee. Specifically, NESTOR asked DOWNING to activate the machine's 'Double Up' feature, as it was deactivated at the time. ... Upon accessing the device's programming menu, DOWNING was unable to locate the 'Double Up' feature in question. NESTOR then offered to show DOWNING the location of the feature on the machine's programming menu. DOWNING refused NESTOR direct contact with the machine, but allowed NESTOR to guide him through the menu screens. DOWNING then located the appropriate game specific menu which enabled the 'Double Up' feature and activated it, per NESTOR's request. ... his supervisor, RJ FUNKHOUSER ... then told DOWNING to disable the 'Double Up' feature, explaining to NESTOR that the Pennsylvania Gaming Board prohibited such a change. ... DOWNING then appeared to disable the 'Double Up' feature, but neglected to save his programming change, resulting in the activation of the 'Double Up' feature on the slot machine. DOWNING then closed the machine and set it up for play. The casino employees on duty at the time did not notice the oversight and the machine was available and open for public play." The details of the actual code and button sequence have not been published, for obvious reasons. The machine's manufacturer, International Game Technology, issued a product warning in July 2009. http://dev.igtcompliance.12hna.com/compliance_notifications/CN4633B.doc A picture and description of the 'high roller' is here: http://www.pgcb.state.pa.us/files/public_exclusion/nestor_andre.pdf
The idea behind most encryption algorithms is that they are "hard", which usually means that brute force attacks require time and space resources which are an exponential function of the key length. But according to Moore's Law, such resources also increase exponentially over time. Conclusion: as long as average key length increases linearly with time, the effort required for successful brute force attacks remains constant.
I believe intentional jamming or spoofing of GNSS is relatively rare today. Few people (possibly with the exception of some military operations) would have a reason to do so. I am speculating that this could change the moment somebody would have a financial advantage. One example is the now-canceled (at least for the time being) Dutch plans for GNSS-based road pricing. I contend that any application where there is an incentive to interfere with GNSS is a danger to the GNSS service as a whole since jamming/spoofing would affect everybody in the vicinity, not only the driver who wants to reduce his bill. Since a jammer or spoofer would interfere not only with his own receiver, but also with those in cars nearby, someone could be accused of fraud, while he just happened to drive close to a jammer/spoofer. So the legal system would have a lot of problems identifying who is guilty and who is innocent and just happened to be in the range of the perpetrator's device.
All this talk here on RISKS about guarding ones privacy. I have taken the opposite approach, ensuring the most lurid details are mere clicks away to anybody. Lo and behold, I discovered nobody was interested in the first place. Come and stalk me at the old folks home. [But don't forget the risks of identity fraud. PGN]
A quick google would tell you that it's most likely a mechanical problem, with videos and a suggestion to freeze the drive. Typical failures for a hard drive that's was knocked over while spinning are - heads crashing into the platters, and - main spindle/motor/bearings failure thanks to angular momentum (think of the spinning platters as gyroscope). It takes a lot to actually break the platters, the worst you can expect is heads scratching surface during the crash and making a file or three unreadable. Data recovery involves pulling out the actual platters, putting them on a working spindle, with working heads, and reading the data off them. It requires some serious gear and expertise, that's what $1100 buys you. E.g., the heads of a working drive fly on top of the layer of air only a few molecules thick that rotates together with the platter—obviously, a dust mote getting in there would be a serious problem. So when they say "clean room" they aren't kidding: they mean really very clean. Freezing the drive sometimes works, but I've never seen it work long enough to recover 4,000 files, nor 14,000. I've recovered the directory structure and maybe a handful of files once or twice—but then it warms up and seizes again. Dimitri Maziuk, BioMagResBank, UW-Madison—http://www.bmrb.wisc.edu
> I consider this an example of one of the primary technology ... risks This point highlights one of the contradictory notions in the current rush to insert IT into healthcare—that IT will somehow catalyze the process of organizational performance improvement. But embedding work processes in the concrete (or, more optimistically, the molasses) of rigid IT systems can only impede the rapid cycle change efforts that its advocates envision. Robert L Wears, MD, MS, University of Florida 1-904-244-4405 wears@ufl.edu Imperial College London +44 (0)791 015 2219 r.wears@imperial.ac.uk
My recent incident with inadequately backed-up data and a dropped hard drive made me realize something. I wasn't really stupid as much as I was careless, the normal state of affairs of fallible human beings who maybe do most things okay but occasionally make mistakes. (I almost took the bait of writing "misteaks" for grins but I rose above the temptation.) I came to realize that we can divide the failure potential along two points - there may be others but I'll use two for simplicity - "robustness" and "brittleness". A robust piece of technology takes into account human error, and either resists failing as a result of error or degrades gracefully to avoid or reduce injury or damage. A brittle piece of technology fails horribly in the event of error, crashes or causes damage as a result, and sometimes makes the results worse than if we weren't using technology at all. Consider the following scenario: You're coming up on an all-way stop at a not-very busy corner and aren't paying attention, and in fact the intersection only just converted from a stop for the side street only to an all-way stop. You weren't paying attention and you blow the stop, going through it at, say, 25 or 30 miles per hour, the speed limit. What happens? Usually, nothing. That's the point. In the ordinary operation of the real world, I would guess most mistakes are usually harmless. The world in general tends to be robust and many, if not most mistakes - when I say "most" I'm meaning 51% or higher - probably happen without consequence. (A few years ago I mentioned this exact incident regularly occurring at an intersection where I lived to an associate of mine, after there were warnings posted weeks in advance of the stop signs being added and the intersection had advance notice signs permanently installed, people in front of me were routinely not even slowing down at the new stop signs. I had to love his response: Call the county, tell them that the stop signs are not working, they must be broken!) What we as RISKS readers see, and what the participants and victims of technology are learning are that technology is often not robust and mistakes falling on brittle technology can be deadly. Technology is too-often brittle, requires high competence and high attention, and failure is often more severe. When we see incidents where technology failure results in good outcomes, it's almost certainly because someone added in or designed in methods to increase robustness and reduce brittleness. Which is more expensive, an application that crashes on bad input or one that validates input? Well, the one that crashes is simpler to make, highly brittle, cheap and not robust. An application that catches errors is more robust, less brittle, takes longer to do and is more costly. (The "more costly" might be in the negligible cost range but it is still more.) Sometimes brittle and fast is okay; if you're writing a quick-and- dirty converter for calculating date differences, sanitizing and validating input isn't important, you can just restart the program if it crashes. Sometimes it isn't; if you're writing the converter for calculating the shield and radiation levels on a cancer treatment machine, failure results in serious injury or death. And what I think we are seeing is that the "infusion" of technology into so many aspects of our lives, with inadequate robustness, is causing a lot of brittleness-induced disasters as the brittle technology causes worse results when it fails. And this may be the real point of the Risks Digest even if we didn't realize it: I suspect nearly every disastrous failure is because the technology lacks adequate robustness to allow it to reduce the effects of failure, the way most real-world non-technological failures usually either cause no significant problem or only minor problems. Spill hot coffee on your arm in a kitchen, if you immediately get it off and apply ice you might only get a minor burn or you might get a serious one. But eventually your cells will heal themselves. Spill even cold coffee on a airliner control panel and 300 people might die. Spill coffee on a regular keyboard and you have to throw it away. Spill coffee on a spill-resistant keyboard, you wipe it off and it's no big deal. Increased robustness reduces risk; increased brittleness increases risk. Cars are a good example. We don't expect them to work after high- speed collisions, e.g. where the combined impact speeds exceed 50, 60 or 100 or more miles an hour. But we do provide increased robustness for occupant survivability through seat belts, laminated window glass, airbags, etc. And of course, every one of those safety features is an increased cost. But that cost is acceptable because the increased brittleness of the technology for reduced probability of survival or higher probability of injury without them is not acceptable. Personal example: I've been involved in four serious automobile accidents in the last thirty-five years. One was my fault, the other three were someone else's. For some not-very strange reason, every time I was in an accident I had little to no injury and was wearing a seat belt. I'm not psychic, of course; when I first got my license at 17, I put on my seat belt. For the rest of my life, unless the belt won't fit because I can't buckle it and I can't get a seat-belt extender, I've always worn a seat belt. Most of the time I don't need it, most trips end uneventfully. But I'm not willing to presume nothing will happen, instead I simply protect myself and go about my business. If, as in most cases, nothing happens, I "wasted" five seconds; if something does happen, I've saved myself from potential injury or fatality. In short, I have not presumed that the trip will be free of failures due to error-enhanced brittleness, I use pre-planning to avoid the catastrophic failures caused by brittleness and error and thus increase robustness. But the use of a seat belt does add minor costs; I have to take a few seconds to use it; if a vehicle I regularly use has a seat belt that's not long enough, I have to take time to stop at a dealer, order an extender, then go back in a couple days and pick it up (seat belt extenders are free, by the way, but the dealer may have to order it for you if their parts department doesn't have it on hand). But I pay that minor cost of always using a seat belt because it's much less expensive than the alternative even though I only really need it maybe 0.0001% of the time. I just never know which of the times will be the ones I need it, so I just pay that tiny little cost every time and then reap the benefits the few times when I do. The next time you hear about some disaster, in a news report, or in RISKS, and think about this: what is the likelihood this incident occurred because something lacked adequate real-world robustness to allow operation under the usual and customary conditions it could reasonably be expected to experience, and how often the failure was the result of insufficient robustness. I could be wrong - I've been wrong many times, that's how anyone learns. by trial and error - but I suspect nearly all disasters are the result of inadequate robustness to withstand all normal and potential expected regular or routine uses of that technology in real-world operations.
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