USA's new visa waiver program: fuck privacy

Pardon my french, but this is exactly how it feels. Apparently the amount of control that US borders apply to foreign travellers were not enough and so all citizens of those countries for which no Visa was required (in which Portugal is included) are now required to request a pre-authorization to travel do the USA...starting today...

The pre-authorization is requested at this website, but the funny part is the privacy warning that you get once you enter it:


Besides not having any cancel button (as a possibility for you to "not agree" with these conditions) the warning clearly states that your privacy is not guaranteed and that any information that you enter there can be used by any US official in any means necessary.

How to protect against the newly-found WPA hack

Did you hear that the WiFi's WPA security protocol was cracked? A PhD candidate studying encryption has found an exploit in the WPA standard that would allow a hacker to "send bogus data to an unsuspecting WiFi client," completely compromising your WiFi security and opening your network to all sorts of hacking. That could mean that your WiFi network at home or at work is no longer secure...

But don't worry, it's easy to protect yourself against this new exploit. All you have to do is switch off Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) as an encryption mode, and use Advanced Encryption System (AES) only. TKIP is the only protocol that the hack applies to, so switching to AES-only will ensure that your Wi-Fi network is safe again.

Source: Lifehacker

Where are you registered?

I have registered in so many websites that I can hardly remember all of them. And sometimes, I try to register at a website with my usual username only to discover that the username is already registered (probably by me, but so long ago that I forgot).


To keep track of where you've registered with a single username, use this website. It's quick and easy and includes a huge list of the most popular websites.

How tough do you think your password is?

Creating a strong password to protect your private data is probably one of the most important aspects to keep your online data secure. But what is exactly a strong password? Well, with the lack of a better definition, a strong password is one that cannot be easily broken (that is, in a short amount of time) by a human or a software program employing brute-force techniques.

So, using your dog's name, your birthday date (even in reverse) or your wife's maiden name is never a good option as these would be the first attempts of an attacker. The best option is to use a meaningless word (that is not part of any dictionary) that includes numbers, special characters and has at least 8 characters.

To know exactly how strong a password is, you can always use an online brute force calculator (if you're not comfortable about placing those stats on an online form, you can always use an offline one). According to this calculator, one of my passwords (yes, another tip is to use different passwords for different accounts) is 12 characters long and has 8,224,573,620,224,000 combinations. That means that it will take 29,920.82 hours or 1,246.70 days to crack my password on a computer that tries 137,438,953,472 passwords per hour. This is based on a typical PC processor in 2008 and that the processor is under 10% load.

So, I guess I'm more or less safe... well, except if write my password on a piece of paper and then left it out in the open for everyone to see :-)

Source: Lifehacker
Image source

If you think about it...it probably means something's wrong!

Retro-blogging: best posts of July 2007

Previously, on The Tech In Me:

• Plants that phone when they need to be watered
• It's not the cellphones' fault
• The Wii Workout, at the gym!
• 15 years of SMS
• Vodafone says "no to 3G-less iPhone" - and now that a 3G version of the iPhone is available, iPhone has said yes :-)
  
• The ISPs won't tell on you
• The evolution of cellphones
• Avoid that cable clutter under your desk
  
• 500 GB in one DVD
• Technology can be used for the strangest things
• How to keep your Coke cold while at the computer
  

Finally, a search engine that we control

Wikia Search is a search engine that was inspired by the wiki-philosophy: you create, manage and enjoy the content. Basically, it's a search engine whose results are "brought" by the community itself.

So, while performing a search, if you don't like some of the results, just remove them. Or if you think that some other result should be added to a particular search, then add it. It's as simple as that. There's also a rating system that allows determining the order in which you would like to see results displayed in a search. And the good part is that these changes are not visible only by you. Your changes will reflect in everyone else's searches.

I guess that at the beginning this search engine will be somehow chaotic as everyone tries to "impose" their interpretation of search results, but as the community grows larger and larger, it's normal that we'll see an emerging effect that will bring more accurate results.

So, join in and start improving everyone's search results.

ATM + Microsoft Windows = Security Problem

I already suspected that using Windows on an ATM machine was not a good idea. But recent security tests proved that Windows-based cash machines are easily hacked.

Security experts have hacked ATMs to show how easy it is to steal money and bank account details from modern cash machines.

Network Box illustrated this threat by showing that only the personal identification number was encrypted when information was sent from a U.S. ATM to networked bank computers. The card numbers, card expiration dates, transaction amounts, and account balances were clearly readable in plain text to anybody intercepting the data as it traveled through the network.

Since ATM Machines are basically equivalent to desktop PCs (they usually are based on Intel hardware and Windows operating systems), they have the same vulnerabilities as a normal house computer. That is, an exploit that works on a home or office computer, will also work on these ATMs. In fact, the risk may even be greater as the update process of such machines may not be as frequent as in a normal user's computer.

File Destructor: the perfect excuse

I don't even have to describe File Destructor. The words of the creators are self-explanatory:

"Want to play games on your Playstation but got a deadline for an exam or report that didn’t match your gaming ambitions? Then you have come to the right place. Send trashed files and blame your faulty computer, instead of confessing that you are a lazy bum who just wants to play videogames."

Retro-Blogging: Best posts of October 2006

Previously on "The Tech In Me":

• Google Maps on your phone - How to view Google Maps on your cellphone
  
• New short-range wireless standard - Wibree was starting to get discussed
  
• Fading Windows with Jedi Concentrate - A nice application to help you concentrate on specific windows
  
• Multi-touch Interface Screens - The beginning of Perceptive Pixel
  
• Invisible Clothing - Futuristic clothing that allows you to stay invisible-ish
• Google Code Search - Search for millions of lines of code in C++, Java, PHP and other languages
• Google will buy YouTube? - when the rumours started
• Online Media Converter - Convert multimedia files between formats
• J2ME Polish - Java Mobile Programming made easy
• McDonald's and Coca-Cola's MP3 Players "play" malware - When two of the world's largest companies join together to bring malware to the world
• "GooTube" won't be the next Napster - Google's naive view of YouTube copyright problems
• A Trojan that keeps you safe from virus? - The world was shocked at this "benevolent virus"
• Wireless Internet for free on Lisbon's parks - Lisbon just got greener for the Internet Geeks
  

Why pay a few hundred dollars for an iPhone, when you can get a GPhone for free?

Here's a nice rumour: it seems that Google will be launching a mobile device based on a ad-supported business model, which basically means that users will be able to use the phone for free as long as they are willing to view some ads while doing so.

Google has already shown a prototype to device manufacturers and network operators but it looks like this device will not see the light of day for a long time.

Now the question remains: is this a good business model? I don't know if I would be willing to listen to an ad before I wanted to make a call, or having to skip through uncountless ads before I can read each feed.

Have your saying: would you accept this kind of business model in a mobile device?


Source: ComputerWorld

No personal data will be handed-over by the ISPs in Europe

The European Court of Justice, the top court in the European Union, has set its position on a "fight" between Telefonica (a Spanish telecommunications company which provides Internet services) and Promusicae (entity that represents musicians and record companies in Spain) regarding the request Promusicae made to Telefonica for it to hand-over the personal data of users of P2P networks that were allegedly downloading illegal music.

On CNET: "Telefonica maintained that Spanish law required it to turn over these addresses only in criminal cases or matters of national security. The Spanish court overseeing the case asked for an opinion from the European Court of Justice, which essentially backed Telefonica, saying that this information did not need to be turned over in civil cases.

This opinion's not a legally binding ruling, but if the Spanish court accepts the opinion and rules accordingly, this could form the basis for similar decisions throughout the EU."

This measure will mean a lot more work for the record companies and copyright entities since this was the most effective way to catch the illegal downloaders. These entities will now have to come up with some other technical method without violating the EU's stringent privacy laws.

I think there are some judges in the European Court of Justice that really like BitTorrent, eMule or Kazza. It's just a theory :-)

Source: CNET News

What Google discovers on the Web...

Google crawls the entire web to get...well, the entire web. However, sometimes it crawls just a little bit more than it should and acquires some very sensitive information.

Check out this site to get an idea of what Google was able to "capture" on the Web.

Paparazzi's competitors: people with cellphones!

The rise of camera phone users as on-scene photographers and replacement paparazzi is happening. That's right, people with last generation camera phones have now the technology to potentially capture "juicy" moments anytime, anywhere such as the latest Britney Spears haircut madness.

While people were only using these technologies to take innocent fan pictures, the paparazzi's business model was safe. But now, times are changing and the ubiquity of camera phones and the way they simplify distribution of such images, is creating the new wave of citizen paparazzi, that are only after their "cut" on this industry.

One could argue that this isn't a bad thing (to end the paparazzi era and give the celebs some rest), but the rise in citizen paparazzi just leads to a decline in the privacy of celebrities and everybody else. In fact, as long as "news" agencies are paying quite huge sums for some of these photos, there will always be people interested in providing this kind of "journalism".

Source: Techdirt
Image: Engadget

Google Earth: a terrorist attack's planner

Google is discussing with military agencies in Iraq after learning that terrorists attacking British bases in Basra appear to have been using aerial footage from Google Earth to pinpoint strikes.

The military agencies decided to discuss this issue with Google after seizing documents, which were obtained in raids on insurgents' homes, that were printouts from photos taken from Google Earth. These photos show the location of buildings, tents, latrines and lightly armored vehicles.

This seems to be the way terrorists are planning terrorist attacks in this technology-era, by identifying the location of the most vulnerable areas using satellite pictures on Google Earth.

Source: CNET News