From the category archives:

Privacy

Carry a Cloaking Device for your Cell Phone anywhere you go

by The ITS Crew on October 19, 2010

NEMO Equipment has just released a fantastic new pouch called the EMFX-47 that acts as a cloaking device for your cell phone.

Designed to block cellular phone signals using a specialized conductive textile lining, the EMFX-47 can prevent your transmissions from being maliciously intercepted to track your location.

Let us provide you with a demo of how the pouch functions and some further information on how you can stay safe. [Read More…]

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Data Leaks: Location Based Services and Why You Should be Concerned

by Jason Robert on September 7, 2010

4 of 4 in the series Data Leaks

This week we wrap up the Data Leaks series, explaining the ideas, and risks, of location- based services (LBS).

Imagine someday in the future walking into the food court at the mall and being pummeled with text messages from every vendor, each trying to entice you over to their counter, offering coupons and deals tailored to you.

How did they know when to text you? Your cell phone service provider told them you were in the area, and the clock told them it was the lunchtime hour. [Read More…]

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Data Leaks: What you Should Know about Rootkits

by Jason Robert on August 30, 2010

3 of 4 in the series Data Leaks

This week the Data Leaks series explores another troubling piece of hackery, the rootkit. Today we are going to investigate what they are, what they do, and why you should care about them.

Unfortunately, there will be neither be a “how to detect them” or a “what to do about them” segment. Why? Despite the existence of rootkits on traditional computing platforms for years, i.e. desktops and laptops, the ability to detect and/or prevent their installation is a hard problem. Personally, I’d rather tackle world peace than the rootkit problem—it is that hard to solve. [Read More…]

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Data Leaks: A Frappuccino and Your Customer’s Bank Accounts To Go

by Jason Robert on August 23, 2010

2 of 4 in the series Data Leaks

Last week we kicked off a four-part series on Data Leaks with a lead article about vehicular data leaks. In today’s article, we’ll be diving into the realm of free WiFi.

This series is designed to look at how ordinary things we take for granted encroach on our perception of privacy. This series isn’t about ridiculously risky, yet highly popular, opt-in social networks—like blippy, a web site that divulges recent shopping details via sharing credit-card bills among friends.

If any member of this site participates in blippy.com, stay put—the black rendition van is on its way to your location at this very moment to knock some sense into you.

Instead, the Data Leaks series focuses on unexpected data leaks; ways you might be leaking the personally identifiable information that data thieves profit from. This week’s article leaves the car in the garage and focuses on the coffee joint around the corner where you login to pay your bills each month. [Read More…]

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Data Leaks: How My Car Betrays Me

by Jason Robert on August 16, 2010

1 of 4 in the series Data Leaks

In my first article here at ITS, Social Networks and Your Digital Identity, the subject was identity theft.

One way to mitigate that risk is to carefully consider your privacy settings at social networking sites. Last week I presented the DefCon/Black Hat roundup, announcing a four-part series that inspects how ordinary things we take for granted encroach on our perception of privacy, much more so than opt-in social networking sites.

Today we’ll get into the first article in the data leaks series, how my car betrays me. [Read More…]

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Uncrackable DIY Pencil-and-Paper Encryption

by Andrew Stuckey on August 5, 2010

Today we’re surrounded by massive computational power and vast communication systems. When you visit your bank’s site, you don’t think about negotiating cryptographic keys and verifying digital signatures. When you talk on a cell phone, you don’t have to worry about COMSEC (supposedly).

Not too long ago, however, a “computer” was a young woman at a desk, and cryptographic links were short messages. In this article, I’ll show you proven, uncrackable encryption scheme that can be done with pencil and paper. If properly implemented, One Time Pad encryption can be used in virtually any medium, and is still used by our favorite black helicopter organizations to conduct missions abroad. [Read More…]

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Nuking Data and Other Data Deletion Considerations

by Andrew Stuckey on July 7, 2010

When I was in elementary school, my father and brother helped me build my first computer; I had scavenged the parts from the obsolete equipment my school was throwing out.

I had only the vaguest idea of what we were doing, but I distinctly remember firing up a word processor and finding several letters written by former teachers of mine still on the hard-drive. Unfortunately, this kind of leak is not unique.

Just yesterday, an acquaintance told me how he used to dumpster dive at a computer disposal plant and found several hard-drives from the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Unencrypted.

If one wanted to earn a profitable living as a “market researcher”, identity thief, or foreign intelligence agent, buying liquidated computer equipment or working for a photocopier leaser would be a good place to start. Recovering even so-called deleted data is relatively easy with off-the-shelf software and a little know-how.

This article attempts to first explain how data storage works, dispel some of the myths around data destruction, and then tell you how to actually blow that data into oblivion.

[Read More…]

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