Pacemakers send and receive signals and it seems that pacemaker transmitters can be reverse engineered. This means that criminals can hack them and make them send a high voltage electric shock to pacemakers. The most scary part is that this can be done wireless and the attackers can be anywhere within few meters range. The distance can vary with different antennas and different environment (walls, windows, etc). It is also possible to change the firmware of a pacemaker and create some king of virus which will spread from pacemaker to pacemaker.
Apple did it again
You may don’t find your way home with Apple Maps but you can see a top secret military base in Taiwan. The ultra-high-frequency radar they have can be used to detect missiles that could be launched by China and it is now public thanks to Apple and its effort to create map services. It is possible that China was familiar with the radar but it doesn’t hurt to have a clear high definition picture as well. We will assume that this was an accident because if it is not then conspiracy theories are endless. Thank you Apple for making me smile today. Now my mistakes look very small and I thank you for that.
Anonymous takes down Greek government websites
Anonymous took down several Greek government websites and the reason is maybe the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This is not the first time that Anonymous takes down Greek government webpages and if they continue to support the people of Greece then it will not be the last. A big percentage of the people there is fighting to survive and any kind of support is appreciated. Police and government didn’t upgraded their security enough since the last attack by Anonymous.
Backdoored PhpMyAdmin from SourceForge
PhpMyAdmin is one of the most popular MySQL administration tools written in PHP. A compromised version of PhpMyAdmin was distributed via a SourceForge mirror and after a security issue was reported, malicious people exploited it. That version had server_sync.php modified and the backdoor is allowing to the attacker to execute PHP code remotely. Because of the fact that SourceForge is the largest open source software development website, if infected many systems. This is not the first time attackers exploit the open source community to distribute their backdoor.
Companies are mocking iPhone 5
iPhone 5 launched and smartphone companies started mocking Apple’s new product. Samsung was the first one with another ad with title “It doesn’t take a genius”. Samsung is comparing its Galaxy S III with the new iPhone. Based on the characteristics Galaxy S III is superior to iPhone 5. Samsung is the first but not the only one, Nokia is mocking the new iPhone with a twitter based Lumia campaign. Even the newest iPhone does not support NFC which is making some of the Apple fans unhappy. Samsung and HTC are not happy with the LTE that the iPhone 5 now supports and we may see another legal battle.
CRIME can hijack HTTPS sessions
CRIME is the name of the new attack that can hijack HTTPS sessions. When you visit websites with HTTPS you expect them to be safe but researchers find new vulnerabilities. With CRIME, if you visit a site and you log in with your credentials like a bank, Google or Facebook the attacker can then decrypt the information of the session cookies and log in to those site and pretend to be you. If this is not scary then I don’t know what is. They can do it by exploiting a security hole in TLS 1.0.
A month without internet
I was without internet access for a month. This is one of the most annoying things in our days. This is the reason I didn’t post for that long period of time. I believe that from now on I will post frequently. I have changed job and I have moved to another city but the website is the same and according to Google Analytics you didn’t stop visiting my blog. I have a lot to do now that I have internet at home so be a little more patient. During my no-internet period there were several interesting news I wanted to share with you but now everything is old news. I hope that will never happen again.
Math Metal
If you listen to metal then you probably know death metal, heavy metal and any other metal subcategories. Some of you also know a band named HIM that tried to create Love Metal but with no success. Now, a new metal arrives and they call it Math Metal. With lyrics “the proportion is divine” and “the ratio defined” the song is very powerful. If you like numbers or metal you should listen to this song, if you love both, then it is a must. I admit that I liked it but I also found it amusing and I wanted to share it with you.
App Store can be bypassed without jailbreaking
Apple’s App Store is vulnerable and can be bypassed easily, even without jailbreaking. ZonD80, a Russian hacker found a way to bypass the payment and get paid apps for free. The amazing thing is that it is very easy and almost everyone can do it. The idea is to communicate and send the purchasing requests to a server operated by the hacker instead of the official one. ZonD80 posted a video on YouTube showing his hack but the video was deleted by Google and now he is requesting donations to setup a website to promote his hack.
Online Ads
Internet users do not realize that they are been watched by online companies. Most of us are not taking measures to ensure our privacy and anonymity. You search for flowers on Google and then you visit a site with Google AdSense and you see ads for cheap flowers in your area. You see the ad and you notice that it is interesting without realizing how this ad appeared in front of you. Internet companies are following you everywhere and they know what you want, what you like and what you do. If that doesn’t scare you then you are naive and lucky! You are traced by cookies and some browsers that store your data. If you want safer browsing use Firefox.