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Archive for July, 2010

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Hacker Spoofs Cell Phone Tower to Intercept Calls

By admin on Saturday, July 31st, 2010 | No Comments

A directional antenna is set up for a demonstration by security researcher Chris Paget, center. (Photo: Dave Bullock)

LAS VEGAS — A security researcher created a cell phone base station that tricks cell phones into routing their outbound calls through his device, allowing someone to intercept even encrypted calls in the clear.

The device tricks the phones into disabling encryption and records call details and content before they’re routed on their proper way through voice-over-IP.

The low-cost, home-brewed device, developed by researcher Chris Paget, mimics more expensive devices already used by intelligence and law enforcement agencies – called IMSI catchers – that can capture phone ID data and content. The devices essentially spoof a legitimate GSM tower and entice cell phones to send them data by emitting a signal that’s stronger than legitimate towers in the area.

“If you have the ability to deliver reasonably… Read the rest

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Despite FCC “Scare Tactics,” Researcher Demos AT&T Eavesdropping

By admin on Saturday, July 31st, 2010 | No Comments

Updated with a response from the GSM Association below.

Researcher Chris Paget pulled off a stunt at the Defcon security conference Saturday that required as much legal maneuvering as technical wizardry: eavesdropping on the cell phone calls of AT&T subscribers in front of thousands of admiring hackers.

With about $1,500 worth of hardware and open source software, Paget turned two on-stage antennas into a setup capable of spoofing the base stations that connect the GSM cell phone signals used by AT&T and T-Mobile. Paget set his hardware to impersonate an AT&T signal, and dozens of phones in the room connected to his fake base station. “As far as your cell phones are concerned, I’m now indistinguishable from AT&T,” he told the crowd.

Paget invited anyone with an AT&T phone to make a call, and using his GSM hijacking trick, routed their calls through a voice-over-Internet

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Biometric and Other Locks Fail to Foil Hackers at DefCon

By admin on Saturday, July 31st, 2010 | No Comments

LAS VEGAS — It wouldn’t be DefCon without a noted lock hacking team demonstrating the gross insecurity of some of the latest security locks, such as a biometric lock that could be easily cracked with a paper clip.

This year the three-member team of lock hackers, Marc Weber Tobias, Toby Bluzmanis and Matt Fiddler who have been cracking locks at DefCon for several years, also defeated an electro-mechanical lock, two deadbolts, and an electronic safe. The researchers gave Wired.com a sneak peek at their cracks and provided videos, which you can see below.

The lock that would seem to have thwarted them the most was actually one of the easiest to crack. The Biolock Model 333 is a sleek $200 lock that combines a mechanical cylinder and fingerprint reader.

“It’s a very neatly designed container,” says Tobias. “But the problem with this lock design is… Read the rest

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The H Week – Linux 2.6.35 approaches, GNOME 3 delayed

By admin on Saturday, July 31st, 2010 | No Comments



The H Week Logo

Leading up to the arrival of version 2.6.35 of the Linux kernel, The H published the final two parts of the Coming in 2.6.35 series, GNOME 3 was been delayed until March of 2011 and Oracle shut down PostgreSQL test servers. Anti-virus makers offered protection against LNK malware, 170 million Facebook data sets were collected and a hole in WPA2 was discovered.

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This week, as the Linux kernel 2.6.35 approaches full release, The H has published the final two parts of the Kernel Log’s “Coming in 2.6.35″, looking at architecture, infrastructure and drivers. A regular Kernel Log also looked at the fixing of a bug in graphics drivers and rounded up all the latest news from around the Linux community. Glyn Moody took a look at a legal

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VA set to spend billions on IT

By admin on Saturday, July 31st, 2010 | No Comments

Computerworld - The U.S. Veterans Administration is making upward of $12 billion in IT contracts available to businesses over the next five years, as part of an effort to modernize its operations.

The VA spends about $3.5 billion annually in IT, a figure that Input, a government market research, estimates is increasing at 10% annually as demand for veterans’ services increases, said Kevin Plexico, an analyst at the Reston, Va.-based firm.

The VA has changed how it acquires technology, creating a program called Transformation Twenty-One total Technology or T-4 for short. Previously, the VA would acquire much of technology through blanket contracts that General Services Administration negotiated with tech vendors.

But with T4, the VA is shifting to its own purchasing and creating a one-stop shop. It is doing this to gain more control more control over vendor selection and management, said Plexico.

… Read the rest

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