15 Mar 2006
RFID & Viral Vulnerability

Great! Given that RFID tags are becoming ubiquitous, this could lead to major problems.

Student Melanie Rieback and others, part of a Tannenbaum research group in Amsterdam, have proven that RFID-tags are vulnerable for infection with viruses. In a research paper titled "Is Your Cat Infected with a Computer Virus?" is shown how an altered RFID tag can be used to send a SQL injection attack or a buffer overflow. They describe on the rfidvirus.org website possible exploits of this types of viruses: from altering the backoffice of a supermarket to spreading RFID viruses by infected bags on airports.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Experts urge new iPod ear studies

Gimme a break! If you play any noise too loudly, regardless of content or source, you'll get hearing damage. Just ask Pete Townsend. We don't need more governmental studies and panels, users need to turn down the volume. It's usually a little knob on the device ...

Health experts call for more research into whether iPods and other music players can damage hearing.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

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Bankruptcy Rewrite Predicted to Bring a Flood of Appeals

We have the best government money can buy. And it has.

Bad drafting = much uncertainty as to what the law requires. Uncertainty as to what the law requires = grounds for lots of costly litigation. Congratulations, Congress.

(link) [Law.com]

via Overlawyered

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Torn-up Credit Card Apps Not So Safe

What in the world are the credit card companies thinking here, anyway? This is a pretty obvious breach of physical, not digital security, and should be treated as such. That is, if somebody's identity gets ripped off this way, the credit card company should be fully liable for damages - including "mental anguish".

A much as I think our tort system is out of control in this country, I've gotta admit that a couple of suits like that would go a long way towards stopping the practice of sending mass mailing credit card offers. And in todays world of identity theft and digital rip offs, that probably wouldn't be a bad thing at all.

This dude tears up a credit card application, tapes it back together, sends it in with his cell phone number and father's address, and voila, gets a credit card. Who would have thought security at a credit card company was so lax? The company recommends that consumers "tear up" financial solicitations before throwing them away, "so thieves can't use them to assume your identity.", but according to them, "Applications that arrive in damaged form are customarily transferred to an electronic format, he said -- often by machine. So it's possible a human being never handled the taped-up application and never had the chance to spot the obvious sign of trouble. In this era where we worry so much about identity theft, this sort of thing really makes you wonder what the point really is.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Iowa's Residency Rules Drive Sex Offenders Underground

There's no lower form of life than a child molester. Not one. But not all sex offenders are child molesters - as this article points out, some were convicted when they were 16 for having sex with their 14 or 15 year old girlfriends: that's not generally what the public has in mind when they hear "child molester", but that's the rap.

When I was younger, I had a friend who was arrested for "indecent exposure" - he was drunk and took a whiz in an alley when a police cruiser happened by. "Indecent exposure" is a sex offense: if the same incident happened today, he'd be wearing a Scarlet Letter for life... for taking a whiz in an alley at 3 am.

The law mentioned in Iowa is similar to one here in Indiana. I've not heard of problems like the ones reported in the article cropping up here, yet, but I can sure see the potential. Two thousand feet from a school or day care center pretty much cuts out the city - and there's no work out here in the boonies for the natives, much less transplanted "sex offenders" (who may just be drunks, or who may be the worst form of vermin on the planet - nobody can really tell without a good deal of research). So where are these folks gonna go when they've "paid their debt to society" and society won't let them back in? Underground.

Frankly, I'd be more concerned about 26 registered sex offenders staying in one hotel than I would be if they were spread out over a metro area: talk about a pervert support group!

I'd like to see more attention paid to the laws themselves, and some distinguishing done between essentially harmless "sex offenses" (such as a whiz in the alley or two teenagers in puppy love) and the real maniacs. And for the latter, how about longer prison terms - like, say, life? Or the death penalty, as appropriate?

But I guess that's impractical. After all, if we start locking these guys up for a longer time (and even death penalty cases take years behind bars before the final resolution), where're we gonna put all the marijuana smokers?

The Ced-Rel Motel in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was home to 26 registered sex offenders by early March. Many other places either will not take them, or, under state law restricting where offenders may live, cannot.

(link) [New York Times]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link